*Nowhere are dolphins and whales safe, threatened as they are in an ocean ‘managed’ and mauled by commercial fishing corporations. Their MO – virtuous greed, results in stripped resources, dumped waste contaminated with heavy metals such as mercury and lead, plastic, pesticides and other agricultural and industrial pollutants.
And then there is the trafficking.
Wildlife trafficking, similar to its human counterpart, generates a minimum of $13-billion annually, using the infrastructure and networks of organised crime cartels.
And when captured, most dolphins don’t survive the process of confinement in the shallow, unhygienic and cramped pens. They are unable to manoeuvre and feed themselves; distressed and isolated, often they refuse to even try.
The Human Society (HSUS) says that there is a six-fold increase in the mortality rate; perhaps, trapped and forced to become something other than their nature, the spirit dies too.
I never understood it, the value of a trick, dolphins flipping and people clapping. Why are such magnificent beings reduced to caricatures of themselves?
Profit, said my father. It’s a nice form of education, said my teacher. So we learn, as children, that the earth is our dominion to exploit and mold and break as we see fit. Is exploitation for the purpose of specific edu-entertainment really necessary?
Dr Rose, a marine biologist with the HSUS says, “People must stop patronising the dolphin exhibits at marine parks. They must stop buying into the myth of the happy, smiling captive dolphin.
“The people who buy tickets to a marine park have taken the first step on a path that leads to those who would capture a wild dolphin with little regard for his safety or welfare.”
Walking hand in hand with trafficking is the flesh trade, less for the flesh and more the fact that dolphins are considered rivals by trawlers in regions severely over fished; nothing more than culling. Every living being, from man to dolphin, ends up paying for the greed of trawlers.
The British Resources Assessment Group claims that in 2005 alone, a minimum of $1- billion in fish stocks were stolen from Africa by way of large commercial fleets from the EU and Asia, engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Over 200 million people in Africa, from Nigeria to Senegal and Somalia, depend on fishing as a primary source of protein and employment.
Legal trawlers simply purchase cash for access agreements that do not stipulate size of catch, just tonnage of vessel.
Andre Standing of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), author of the report Crisis of Marine Plunder in Africa says, “Vested interests span not only foreign governments and inter-governmental organisations, but also African elected leaders and public officials.”
There is no monitoring committee, it is entirely self-regulated.
For the 78% of Senegalese people who depend on fish for protein, this kind of a reality really sucks.
The World Wildlife Fund claims that fleets are 250% larger than the ocean can sustain.
“A single pass of a trawl removes up to 20% of the seafloor fauna and flora.”
Scientists at Duke University say that the damage can be seen from space; mud trails they called it.
The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says that 75% of fish stocks are fully exploited or overexploited species with less than 30% of the ocean’s food chain secured.
Of the 600 commercial species, less than 1% is categorised as recoverable.
In countries like Peru, structural adjustment policies imposed by the IMF and World Bank, “all export” economies and drastic cuts to social spending (education, skills training) have raped both the people and the environment on which they depend.
Though muchama or dolphin flesh is consumed, this is not by choice, and is a last resort; dolphin flesh stinks and is largely inedible.
In Peru, for example, the fishery sector is the second most important industry after mining, providing 70 000 direct jobs, 25 000 processing jobs and 20 000 fish-related employments. Fish stocks depleted by commercial fleets have left the people impoverished.
In 2001, the country accounted for 8% of global catch, and has since the 1950s harvested more than 274 million tons. At what cost?
In their report, Priorities for Coastal and Marine Conservation in South America, Nature Conservancy lists over fishing as the primary threat to sustainability, conservation, the food chain and fishing communities in South America.
It is estimated that 40% of the country is poor, with 13% listed as dirt poor.
The keystone is policy profiteering via loans and SAPs, but the root of the catastrophe is very rarely brought to light. Instead, fish farms have been proposed as a solution.
The myth of fish farms conceals many externalities or hidden costs. In terms of employment, whilst natural fisheries are job-intensive throughout the chain, fish farms require few staff and are usually corporate owned.
