By Capitan Paul Watson: There is no Such Thing as An Ugly Fish Commentary by Captain Paul Watson Not as cute as baby seals, not as majestic as the great whales, not as intelligent as the dolphins and not as sensational as the sharks, however the Patagonia and Antarctic Toothfish are just as important to oceanic eco-systems. Sea Shepherd has weathered criticisms for years from those who oppose Sea Shepherd operations with silly statements that Sea Shepherd only defends cute and popular animals. The problem of course is that past campaigns defending lobsters, plankton, sea cucumbers and tuna were virtually ignored by the same people who make accusations that Sea Shepherd only helps the cute and the popular. Now with the case of Operation Icefish I am getting asinine comments as to why Sea Shepherd wants to save ugly fish. You simply cant win with the trolls and the haters. Anyhow their comments are simply amusing and certainly not relevant. Yes Sea Shepherd is protecting Toothfish and yes Toothfish are important and the greed that motivates the whalers is the same greed that motivates the Toothfish poachers. Last week some self proclaimed scientist accused Sea Shepherd of meddling where in his opinion Sea Shepherd does not belong stating that the Toothfish fishery is sustainable and well regulated. The same argument that Sea Shepherd got from the biostitutes in the past over cod, salmon and tuna. As it turns out the scientist in question works for (you guessed it) for the Toothfish fishery. He said that if Sea Shepherd pulls up gear from poachers that Sea Shepherd can and should be charged with illegal fishing. Right! They cant stop the poachers but they make threats against Sea Shepherd for intervening against poachers. Anyhow some may call the Toothfish ugly. The greedy call the fish white gold, the industry call the fishery sustainable. Restaurants and seafood outlasts call it Chilean Sea Bass. Sea Shepherds position is that the Toothfish is an extremely important apex predator in the Southern Ocean that must survive to maintain the ecological integrity of those cold remote seas. Contrary to what the critics say, Operation Icefish is focused on the poachers, that is the unlawful exploitation of a vulnerable species, in other words the criminal element that is illegally targeting fish in the waters off Antarctica. Operation Icefish will not be intervening against any so called legal fisheries. The Sea Shepherd crew have their hands full with the pirate fishermen terrorizing the Toothfish populations. Why any legitimate fishermen would have a problem with this intervention is a mystery and why any so called scientist would be against intervening to stop poachers begs the question as to why?
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 14:56:33 +0000
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