tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66837838531483820012024-03-13T08:59:31.383-07:00Shark WordsI fell in love with sharks in a lagoon in Tahiti as I saw how different they are from the other wildlife I had known, and how intelligent. For many years I studied them through underwater observation.Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-21227948761365523432023-11-21T03:54:00.000-08:002023-11-21T09:11:04.367-08:00Announcing a Special Issue on Elasmobranch Behaviour!<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><p style="text-align: justify;">When I discovered sharks in the turquoise Tahitian lagoons, I was fascinated by their complex and clearly intelligent responses in different situations. Based on what I saw myself, I figured they were more intelligent than dogs. But later, when I got an internet connection, I was shocked to learn that science had not noticed!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">By then the community I had watched for years was being slaughtered for shark fin soup, so I wrote down the story of my beloved thoughtful sharks in my first book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PDFVYM8">The Shark Sessions.</a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAKuTf4xP2zMnq5XPBEHnT0tMFNuGzodbrptPmAM7BCc8wJqW0D-GFI0W42X4-iDvpB1CWrDv0px1HC4_bXCYcgAERQbyDHO7cREErGsBfNOZ9uatIDEQ7LfGWteHuU8a_m0JJsr2SJ_FhcT1ffGsdL0_PDVIgfa2jl6bMbIw7F0kgd1d2FOw-BYkrFEii/s1000/illustration.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="1000" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAKuTf4xP2zMnq5XPBEHnT0tMFNuGzodbrptPmAM7BCc8wJqW0D-GFI0W42X4-iDvpB1CWrDv0px1HC4_bXCYcgAERQbyDHO7cREErGsBfNOZ9uatIDEQ7LfGWteHuU8a_m0JJsr2SJ_FhcT1ffGsdL0_PDVIgfa2jl6bMbIw7F0kgd1d2FOw-BYkrFEii/w664-h351/illustration.1.jpg" width="664" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Since then I have been trying to publish my findings scientifically, which has been a real challenge for an isolated wildlife artist. However, two years ago, an editor of the journal <i>Behaviour</i> was taken with my writing and invited me to organize a Special Issue on my favourite subject: Elasmobranch behaviour and cognition. It was a real learning experience for me and I was lucky that shark Ethologist Professor A. Pete Klimley offered to help. Not only did his advice serve as a valuable guide in a variety of ways, but his writings have wonderfully enhanced the issue. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Anyway, I am thrilled, today, to be able to tell you that this Special Issue has finally been published! It is organized into three main themes—Historical Articles,
Behaviour, and Cognition—each contributing to a deeper
understanding of elasmobranchs’ lives and challenging prevailing
misconceptions.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<h3 class="western" style="text-align: left;"><strong>Historical Articles</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The issue opens with a groundbreaking review by Guest Editor A.
Peter Klimley et al.: a comprehensive ethogram for chimaeras, sharks,
and rays. Ethograms are essential for describing animal actions in
their natural habitats and this work was done to aid researchers to
characterize future sightings as well as to standardize terminology
for future research. Klimley is an ethologist in the line of Nikolaas
Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, and Arthur A. Myrberg Jr., his former
professor, who worked for several years with Lorenz in Europe.
Klimley carries their legacy forward by creating an ethogram for the
entire group of chondrichthyan fishes, and challenging the notion of
sharks as simple feeding machines.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Two historical studies, also by Klimley, follow. The first dives
into the social interactions of hammerhead sharks, revealing a
complex world of social competition and mating behaviours. Female
scalloped hammerheads, for instance, engage in a Cork Screw display
to establish dominance, while males use Torso Thrust to compete for
mating opportunities. Klimley's study on white sharks unveils
agonistic displays and ritualized behaviours, challenging traditional
stereotypes of sharks as mindless predators.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAAiVMYSxyaD2c5iBRyrO6u-snzErakDH0lyno0CRwq4ahq1WLRSMZwaD5dc145WbspTzw2KXPpWU303MFi39ZibVXSbNHKHZsF14XwMw8svPAc53yp0apOqp3kOmwGNl_gSN7Q-2LBXukIGItTR1SPR7GM8NJ12LXh4x_WHU9Dw1Qy3myp-msuxnlbnhb/s1200/illustration.2..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="962" data-original-width="1200" height="491" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAAiVMYSxyaD2c5iBRyrO6u-snzErakDH0lyno0CRwq4ahq1WLRSMZwaD5dc145WbspTzw2KXPpWU303MFi39ZibVXSbNHKHZsF14XwMw8svPAc53yp0apOqp3kOmwGNl_gSN7Q-2LBXukIGItTR1SPR7GM8NJ12LXh4x_WHU9Dw1Qy3myp-msuxnlbnhb/w662-h491/illustration.2..jpg" width="662" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">It is followed by a critical commentary by myself, which questions the validity of the study that claimed to
have found dominance-subordination hierarchies in the smooth dogfish.