In 2006, aquaculture provided 43% of all fish consumed — some 45 million tons; this industry was worth $79-billion (2006).
Farmed fish, contained in open mesh net cages, are fed a toxic diet of carcinogenic hormones, antibiotics and pesticides as well as tons of anchovies and other seafood, termed fishmeal.
It takes about 12 pounds of ‘wild’ anchovies to produce a pound of farmed fish – to the detriment of sea-lions, penguins, sea elephants and other creatures cut out of the food chain.
An article in Science says, “Effluence from the fish processing factory is discharged into the bays which form the main breeding grounds, turning the water anoxic and causing red tides of toxic algae. Sulphur and other pollutants damage the health of human communities.”
The Forest Network states, “The fish farms along the British Columbia Coast produce as much waste as the raw sewage from a city with 500000 people. This waste goes untreated into the ocean.
“Most fish farms use pesticides and antibiotics when their fish are sick. Some of these antibiotics and pesticides also leak into the ocean and can harm other animals like crabs, prawns and shrimp.”
There is also the issue of lice and parasites.
• “86% of the wild salmon caught near fish farms had more sea lice than they could probably survive.
• “Diseases and parasites are often found in high numbers in fish farms because up to 50 000 fish live in one pen (90x90ft, 48ft deep).
•
“40% of all fish farms in Norway were shut down in 1998 and millions of fish were killed to stop the spread of an incurable disease called “infectious salmon anaemia.
• “A parasite that lives on the skin, eyes and gills of salmon was imported from Sweden to Norway … The parasite quickly spread and killed off many wild salmon runs. To stop the parasite from spreading, many of the 40 rivers that have been infected in Norway are poisoned with a powerful poison called rotenone. It kills off the parasite but also almost all other life in the rivers, and the salmon.”
Who pays the price?
Dr Patricia Majluf, an award winning fisheries specialist, said, “The industry pays less than one percent in taxes, so all these costs are externalised.” Hidden Sea Around Us says over 35% of all fish catch is used for animal feed, a cheap source of protein. “Peru has 25% infantile malnourishment and yet millions of tons of fish is taken from the ocean and fed to pigs and fish.”
Large trawlers scrape the ocean-bed in search of bottom feeders like prawns and shrimp, tossing away as much 60% of the load as by-catch – unintended and unwanted catch. Over 300 000 dolphins, porpoises and baby whales die each year in mesh nets.
The WWF has documented that shrimp vessels in the Gulf of Mexico dump 35 million juvenile snappers annually. By-catch has not only endangered most small cetaceans, but also juvenile fish, reproducers, considered useless by trawlers.
The WWF also lists other examples of by-catch:
• Over 250 000 Loggerback and critically endangered Leatherback turtles – unwanted catch in the search for tuna.
• Over 300 000 seabirds are killed by longlining, with 26 seabird and 17 albatross species are threatened with extinction.
• Over 89% of Hammerhead sharks and 80% of White sharks have disappeared in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean.
The IUCN Red List of Endangered Species (2008) reveals that of 125 cetaceans documented, 48 were teetering on extinction, were critically endangered or vulnerable with 45 species classified data deficient, placing them in the column of the unknown.
These sensitive social beings are one of the most intelligent species known to man, alongside other cetaceans such as whales.
Dolphins display strong bonds with each other (love is the human word for it) as well as cultural behaviour, teaching their young how to use various instruments.
Some species speak to each other as individuals, used coded language known as signature whistles.
Many dolphin therapy research programmes have revealed that abused and damaged children — who are otherwise fearful of the living, develop bonds with these gentle and tender creatures. They heal, inspire trust, teaching the innocent how to live again.
Dolphins are known to play with the surf, with each other; they are playful and mischievousness, beckoning you toward the state of aliveness, of pure joy.
According to Karen Pryor, a marine biologist who specialised in behavioral psychology, dolphins create tricks that they have never been taught, deliberately obey and disobey; they anticipate the future.
Do they have one?
