Loading ...*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 (90×90ft, 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
(Report abuse)