It thus challenges prevailing notions about shark social dynamics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“<em>The Mistaken Identity Hypothesis for shark bites on humans
is an anthropomorphic fallacy</em>” by Eric Emile Germain Clua
Ph.D., DVM, delves into the reasons behind the widely accepted
hypothesis that sharks mistake swimmers for prey items. Clua proposes
a “<em>Natural Exploration Hypothesis</em>,” suggesting that
observed shark behaviour, including bites on humans, is a response to
the sharks’ natural tendency to strike moving objects at the
surface, rather than a case of mistaken identity.</p>
<h3 class="western" style="text-align: left;"><strong>Behaviour</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Behaviour section is introduced by my own ethogram
for Blacktip Reef Sharks, which describes 35
context-specific behaviour sequences. It not only highlights the
flexibility in the behaviour of these sharks but also reveals their large
individual differences. The behavioural repertoire offers intriguing
clues as to the complexity of the sharks' cognitive functions.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lTMkxC9bxEEC5NsGH0yN8w9OItHgCNYQfiLTeLsc4dYbJXh122KXIHiNol9qKpu3YUcOORJp__-m_XAvgaXbWnHrWF__qYmF1UFnJnNiZnZmBpoWxA96APNQZTctKEbEkDb4wg0a_3Utsrbn2L3RylShJxEzJLL8wcrvqWaiWC6Kfq8nIcdTYo1l2s7U/s1200/illustration.3..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1200" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lTMkxC9bxEEC5NsGH0yN8w9OItHgCNYQfiLTeLsc4dYbJXh122KXIHiNol9qKpu3YUcOORJp__-m_XAvgaXbWnHrWF__qYmF1UFnJnNiZnZmBpoWxA96APNQZTctKEbEkDb4wg0a_3Utsrbn2L3RylShJxEzJLL8wcrvqWaiWC6Kfq8nIcdTYo1l2s7U/w662-h424/illustration.3..jpg" width="662" /></a></div> <p></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The study is, however, disrupted by the arrival of the shark fin
industry, which underlines the devastating impact on shark
populations of this largely criminal trade.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“<em>Insight into manta ray behaviour using animal-borne
Crittercams</em>” by Nicole Pelletier et al. sheds light on the
behaviour of manta rays in their natural habitats. The study reveals
the importance of social behaviour for these filter-feeding
elasmobranchs, with the reef manta ray exhibiting more pronounced
social interactions than the giant oceanic manta ray. The study
documents new inter-specific interactions between these two species
as well as courtship events.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The article “<em>Could convulsive body shuddering of a white
shark near a shark cage be an element of a threat display?</em>” by Pete Klimley and Mauricio Hoyos-Padilla challenges common
stereotypes by examining the agonistic displays of a male white shark
near a shark cage. The study emphasizes that even these formidable
marine predators display ordinary animal behaviours in response to
perceived threats, debunking the sensationalized portrayals in
popular media.</p>
<h3 class="western" style="text-align: left;"><strong>Cognition</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Cognition section challenges the historical dismissal of
elasmobranch mental capacities. Vera Schluessel et al.’s paper,
“<em>When the penny drops: sharks outsmart cichlids in serial
reversal learning</em>” sets the tone by testing two species—eight
cichlids and seven bamboo sharks—in a reversal learning task. The
results showcase the sharks’ capacity for learning and behavioural
flexibility, challenging the perception of elasmobranchs as
instinct-driven creatures.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“<em>Examining individual behavioural variation in wild adult
bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) suggests divergent personalities</em>”
by Thomas Matthieu Vignaud et al., takes an ethological approach to
analysing boldness-shyness and aggressiveness-placidity in adult bull
sharks. The study not only characterizes individual shark
personalities but also quantifies the differences in behaviour over
time, emphasizing the variation among individuals.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The article “<em>Long-lasting memory of a free-ranging top
marine predator, the Bull shark Carcharhinus leucas”</em> by
Clémentine J. M. Séguigne et al. explores the memory capabilities
of sharks. Given their long lifespans, sharks are expected to have
good long-term memories, and this study provides evidence supporting
this hypothesis. The sharks quickly resumed their attendance when
feedings resumed following interruption of shark feedings due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The Special Issue concludes on a note of mystery with “<em>Shark
evacuation from Mo’orea Island in 2002”</em> by Ila France
Porcher. The article recounts a unique event where all Blacktip Reef
sharks and likely other species left their lagoon and ocean ranges
for two weeks, thus evading human view without any apparent
explanation. The mystery underscores the gaps in our understanding of
elasmobranchs' lives and behaviours.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcxb0Uq4-JxiCHe786xmXtO1oeAbrSMrxXfZhh_1EQEXFsZUbxEWia33lIkQ2nRW75UKJLEb-iJkE9DcxJBg8TJr2udR2k9fuhTBxp_YBc3xzZfISl4MMWmK77NVW-R1O20gCpNwHxF8MLRTt_drs4sR0_bUoUOm9yY8cYSDcm7NDMHCh1BRQdiHoyEhLp/s1200/illustration.4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="879" data-original-width="1200" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcxb0Uq4-JxiCHe786xmXtO1oeAbrSMrxXfZhh_1EQEXFsZUbxEWia33lIkQ2nRW75UKJLEb-iJkE9DcxJBg8TJr2udR2k9fuhTBxp_YBc3xzZfISl4MMWmK77NVW-R1O20gCpNwHxF8MLRTt_drs4sR0_bUoUOm9yY8cYSDcm7NDMHCh1BRQdiHoyEhLp/w684-h500/illustration.4.jpg" width="684" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In summary, this Special Issue not only unveils the behavioural
complexity of elasmobranchs but challenges prevailing stereotypes,
emphasizing the need for their conservation. The revelations in this
collection are poised to inspire further studies and advocate for
robust measures to try to safeguard these ancient underwater
inhabitants from the current intensive ongoing exploitation.</div><p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br />
<br />
</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><style type="text/css">h3 { margin-top: 0.25cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm; background: transparent; page-break-after: avoid }h3.western { font-family: "Liberation Serif", serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold }h3.cjk { font-family: "Songti SC"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold }h3.ctl { font-family: "Arial Unicode MS"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold }p { line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; background: transparent }em { font-style: italic }strong { font-weight: bold }a:link { color: #000080; so-language: zxx; text-decoration: underline }</style></p>Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-44088909765009034752023-11-15T06:35:00.000-08:002023-11-15T06:55:31.592-08:00Cognitive Dissonance and the Bias Against Sharks<p><i><b><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">Something