Each year, thousands of dolphins and whales are slaughtered for flesh consumed as traditional delicacies in certain Asian countries. They are chased until they are exhausted; their cries fill the air as they are routed into shallow bays. There, their throats will be slit as they thrash around in a body of water rapidly turning crimson with their blood, suffocating and bleeding to death.
In Japan alone, 20 000 dolphins will be slaughtered each year – if they can still be found.
Their teeth are prised out and shipped off to the Middle East as bridal gifts. One necklace will require at least 20 dolphins.
The meat on the other hand is contaminated with some of the most toxic metals known to man, such as mercury*, cadmium and methyl mercury, causing neurological, endocrine, and immune damage. A considerable portion of the flesh is useless and left to rot.
Select parts such as the fins are kept on ice and sold.
Such islands could inject capital into hospitality services, developing the necessary infrastructure required to promote the region as a diving and environmentally friendly tourist resort. Eco-tourism is a major earner. [In 2001, British tourists spent over $4.5- billion in developing countries.]
Responsible fisheries could assist in harvesting depleted fish stocks.
The popularity of Hollywood movies like Flipper and Free Willy have ensured that the concept of dolphins as a form of entertainment for humans translates to profit via aquariums … It is not uncommon for many dolphins to be massacred in the attempt of catching just one; they fight back, stick together.
A dolphin from the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific can fetch a price of between $25 000 and $50 000, but it is select negotiators/exporters and not the community who will rake in the cash. The destination: foreign aquariums.
To separate the dolphins, connected as they are by sonar systems, underwater noise is generated to disorient them and drive them into shallow areas where they will be beached, and hacked.
Prize specimens are shipped to Asia, Europe and the United States.
This brutality is legitimated by governments and corporate buyers who accord utilitarian value to these magnificent creatures, sending a huge f*^#-you to the complex marine ecosystem, and life.
Ric O’Barry, a well known defender, also the trainer for the 1960’s TV series Flipper, has called it a silent genocide.
For those who have initiated the death of their marine environment, it is also a form of “pest” control, eliminating “predators” vying for perilously dwindling fish stocks.
The entire Japanese fishing industry is suffering as a result of trawling (over fishing), dumped waste and chemical run-offs, with the government issuing warnings to consumers regarding fish contaminated with industrial poison.
The World Wildlife Fund’s Yukio Murata stated, “Heavy metal, mercury and dioxin have been found in segments of sea beds in the seas surrounding Japan, a result of wanton discarding of chemicals by companies.”
Japan is now one of the biggest importers of seafood in the world, having manufactured the destruction of their own fisheries by dumping and trawling.
Japanese youth, many of whom are uninterested in traditional delicacies, and are aware of the toxic nature of whale blubber and dolphin flesh, have catalysed a remarkable shift in sales, driving the price down to a tag as low as one pound for a kilo.
According to the Asia-Pacific Journal, most Japanese are unaware of the trade.
Now, as a Muslim, this is against my code of life — Islam. Allah exhorts us to “walk lightly on the earth” as the Quran has so firmly stipulated, time and time again.
It is not a choice but a commandment, not a feel-good factor that couples as a luxury for the rich, but a fundamental prerequisite.
Are you really a Muslim if you discard this law as irrelevant within the context of your desires?
I saw this video under the signature of a young Muslim environmental scientist, N Jamal.
The necessary response for those who legislate such a trade, is simply to cut their hands off. Murderers who abuse the use of their hands deserve nothing but a stump, and the memory of the life that could have been.
*Post edited on Nov 12th.
Note: My family and I were diagnosed with heavy metal poisoning several years ago.
Chelating agents such as d-penicillamine, said to remove heavy metals, are not really effective as the mercury binds to organs, also crossing the blood brain barrier. Treatment can be very expensive, depending on whether you choose to combine meds with chelating supplements such as glutathione. After several years of trying, for us at least, it did not work.
Lab tests can only indicate mercury present in the bloodstream, a good starting point but delinked from long-term damage.
Symptoms are hair loss, memory impairment, speech disorders, endocrine dysfunction, muscle weakness, skin disorders, motor and neurological dysfunction; mercury also debilitates the nervous and immune systems, causes kidney damage, insomnia, ocular dysfunction and ulcers amongst other problems.
