Saving Nemo! Sea Shepherd is active on many fronts with many different species. Today the Washington Post reported on Sea Shepherds campaign to stop the capture of live reef fish for the home aquarium trade. More than 100 million fish are caught each year for sale in pet stores around the world. Last month a Sea Shepherd diver was attacked fifty feet beneath the surface. The fisherman ripped her regulator from her mouth. It was an assault that could have caused the death of our diver. The authorities have still not brought any charges against the assailant. If a Sea Shepherd diver had done this to a fisherman, our person would have been arrested and jailed. On the Big Island of Hawaii, the fishermen apparently call the shots. In the Faroes, the Sea Shepherd crew have received death threats and Sea Shepherd property has been vandalized including Sea Shepherd cars parked in the police parking lot. Despite the fact that cameras cover the parking lot, there are surprisingly no suspects. My experience is that generally the police and the courts tend to side with those who profit and against those who protect, but I have also met many law enforcement people who do understand what we are trying to do and who do assist us when they can although usually on the sly so as to not offend their superiors. And on the bright side, we do work openly with law enforcement when we can as we do with the rangers and the Federal police of Ecuador in the Galapagos or in Guatemala or Senegal or Sicily. Unfortunately doing the right thing is never easy. If it were, everybody would be doing the right thing. There are immense material profits to be made from exploiting life in our Ocean and little motivation to defend the Oceanic realm. Yet all the money in the world cannot buy the feelings of achievement and happiness that we experience when we do overcome the obstacles and save the lives of our clients. Sea Shepherd is not into finding Nemo, Sea Shepherd is into saving Nemo and keeping Nemo from being shipped off as a slave for the profit and amusement of people. A hundred million fishes a year are victims of this immense fishy slave trade. A reef fish belongs on the reef and not in a tank in someones living room. Free Nemo! Free the Yellow Tang! Some people need to stop loving the sea to death! washingtonpost/national/hawaii-at-center-of-battle-over-aquarium-fish/2014/06/26/9f5e3f9a-fcf0-11e3-9b05-7ec49dc09d97_story.html
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 14:10:06 +0000
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