strange in society that is never mentioned is how the reality we face
as adults does not correspond in important ways to the one we learned
about growing up. Since this discrepancy remains unacknowledged, each
of us discovers and must investigate its length and breadth alone.
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"> </span></b></i></p><p><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">The
irrational nature of the bias held against sharks in Western society
became evident to me during discussions on the
Internet discussion list, Shark-L from 2002 to 2008. Being
familiar with the behaviour of several species of wild sharks,
I found that the members seemed to be talking about a different
animal. While a large proportion of those posting on the list were
apparently in thrall to the great white shark </span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">(</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Carcharodon
carcharias</span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">)</span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">,</span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">
a variety of shark scientists and shark fishermen from many countries
were also members; membership at that time was between 450 to 500
people. The subject of shark attacks commonly generated avid
discussion, and during the year that Discovery Channel presented its
Shark Week feature, </span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Ocean
of Fear</span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">(Discovery
2007) </span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">it
was energetically discussed for much of that week. </span></span></b></i>
</p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Ocean
of Fear: The Worst Shark Attack Ever presents
the story of the crew of the American war ship, the USS
Indianapolis. About 900 crew
members were left floating after the ship was torpedoed by a Japanese
submarine on July 30, 1945, in the Philippine Sea. Though
surviving crew members stated during an interview that most of the
survivors died of exhaustion, exposure, or drinking ocean water, the
show presents sharks as being man-eating monsters responsible for
unimaginable horror and mayhem. The passionate discussion of the show
that followed on Shark-L reflected this stance. No one, including the
shark scientists who participated in reviewing the morbid details,
questioned its presentation. However, stepping back to take a wider
look, one wonders what the men were doing, bleeding in the ocean. It
was because their ship had been bombed. And what were
they doing in the middle of the Philippine Sea? They had just
delivered vital parts for the atomic bomb that would soon be dropped
on Hiroshima, arguably the most murderous act ever perpetrated by
homo sapiens. </span></b></i>
</p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">The
contrast between what the men in the USS Indianapolis did—mass
murder—and what the sharks did—eat—was not once mentioned by a
member of Shark-L. Though as the scientists in the discussion were
doubtless aware, while fighting among men is common, no incident
of sharks fighting had ever been reported.</span></b></i></p>
<p class="western" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><b>Shark
Aggression</b></span></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">The
lack of intra-specific aggression in sharks is an attribute that has
been systematically mentioned by shark ethologists since Allee and
Dickinson (1954) placed 16 sharks in small containers and were unable
to illicit conflict among them in spite of overcrowding and
starvation (Allee and Dickinson 1954). The subject was covered
in detail by shark ethologists Myrberg and Gruber (1974) in their
study of bonnethead sharks. When asked whether they
had ever seen sharks fighting, Professor Arthur A. Myrberg replied:</span></b></i></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-left: 1.25cm;"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">During
my many observations over about 25 years or so in the field, I’ve
never seen a shark acting aggressively toward another shark other
than males pushing or biting females during what appeared as
reproductive tactics. I’ve observed lemons, tigers, bonnetheads,
silkies, oceanic whitetips, and blacknoses for reasonably long
periods and nurses and blacktips for very short periods of time.” </span></span></b></i>
</p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Professor
Samuel H. Gruber wrote:</span></b></i></p>
<p align="left" class="western" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-left: 1.25cm;"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;">“<span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">After
years and years of observing sharks in competitive feeding situations
I have become impressed by how little aggression is shown by these
animals. I often read in books when I was young that sharks can go
into a frenzy and will attack and kill one another. I find this to be
exactly opposite of what occurs. What I see is that when
competitively feeding, sharks are almost gentle and balletic. If two
sharks rush at a piece of bait and one clamps on the other’s head
they will carefully unclamp, back up and move off. They do not bite
or hurt one another.”</span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Chris
Fallows, who studies the great white shark in South Africa, wrote in
a personal communication (2022) that in more than thirty years he has
never seen them fight. Neither has he seen them bite each other while
feeding together on a whale carcass. Nor have they reacted by biting
when they have been lured to baits at cage diving boats and have
mistakenly collided when swimming from one side of the boat to the
other when they could not see each other. </span></span></span></span></span></b></i></p><p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Klimley
et al. (1996) described how the great white shark ritualizes conflict
when a seal that one of them has killed comes under dispute. Each
slaps the water at an angle with its tail, and the shark who raises
the most water, and blasts it farthest, wins the prey. Klimley
confirmed this by taking video sequences of many such encounters.