If you have mercury fillings, have your dentist remove them and use composite instead.
Buy a water filter; we use the H20 brand.
Fish is a major source of mercury ingestion, especially tuna, as are pesticides and drinking water in countries like South Africa that generate electricity from coal-fired stations, engage in gold mining etc]
I hate to say it but once again you’ve made those trying to get someting done look bad.
Apart from trying to get us all conceerned about fish as the Congo War kicks starts again, making you look like one of those Europeans who are more concerned with the Mountain Gorilla than the tens of thousands of fleeing, traumatised Congo peasants;
You’re also a bit late with your concern for sustainable fishing practices and regulation:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/oceans/eco-chippy-sets-new-standards-for-sustainable-fish-and-chips20080711
…………..I am speechless with anger! At myself most of all but I weep for my species, what have we become, why are we destroying ourselves through the destruction of all else around us?
This arrogance of being human could never have been God’s intention, could it?
Thank you Khadija for opening my eyes a little wider today, I hope your article effects may more the way it has effected me.
A very sobering and thought provoking post. You have articulated and expanded on what I think about dolphins, fishing and fish farming. Surely man should have learnt from hunting on land that it is not sustainable? But everyone, from the largest fishing corporation, through the recreational angler to the lowliest “subsistence” fisherman has one motto:
“The last fish in the sea is mine”.
Hi Alisdair, have written about DRC, it is the continuation of conflict for resources, similar in nature to the war for resources taking place in the arena of the oceans. One cannot separate issues pertaining to the indigenous ecology – whether man or ecology, as a destroyed marine ecosystem results in mass starvation and unemployment for over 200 million African people, as an example. Look at the big picture please.
Hi Mike
Thanks for reading. I appreciate your time. It is true, human arrogance and greed…until they, and we, go down into our graves. It is entirely possible to fish and farm sustainably and responsibly and so much of this exploitation emanates from disrespect and indifference to the waste, by-catch, suffering…Many Asian, African and EU leaders are simply unconcerned about the externalities, pollution, destruction. They get/grab their share, and care for nothing more.
Hi Japes
Thanks for reading. “The last fish in the sea is mine”. How true! And how sad. The new EPA have included license to exploit already critical waters in Africa;-(
We declared war on the fish, marshalling the might of our industrial complex. Unsurprisingly, we “won”.
WHEN IS THE MURDERING OF THESE BEAUTIFUL CREATURES EVER GOING TO STOP IT IS BARBARIC INHUMANE AND IMMORAL
I agree so much. This is what I have been telling the ship industries here in Florida. The one mile thick trash and nets that ships are putting in the oceans including trash is also killing all the ocean’s creatures. And I agree, we are hurting ourselves by hurting the things we love in our oceans. You could not have said it any better. I agree with everything you have said. It is really bad all the way around, on our ocean life and the health of ourselves and the oceans. It is bad all the way around. I hope that more people are aware and finally realize that it has to get better if we all volunteer to do one act of not buthering, cleaning up the ocean and get the mercury out of our systems.
I am looking at the big picture.
You clainm to be ecologicaly aware and yet you dont seem to be able to even read Greenpeace’s website or pres releases or what they are up to.
Which is just a little arrogant since they have been doing it for thirty years more than you have.
And were going on about competition for natural resources being unsustainable a;lmost as far back as the sixties with all the other countercultural and hippy movements.
Perhaps you’d likt to stop expoounding long enough to bother reading some of their old press releases and reports from decades ago and catch up with the rest of us.
If you were quick enough you could have applied for a job:
http://www.wazobiajobs.com/vacancy/executive-director:-greenpeace-africa—jhb-johannesburg-326.htm
And do something, if you feel so strongly about it:
http://www.iol.co.za/?click_id=13&art_id=ct20020829212456699S532211&set_id=1
Hey Budd-y,
Take a moment – do you want to be right or do you want to have a meaningful discussion? We’re on the same side here!
