It seems the Mexican government could approach the Chinese to lay off the Totaba, and also enforce a moratorium on fishing for them in the marine protected area. Good on Sea Shepard, but more monitoring is needed by Mexico.
Having lived in Mexico for three years, I would say there is little interest in environmental matters, and basically “kill anything that moves” is the rule. Mexico is a Catholic country and it’s culturally ingrained that non-humans don’t have souls and so are not worth thinking about—even though Pope Francis put out an encyclical against that kind of thinking.
All is “illegal” yet the killing continues. The only way is for China and others to put up the money to stop it. Pay fishermen to stay and transition them to other work. Fund patrols fully to catch violators. A billion dollars should do it, which would be a bargain to end the genocide.
Ok, looks like it worked. I wanted to say (and I actually wrote two comments which disappeared) that the Vaquita is a bycatch of another fish which is highly prized in Asia for its bladder, poor thing. It’s shameful that America cannot protect the right whale. If an advanced country that goes around lecturing other countries can’t protect such a highly intelligent and iconic species, how the hell can it lecture other countries? It can’t.
About the ship strikes, ships need to have radar so they can detect whales and not hit them. Wind turbines and the noise associated with their establishment is obviously disrupting the lifecycle of marine mammals.
Whales and marine mammals just need to lobby Congress I guess.
If only marine mammals, fish, and other wildlife could raise political hell! We are such a morally bankrupt society. And most environmentalists don’t have a clue. This is about genocide not “wildlife management.”
Agreed. Perhaps the solution is a realistic targeting of what can be saved rather than trying to save everything? It’s like triage in an emergency room: you’ve got to focus on treating the most life-threatening wound. So if we could identify the biggest environmental dangers and focus on those rather than trying to fix everything that would be a strategy with a chance of success. What do you think?
Has anyone even asked China to pay for protecting the vaquitas? The world sits on its hands and seems ready to let them vanish along with the poor totoaba. Awful. What kind of a mad global civilization is this?
Bingo! It’s a mad global civilization. Now we know that, what do we do next? Socrates said the philosopher withdraws because he knows he will be torn apart if he doesn’t take refuge. That is a way to save yourself I guess but how do we turn the global ship around so to speak? This Herculean task seems beyond our capacity as a species and leads many people to be pessimistic about our future.
It seems the Mexican government could approach the Chinese to lay off the Totaba, and also enforce a moratorium on fishing for them in the marine protected area. Good on Sea Shepard, but more monitoring is needed by Mexico.
Having lived in Mexico for three years, I would say there is little interest in environmental matters, and basically “kill anything that moves” is the rule. Mexico is a Catholic country and it’s culturally ingrained that non-humans don’t have souls and so are not worth thinking about—even though Pope Francis put out an encyclical against that kind of thinking.
I've met some good Mexican conservationists but like conservationists in most places they are vastly outnumbered.
All is “illegal” yet the killing continues. The only way is for China and others to put up the money to stop it. Pay fishermen to stay and transition them to other work. Fund patrols fully to catch violators. A billion dollars should do it, which would be a bargain to end the genocide.
Ok, looks like it worked. I wanted to say (and I actually wrote two comments which disappeared) that the Vaquita is a bycatch of another fish which is highly prized in Asia for its bladder, poor thing. It’s shameful that America cannot protect the right whale. If an advanced country that goes around lecturing other countries can’t protect such a highly intelligent and iconic species, how the hell can it lecture other countries? It can’t.
About the ship strikes, ships need to have radar so they can detect whales and not hit them. Wind turbines and the noise associated with their establishment is obviously disrupting the lifecycle of marine mammals.
Whales and marine mammals just need to lobby Congress I guess.
If only marine mammals, fish, and other wildlife could raise political hell! We are such a morally bankrupt society. And most environmentalists don’t have a clue. This is about genocide not “wildlife management.”
Agreed. Perhaps the solution is a realistic targeting of what can be saved rather than trying to save everything? It’s like triage in an emergency room: you’ve got to focus on treating the most life-threatening wound. So if we could identify the biggest environmental dangers and focus on those rather than trying to fix everything that would be a strategy with a chance of success. What do you think?
Very hard to leave a comment.
Has anyone even asked China to pay for protecting the vaquitas? The world sits on its hands and seems ready to let them vanish along with the poor totoaba. Awful. What kind of a mad global civilization is this?
Bingo! It’s a mad global civilization. Now we know that, what do we do next? Socrates said the philosopher withdraws because he knows he will be torn apart if he doesn’t take refuge. That is a way to save yourself I guess but how do we turn the global ship around so to speak? This Herculean task seems beyond our capacity as a species and leads many people to be pessimistic about our future.