Thus he was able to accurately measure the sharks involved, and the
distances that they propelled the water (Klimley et al. 1996). For
this ritual to be effective, each shark must understand it, and the
loser must acknowledge the winner to avoid a physical battle for the
seal, which would badly damage both sharks. Would human fighters be
so cooperative? Personal experience with violent men suggests to this
author that such is unlikely.</span></span></span></span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #0f0f0f;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Even
among great white sharks, it appears that conflictual biting and
fighting, so common among vertebrates of our own phylogenetic line
(the </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #0f0f0f;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="background: #ffffff;">osteichthyan</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #0f0f0f;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
line), is not seen. Yet, this fact remains generally unacknowledged. </span></span></span></span></span></b></i>
</p>
<h2 align="left" class="western"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Human
Aggression</span></h2>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Not
counting animals that kill indirectly by spreading disease, homo
sapiens is the species most dangerous to its conspecifics. In
terms of its murderous behaviour, there is no counterpart in other
vertebrates. A study by the United Nations (2019) determined that
about 437,000 people annually are homicide victims, and 90% of the
perpetrators are men; their victims are often conspecific females.</span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">In
contrast, only five people were killed by sharks in 2022
(International Shark Attack File 2022).</span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Though
war kills fewer people than homicide, human history is an account of
successive wars (Keeley 1996). Evidence shows that tribal warfare was
on average 20 times more deadly than modern warfare, calculated as
either a percentage of total deaths from war, or as average war
deaths each year as a percentage of the population (Keeley 1996).
These numbers are echoed by deaths in modern tribal societies in
which death rates from war are between four and six times the highest
death rates in 20<sup>th</sup> century Germany or Russia (Keeley
1996). These findings suggest that war is instinctive in homo
sapiens, and not cultural (Lorenz 1963). The popularity of war
and violence in media entertainment supports this. Further, instead
of arguing against this irrational and instinctive danger, science
works to serve it (e.g. see <span lang="en-GB">Pearce and
Denkenberger 2018). Currently, not only destructive weapons are used
to kill others, but chemical and bio-weapons have been intensively
studied for eventual use. There is evidence that the COVID 19
pandemic was created in a lab (Bruttel et al. 2022); whether it was
spread intentionally to wreak havoc globally or not, is not
officially known as of this writing.</span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Homo
sapiens is one of the two species in the biosphere that kills not
to eat but for fun (Ghiglieri 1999); chimpanzees share the warring
instinct (Aureli et al. 2006; de Waal and de Waal 2007). Humans
excitedly seek fights, target conspecifics with the intention to
kill, and enjoy doing so (Torres 2018). They will deliberately
inflict pain, torture, and subjugation on conspecifics. One of homo
sapiens’ distinctive traits is its capacity for innovation, and
innovation is used to devise new techniques and new forms of killing
(Baron-Cohen 2011). </span></b></i>
</p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Lorenz
(1963) provided a possible explanation for the extreme cruelty of our
species. He hypothesized that it is due to the lack of inhibitions
that evolved to control intra-specific aggression in other social
animals. Like sharks, animals that have evolved dangerous weapons
will also have evolved behavioural strategies to keep them from
mortally injuring conspecifics (Lorenz 1963, Klimley et al 1996).