I think the article was well written and came from a place of desperate concern – what human beings are doing to the planet is disgusting and what is worse is that we are mostly in denial about how bad the environmental damage is!
I agree that personal responsibility and pro-active behaviour at the level of the individual is the answer. It is too easy to criticize those people trying to make a difference and not take any action yourself!
why do human behave like that? no respect for nothing!
So apparently it’s wrong to care about the fish because of the DRC, then it’s arrogant to say something that’s been said before?
Firstly, There is nothing wrong with being concerned about fish stocks while there are people dying in the DRC. If everyone only ever focused on the “cause du jour” we would forever be running around putting out fires until one day we realised we had nothing left but a planet full of burning embers. Conservation is about trying to manage/protect the environment as best we can, preferably before the shit hits the fan. One could argue with regards to fish stocks that the shit has already hit the propeller, but perhaps we could still turn that tide. (please excuse my punny metaphors)
Secondly, I don’t read Greenpeace’s website because I generally find them a little too far up their own asses to be pragmatic about conservation; but that’s fine because we need loons on both sides of the argument, especially since the loons on the other side of this battle would happily turn the Serengeti into 5 level parking garage for a small profit.
J.
Hi MrFoom, couldn’t have said it better. We won, as we always do, as we always strive too. Dominion.
Hi Angela, thanks for reading and for your passion. We need legislation that monitors and manages the ocean via independent impartial bodies who have no commercial interest in the oceans. We need a punishment that is a harsh incentive, bound to ecological, social and economic impacts, recoverable and restorative.
I find also that the information economy is locked up; our newspapers don’t tell us what the heck is really going on. Industry is entirely self-regulated. But I also find that when people are aware of the reality, they give a damn. They fight back with consumer choice, which is the one power that corporations cannot counter.
In the case of blue fin tuna from the Med basin, a specie that has experienced an 80% decline and is critically endangered, we need a sentence that is the equivalent of genocide. This is in fact ecocide. Mass ecocide, which then leads to genocide for man, specifically coastal communities, cannot live without the sustenance of the oceans. They too will be finished.
Hi Pam, your feelings, beliefs and principles are my own. Awareness is what will mobilise consumers to stop purchasing endangered but popular fish, such as salmon, shrimp, prawns.
Everything is interlocked, the mot juste of the system is manufactured demand. Very rarely are we as consumers informed about the reality underpinning this trade, and many others, nor are we informed of the dangers of mercury Mwhich causes so many illnesses, ike autism in kids.
What will/can we say to those children? Consumer awareness has mobilised so many shifts in production, extraction etc The range of free range and organic goods, a good first step, was brought about by consumer muscle. We can do it, we just need to apply the kind of pressure. What is the right kind of pressure? You’ve given me a good idea for a blog post.
This slaughter must come to an end!! This is just horrific!!!
A fewbig problems with cutting patronage to marine parks:
1) You are condemning the current residents to death. Either they stay in a park that no longer has the money to care for them, or they are released into an environment that they are no longer able to thrive in, having lost many natural behaviors while in captivity.
2) There are many marine parks that double as research facilities and rescue centers. These facilities save dozens of marine animals each, every year. Not to mention that the things we learn from physiological and behavioral research better enables us to understand and help these creatures in the wild.
Also consider that many of the people who adore cetaceans feel the way they do because of an encounter at a marine park of some kind. If you take away these facilities, future generations will be more inclined to be apathetic to the plight of these beautiful creatures. One has to see them firsthand to truly appreciate their natural grace, intelligence, and personality.
Also, you seem to be just a bit unaware of how dolphins really are. Make no mistake, they are NOT the living plush animals that some people consider them to be. They are indeed independent, and very powerful. Humans HAVE been killed by them, and they DO kill other cetaceans in the wild. Not to mention non-lethal violent encounters, which have been reported and are sure to be far more numerous.
Just saying, it shows you to be more authoritative if you acknowledge those facts rather than gloss over, or worse, deny them. Respect their power as well as their beauty.