But, when the animal has not evolved big teeth and jaws, a sharp,
strong beak, or a powerful, clawed stroke, there has been no
selection pressure to develop inhibitions against killing
conspecifics. Animals of such species can kill another slowly and
cruelly in situations in which the victim cannot get away. The
weapons crafted by human societies are, in almost every case, their
greatest achievement, and homo
sapiens lacks the
ability to refrain from using them against his fellow man. Though no
dog will bite another who makes the gesture of submission, gunmen do
not hesitate to shoot people who are begging for mercy. And only in
human wars is the mass killing of conspecifics perpetrated. </span></b></i>
</p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Bob
Altemeyer, formerly of the University of Manitoba, described an
experiment that he carried out with a friend at the University of
Moscow during the cold war. The two researchers found that students
in the United States and Russia shared the same view of the opposing
super power, each viewing the other country as having identical evil
characteristics (Altemyer 2006). He also found, through decades of
experimentation with human subjects, that your enemy would only have
to ask three or four people before finding someone who would be
willing to hold you down and electrocute you to death on the request
of the most minor authority (Altemyer 2006). This and other studies
have revealed the ready willingness of people in general to blindly
follow authority.</span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Through
reflection, Lorenz (1963) presented the possibility that the
Christian story about Jesus Christ’s admonition to “turn
the other cheek”
did not mean that one should submit more to violence, but that one
should present the other cheek so that the aggressor could not
strike
again. He cited this admonition, along with the ritual of the ‘peace
pipe’
(in which a pipe is communally smoked before peace talks), as
possibly being two efforts by modern humans to control the instinct
for violence.</span></b></i></p>
<h2 align="left" class="western"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">Human
Bias</span></h2>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">An
aspect of human cognitive behaviour is the tendency to defend beliefs
against the facts (Kahan et al. 2017). This pattern is seen in
scientists as well as the general public (Kahan et al. 2017), and is
likely behind much of the divisiveness among many of the religious
dogmas, as well as between religion and science. Beliefs are held and
any facts that contradict them are explained away—they don’t
matter. For example, many people today continue to believe that the
earth is flat in spite of photographic and other evidence that it is
a globe. Similarly, others believe that the earth is just 10,000
years old, dismissing the fossil record and the biological evidence
of evolution. Both these beliefs spring from ancient texts—the
Koran and the Bible.</span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">Another
robust finding in social psychology is that there is a deep human
tendency to re</span></span><span lang="en-GB">gard those in a
perceived ‘out-group’ as being inferior to the ‘home group’
based on arbitrary criteria, including beliefs (Hamilton 1964, Byrne
1969). This tendency has also been identified as being instinctive
(Lorenz 1963); it presents as an </span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">aspect
of the territorial instinct. The classification of ‘others,’ in
which one group looks down on or fears another, results in prejudices
and stereotypes, which throughout history has regularly led to
cruelty, violence, war, slavery, and genocide. This tendency has also
been found to be an aspect of the human attitude to animals</span></span><span lang="en-GB">
(Plous 2003, Bastain et al. 2011, Hodson and Costello 2012). Humans
consider themselves exceptional so that any and all human projects
are good, no matter how destructive they may be to other species.
Recreational shark fishing and the shark fin trade are good examples
(Shiffman and Hammerschlagg 2014, Gehan 2019, Porcher and Darvell,
2022). </span></span></b></i>
</p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">A
commonly used excuse for treating animals cruelly is to claim that
though the animals act as if they are in pain, that does not mean
that they really are (Rose 2002), which is the common argument used
by fishermen to defend their ‘sporting’ practices. Though this
argument requires that the alleged automaton imitate consciousness on
cue, the “facts don’t matter tendency” has allowed fishermen to
continue to argue that fish don’t feel pain in spite of a vast and
rapidly accumulating store of scientific findings that they do
(Sneddon et al. 2018). Indeed, some shark scientists continue to
promote the shark fin trade as if elasmobranchs lack intrinsic
ecological value (e.g. Shiffman and Hueter 2018), and claim that
sharks should be treated as a commercial resource rather than as
wildlife with the right to protection (Shiffman et al. 2021). Many
scientific papers associated with fisheries refer to elasmobranchs
(as well as teleosts) in anthropocentric terms.</span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">There
is also the phenomenon of psychological projection, in which
in-groups project their own qualities on out-g</span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">roups
(</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Newman
et al. 1997, Robbins and Krueger 2005). A similar phenomenon is
anthropomorphism in which the perceived traits of other life forms
are considered in terms of the knowledge of the way conspecifics
behave. Given their dentition, if sharks behaved as aggressively as
humans, human swimmers would indeed be in danger. This type of human
tendency may help explain why such a violent species might be in
denial of the peaceful nature of another species, especially one that
they already want to kill.</span></cite></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Sharks
have been used to portray the monsters of the human imagination ever
since the blockbuster movie JAWS launched hate killings of sharks all
along American coasts (Drumm 1996). The initiative was taken up by
Discovery with Shark Week which claims to be portraying
non-fiction—JAWS, on the other hand, was fictional. Shark Week has
traditionally highlighted and showcased shark attacks, and refers to
the animals with terms such as “</span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">man-eating
monsters</span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">”—the
demons of the human imagination. These and other
such productions have exerted enormous influence on p</span></cite><cite><span style="color: #0f0f0f;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB"><span style="background: #ffffff;">ublic
attitudes to sharks (Muter 2013; Neff 2015; Le Busque &
Litchfield 2021, Pellot 2023) and continue to do so</span></span></span></span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">.
During a meeting with Shark Week’s producers, Paul Gasek, Jeff
Hasler, and others, in 2010, my colleagues were told: “People watch
because sharks are scary and dangerous.” Shark Week’s producers
called this </span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">shark
pornography,</span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">
and since a scary and dangerous Shark Week had made a fortune
amounting to billions of American dollars for the Network, the trend
continued. At the same time, conservation was considered to be
unpopular, so it was scarcely mentioned (pers. comm Gasek and Hasler
2010). As a result, many members of the generation who grew up
watching Shark Week will tell you that they are afraid to even put a foot in the sea, or
any deep water including mountain lakes. The fact that divers swim
with sharks each day in many places around the planet, and are almost
never bitten, is ignored. In contrast, there are about 4.5 million
dog bites yearly (World Animal Foundation 2021), with 30,000
fatalities (Statista 2022) yet society holds a positive attitude to
dogs.</span></cite></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">This
phenomenon has launched a barrier to shark conservation that has
likely delayed effective action being taken to protect them and now,
elasmobranchs are in worse shape than any other vertebrate line
(Porcher and Darvell 2022).</span></cite></span></b></i></p>
<h2 align="left" class="western"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;"><span lang="en-GB">Conclusions</span></span></h2><h2 align="left" class="western"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">Due to the long evolutionary history of sharks and their relatives, </span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">(Coates et al. 2018, Andreev et al. 2020,<span lang="en-GB"> Kriwet
and Benton 2004, Kriwet et al. 2009</span> their influence
is felt throughout the intricate aquatic ecosystems
around the planet. <span lang="en-GB">The way
humanity has specifically targeted them and swept them from the seas
is not something that could have happened naturally and the
ecological results of doing so are unknown. Sharks, rays, and
chimaeras were once common and are estimated now to be less than 6%
of their former numbers at most. They no longer fulfil their former
ecological roles, which is a recognized pre-cursor of extinction (for
an in-depths analysis see Porcher and Darvell 2022). </span></span></span></i>
</h2>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">Given
that very little is known about elasmobranchs, it is
counter-intuitive that shark scientists would find their mass
slaughter in all oceans to be acceptable, and the situation presents
as an example of the way modern civilization devalues life. But given
current knowledge of the size and nature of the universe, the
mysteries concerning the presence of life and of consciousness, and
the failure to locate any other lifeforms within hundreds of
thousands of light years around us, there is every reason to consider
life to be precious, </span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">and
that its appearance on our planet in this solar system is remarkable.
The claim of human exceptionalism, made to excuse any and all human
projects, no matter how destructive,</span></span><span style="color: #168253;"><span lang="en-GB">
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">does
not stand, because it ignores the fact that humans are only one
species among the trillions that have evolved in harmony to support
life, in a vast network covering the planet. </span></span></span></b></i>
</p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-GB">There
is evidence that the acknowledgement of how little humans know about
the lives and subjective states of other life forms can result in
them questioning the basis of their speciesism and treating other
life forms with more wisdom (Voelkel et al. 2018). Humans pride
themselves as acting through reasoning, and the only reasonable
response to reality is to consider and try to understand it. Indeed,
we may be the only animal that has evolved enough intelligence to
understand the difference between reasoned thought and instinct. Only
through putting that knowledge to good use across the scale of human
actions, will we begin to solve the problems facing humanity as of
this writing.</span></span></span></b></i></p>
<h2 align="left" class="western"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-large;">References</span></h2>
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B. (2006) </span><span style="background: #ffffff;">The
Authoritarians </span><span style="background: #ffffff;">Winnipeg:
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<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Andreev,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">P.S.,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Zhao,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">W.,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Wang,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">N.Z.,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Smith,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">M.M.,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Li,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Q.,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Cui,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">X.,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Zhu,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">M.,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Sansom,
I.</span></span></cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">J.</span><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">
(2020) E</span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">arly</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Silurian</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">chondrichthyans</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">from</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">the</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Tarim</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Basin</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">(Xinjiang,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">China).</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">PLoS
ONE.</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">15</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">,</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">e0228589</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">.
</span></span></cite><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">https://doi.org/</span></span></cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">10.1371/journal.pone.0228589.</span></span></span></b></i></p>
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<p align="justify" class="western" style="line-height: 200%; orphans: 0; widows: 0;">
<i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Discovery
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</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Shark
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</span></cite><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.discovery.com/shows/ocean-of-fear-worst-shark-attack-ever"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">https://www.discovery.com/shows/ocean-of-fear-worst-shark-attack-ever</span></a></u></span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">
Accessed on February 7 2023.</span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">Drumm,</span><span style="color: black;">
</span><span style="color: black;">R.</span><span style="color: black;">
</span><span style="color: black;">In the Slick of the Cricket</span><span style="color: black;">;</span><span style="color: black;">
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<p class="western"><i><b><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Gehan,
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<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a name="CITEREFNewmanDuffBaumeister1997"></a><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">Newman,
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</span></span></cite><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMID_(identifier)"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">PMID</span></span></a></u></span></span><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB"> </span></span></cite><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9150580"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">9150580</span></span></a></u></span></span><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">.</span></span></cite></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">Pearce,
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</span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">2018</span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">,
</span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">4</span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span lang="en-GB">,
25. </span></span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/safety4020025"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">https://doi.org/10.3390/safety4020025</span></a></u></span></span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Pellot
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<i><b><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Porcher,
I.F.; Darvell, B.W. Shark Fishing </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">vs.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">
Conservation: Analysis and Synthesis. </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Sustainability</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">2022</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">,
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">14</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">,
9548. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159548 </span></span></span></b></i>
</p>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><cite><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">Robbins,
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<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Rose,
J. D. (2002) The Neurobehavioral Nature of Fishes and the question of
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<i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-GB">Shark
Attack File (2022) Yearly Worldwide Shark Attack Summary. Florida
Museum. Available online:
</span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/yearly-worldwide-summary</span></a></u></span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Shiffman,
D.S. and Hammerschlag, N. (2014) An Assessment of the Scale,
Practices, and Conservation Implications of Florida’s Charter
Boat–Based Recreational Shark Fishery. Fisheries, 39: 395-407.