Hi AC Fleming, thanks for reading – would marine sanctuaries – natural ‘bio-rooms’ not provide the same service – education, research, as well as promoting conservation, aesthetic etc ?
By preserving the ecosystem of these marine bio-rooms, would this not allow visitors to actually understand dolphins in context, whilst actively reinforcing the concept of responsibility and accountability?
Khadija, what did you do to poor Alisdair to make him hate you so?
It’s very apparent to anyone who reads your (insightful, well researched, relevant) posts – and his inevitable inane criticisms and insults – that there is something like personal animosity aimed at you.
Alisdair, bud, please grow up. You’re not doing your credibility any good y’know.
(I second noladzana)
I did a study earlier the year to see what impact fishing regulations have on the industry in SA. The conclusion I came to was that our regulations are relatively good, but that government does not have the ability to police it.
More worying was the realisation that are are very little fish (including hake!) left in the sea compared to not-too-long ago. The corporates claim it is part of a natural cycle, but when I spoke to WWF and scientists at UCT they claim that it may be far worse and that perhaps the fish biomass may reduce to less than a critical number, making recovery a very very long process, if at all.
Of the 5 fishing boats still left in kalkbaai, apparantly only 3 ever go to sea as they simply find it too hard to find fish.
Hi Noladzana, thanks for reading;-) and for the kind words. ‘Preciate it, as Martin Lawrence would say. I read and listen to the works and words of some very insightful and relevant people; if there is any credit coming, it is due to them.
I think Alisdair has some very strong views;-)
“Hidden Sea Around Us says over 35% of all fish catch is used for animal feed, a cheap source of protein. “Peru has 25% infantile malnourishment and yet millions of tons of fish is taken from the ocean and fed to pigs and fish.””
The answer to all these alarming crises is so logical, yet so reviled. Veganism solves the most problems, in the most effective manner. Ethics, environmentalism, world hunger, human health…all are elegantly addressed by the simple act of nourishing ourselves w/o killing others.
“So we learn, as children, that the earth is our dominion to exploit and mold and break as we see fit. Is exploitation for the purpose of specific edu-entertainment really necessary?” And do we want to teach our children that the best way to find nutrition is to kill other sentient beings?
People may laugh at our idealism, but we vegans are confident that we are making a difference, everytime we choose not to exploit others.
@susan cho Changing our diets may relieve some of the pressure on resources, but simply changing to veganism is not good enough. Vegetable and fruit farming has also changed drastically in ways that are detrimental to the environment. Issues like genetic modification, monocultures and the importing of vegetables and fruit that gives them a large carbon footprint. We need to heed research on what sort of plants and fruit to eat. For instance organic local produce. Also, depending on one’s principles, you may not need to totally avoid meat. For instance I can’t see any ecologically bad reason for eating warthog meat from a cull in a game farm. Or for that matter eating free range eggs, or organic milk from happy free range cows.
Hi Susan; thanks for the comment and the read. You say that vegans are confident of not exploiting another. If by this you mean an organic vegan diet grown in local proximity, then you are indeed making a tremendous difference. Most vegans, however, do not realise that such principles can be destructive if it does not address the root cause of the problem…and sadly, many do exploit the environment intensively and unknowingly, albeit in deniable ways. Each year, according to the UNEP, over $2 trillion in forested land, and $1 trillion in wildlife specie are lost due to deforestation. The primary cause are cash crops such as wheat, soy, rice, – harvested with intensive application of fertilizer, pesticides, insecticides etc The chemical run-offs not only contaminate the soil, air, water but additionally result in the creation of marine dead-zones.
There are over 220 of these in the world. Our world has just 1% of fresh water, yet cash crops consume 80%.
As you know, everything is interconnected – life itself depends on the balance between desire and necessity. The Amazon – a well known and oft mentioned example, is being eaten up for the production of soy, coffee – all part of the vegan diet, and the diet of those who consume beef.