</span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03632415.2014.941439"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">doi.org/10.1080/03632415.2014.941439</span></a></u></span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Shiffman,</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">D.S.
and</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Hueter,</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">R.E.
(2017)</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">A</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">United</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">States</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">shark</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">fin</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ban</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">would</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">undermine</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">sustainable</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">shark</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">fisherie</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">s.
Mar. Pol.</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
85, 1</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">38–140</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span></span></span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Shiffman,
D.S., Macdonald, C.C., Wallace, S.S., Dulvy, N.K. (2021) The role and
value of science in shark conservation advocacy. Sci. Rep. 2021, 11,
16626. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96020-4</span></span></span></span></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Sneddon,
L.U.; Lopez-Luna, J.; Wolfenden, C.C., Leach, M. C., Valentim, A.M.,
Steenbergen, P. J., Bardine, N., Currie, A.D.; Broom, D.M., and
Brown, C. (2018) <a href="https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol3/iss21/1">Fish
sentience denial: Muddying the waters</a>. </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Animal
Sentience</span></span></span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
21(1) </span></span></span></span></span></span></b></i>
</p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><cite><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Statista
(2022) Deadliest animals worldwide by annual number of human deaths
as of 2022. Available online:
</span></span></span></cite><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><a href="http://www.statista.com/statistics/448169/deadliest-creatures-in-the-world-by-number-of-human-deaths"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">www.statista.com/statistics/448169/deadliest-creatures-in-the-world-by-number-of-human-deaths</span></span></span></a></span></span><cite><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Accessed 11 February 2023</span></span></span></cite></span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Torres,
P. (2018) Who would destroy the world? Omnicidal agents and related
phenomena.<br />
Aggression and Violent Behavior, 39, 129-138</span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2019) Global Study on Homicide.
Available online:
</span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/global-study-on-homicide.html"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/global-study-on-homicide.html</span></a></u></span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">
Accessed on 7 February 2023.</span></b></i></p>
<p align="justify" class="western" style="line-height: 200%; orphans: 0; widows: 0;">
<i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Voelkel,
J.G., Brandt, M.J. & Colombo, M. (2018) I know that I know
nothing: Can puncturing the illusion of explanatory depth overcome
the relationship between attitudinal dissimilarity and prejudice?
Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology, 3:1, 56-78, DOI:
</span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23743603.2018.1464881"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">10.1080/23743603.2018.1464881</span></a></u></span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">
</span></b></i>
</p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">Wikipedia
(2007) Ocean of Fear. </span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_of_Fear#cite_note-3"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_of_Fear#cite_note-3</span></a></u></span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif; font-size: medium;">
Accessed on 7 February 2023.</span></b></i></p>
<p class="western"><i><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">World
Animal Foundation (2021) Dog Bite Statistics You Need To Know in
2023! Available online:
</span></cite><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/dog-bite-statistics/"><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">https://worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/dog-bite-statistics</span></a></u></span></span><cite><span style="font-family: Palatino, serif;">
Accessed on 11 February 2023.</span></cite></span></b></i></p>
<p><style type="text/css">h2 { color: #000000; line-height: 200%; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-top: 0.35cm; margin-bottom: 0.21cm; direction: ltr; background: transparent; page-break-after: avoid }h2.western { font-family: "Times", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-GB; font-weight: bold }h2.cjk { font-family: "PingFang SC"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: zh-CN; font-weight: bold }h2.ctl { font-family: "Times", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt; so-language: hi-IN; font-weight: bold }p { color: #000000; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; orphans: 0; widows: 0; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Times", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 11pt; so-language: en-GB }p.cjk { font-family: "Songti SC"; font-size: 11pt; so-language: zh-CN }p.ctl { font-family: "Times", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: hi-IN }strong { font-weight: bold }em { font-style: italic }a:visited { color: #800000; so-language: zxx; text-decoration: underline }cite { font-style: italic }a:link { color: #000080; so-language: zxx; text-decoration: underline }</style></p>Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-34126469575924478142022-08-06T04:05:00.002-07:002022-08-06T09:28:57.486-07:00Shark Fishing vs Conservation: Analysis and Synthesis <p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHTbsHhBz1lbA8RbT_q2ANTGQMbzQH_J3sqHn_ds7HIIjwgJMM1T8UfmJzLjy-bmhR1aspoT57fnFYkvzFlCEHXQ4xF6iPSNNawqPWgOCUBb0qbiQx3FGiTwz_lAPHr0J8EoooOlerP7CehP0GkWAHltcUt96b8Jk1VChL2G0Odz_4OxuH0ljrYAVfA/s750/hooked.shark.550.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="750" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimHTbsHhBz1lbA8RbT_q2ANTGQMbzQH_J3sqHn_ds7HIIjwgJMM1T8UfmJzLjy-bmhR1aspoT57fnFYkvzFlCEHXQ4xF6iPSNNawqPWgOCUBb0qbiQx3FGiTwz_lAPHr0J8EoooOlerP7CehP0GkWAHltcUt96b8Jk1VChL2G0Odz_4OxuH0ljrYAVfA/s16000/hooked.shark.550.JPG" /></a></div><b><br /></b><span><b>The review of the status of sharks that I wrote with Professor Brian W. Darvell, <i><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/15/9548/htm" target="_blank">Shark Fishing vs. Conservation: Analysis and Synthesis</a></i> has been published Open Access in the journal <i>Sustainability.</i></b><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span>With traditional fish stocks 90% overfished,