One of the largest rain forest in the world was severely damaged by the Chad-Cameroon pipeline financed by the World Bank, Exxonmobil and Chevron… The by-product of oil includes agro-chemicals – the very same used to harvest monocultures for export…
The most responsible communities in the world are incidentally not vegans, nor vegetarians, save for those who consume a locally grown organic diet. They are instead, communities that farm/rear/grow/harvest/catch their own food, whether they be the ‘reindeer’ nomads in the Yalta province to the fisherman in Senegal.
Reindeers are critically endangered in Europe. Gazprom – Russian energy entity – threatens to wipe them out with the new pipeline.
The nomads depend on reindeers for food, shelter, clothing and tools but simultaneously ensure their protection and survival. The reindeers have survived, migrate, reproduce because the nomads have not yet let go – even if the face of imprisonment. If vegan diets do not consist of organic food grown in local proximity, other innocent creatures are sacrificed at the expense of it – whether the crop is cocoa, cotton, coffee, bananas or the palm oil that has slaughtered the forests in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Like you, I consume the lower end of the food chain to avoid investing in a system that cripples the innocent and steals their life – but even nuts and bananas are ‘alive’ and directly connected to every living thing. It is the extremities in life that create the imbalances – whether that imbalance is non-organic veganism – an ideal that ends up/leads to exploited wildlife, forested regions, water supplies etc, or for monetary gain as corporates such as Monsanto, Du Pont etc have done and continue to do.
The problems stem from policies that when realised, destroys both the external world and us, the internal world.
Various components include vertically integrated industries whether fish farm/fisheries/agriculture etc coupled with intensive use of GMO, agrochemicals, trade distorting subsidies artificially depressing prices, tariffs, export credits, market liberalisation, lack of corporate accountability and caps, removal of farmgate fixtures etc
The solutions are to grow organic, free range food in local proximity, enabling better water retention, carbon sequestration, maintaining soil health and other vital issues.
Exploitation – whether of a gorilla, boabab tree or a cow – is very real and needs to be addressed with accuracy. The problem is our lifestyle, a commercial ideology, the derivation of corporations manufacturing need and consumption; it has gripped the world in a mad frenzy, and allowed for us to break the world into compartmentalized divisions delinked from consequences.
Lastly, I certainly hopes that no one laughs at the goal and attempt to refrain from purchasing chicken, cows etc that have been imprisoned and exploited;-( and thank you for your noble efforts.
When are people going to realise that there is only one real solution. POPULATION REDUCTION.
Our once green planet is going to be barren within 50 years , unless there is a mass reduction in the human population. No other approach will ever have any real chance of working.
Please dont generalise about recreational fishing. Many of us release every fish we catch.
Great article Khandija!
Humans are annihilating themselves because they have no respect for nature and all it’s creatures in the universe – So unnecessary and tragic!
As Albert Einstein-(Physicist) once said “Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature”
Humans must be the most stupidest species on the planet! Their raping and “dominance” of the planet is even more profound than loses species, tragic as it is. What other species, except feral ones, actually continue to deplete their own environment and kill it off? Our planet is dying, and it is mostly the developed countries that are responsible because of their use of natural resources for profits.
Hi Vivienne
I agree with you. It is entirely possible to sustainably harvest ocean resources by using micro or small scale fisherman, correct netting etc Trawlers are accountable only to shareholders, sadly, and we lack at present time an inter-regional/international body to monitor the oceans, transboundary bodies of water etc
Hopefully these conventions, with public pressure, will find their teeth given the current environmental situation and that much needed protected status will be granted to those regions experiencing coastal/ocean degradation;-(
Hi Khadija,
I just wanted to note that, while I am in almost complete agreement with your observation that the most sustainable dietary choice is organic, local produce (organic, local vegan produce possessing perhaps the smallest footprint of all) and that centralised industrial agriculture is problematic no matter what is being grown, there was one aspect of your post that might be construed incorrectly: while it is true that large areas of Amazon rainforest are being decimated to make way for crops like soy, it is also the case that around 95% of these soy crops are used to feed livestock.
If the world’s food crops were being cultivated mainly for direct human consumption, we wouldn’t need to cut down one single tree more. In fact, we could rewild much of the land currently being destroyed by monocropping.