sharks (along with tuna) have become the most lucrative prey for
fisheries due to the value of their fins. So, with fishing scarcely
profitable any more, fishing fleets around the world have joined in the
hunt for them. The meat is pushed onto consumers using other names, so
it is largely the shark fin trade that drives the so-called market for
shark meat.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span>As a result, those species of sharks and rays accessible to fishing fleets are approaching extinction.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span>Further, the removal of these top and middle predators has
resulted in drastic, long-term changes in oceanic and coastal
ecosystems—a complete rebalancing. Yet most ecosystem changes remain
unknown and are not taken into account by Regional Fisheries Management
Organizations.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span>The shark fin trade is driven by high prices and rich customers
who have little interest in either sustainability or legality. This
rising demand, contrasted against the catastrophic loss of the large
animals supplying it, makes it evident that shark fishing is not
sustainable. What has been going on in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the
heart of the 'civilized' western world, is analysed in detail to make
this clear.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span>However, due to the uncertainties involved in assessing how
many sharks are being fished and how many remain, it is easy for shark
hunting nations, and shark fishing industry spokesmen, to argue against
sharks and rays receiving effective protection.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span>Fisheries take a territorial attitude to marine resources and
consider themselves to have the right to continue to take them,
irregardless of the disastrous losses they have already suffered and the
profits that fisheries have already realised.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span>We show that the sustainable shark fishing lobby is defending sustainable shark fishing, <i>not against unsustainable shark fishing, but against effective protection for sharks</i>. Pro-sustainable shark fishing 'scientists' recommend sustainable shark fishing <i>but do not state when the use of the "resource" would become unsustainable</i>.
Since it is virtually impossible to assess the true losses sharks have
suffered, their arguments are easy to make for they cannot be disproven.
But it is estimated that shark mortality is at least four times what is
recorded by fisheries' organizations, and may be much greater than
that, given the secretive nature of the shark fin trade, as well as
prolific illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span>The point that fishermen are in the same position as any other
predator that is eliminating its prey, is made. The human species is
overpopulated and we have known for decades that the moment would come
when no wild prey could sustain us.</span></b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span>The domination by industry must end if the planet’s aquatic
ecosystems are to be saved from ecological collapse, specifically as a
result of fishing. If history has taught us anything, no wild animal can
withstand targeted industrial-scale hunting long term—not whales, not
sea turtles, not fish, and certainly not sharks.</span></b></p><b>
</b><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span>Conclusions</span></h3><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>In conclusion the paper recommends that all sharks, manta rays, devil
rays, rhino rays, and chimaeras be protected from international trade
through a CITES Appendix I listing. This would keep markets for sharks
local, thus favouring small scale fishing. It would also simplify
customs' work at border crossings by removing the problem of identifying
all the different look-alike species.</b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Fishing effort must be drastically diminished to permit the damaged
ecosystems of oceans, coral reefs, lagoons, mangroves, estuaries,
rivers, lakes, and coastlines to recover.</b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Fishing subsidies must end. The money should be used instead to help
fishermen switch to other occupations, including planting food crops.</b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Thirty percent of the oceans should be set aside as Marine Protected Areas in which there would be no fishing.</b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>There must be a change in fishing methods away from today's
unselective gear--including trawling, purse-seining, gill-netting, and
long-lining--to methods that avoid by-catch including sharks,
completely.</b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>A change in attitude concerning eating wild fish as protein is
needed, so that people pay a reasonable price for such high-quality food
and fishers will be able to make enough money from their sustainable
catches to live on.</b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>The pervasive problem of <span>illegal, unreported, and unregulated</span> fishing should be addressed globally, through all means available.</b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Regional Fishing Management Organizations should be required to
respect human rights, and to address slavery, as well as unsafe and
inhumane working conditions. At their own expense, they should be
required to keep track of stocks through stock assessments by species
and geographic region, update them regularly, and mandate catch limits.
Landings should be monitored, and species-specific records kept.</b></p><b>
</b><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>But what is needed most is a binding international treaty to protect biodiversity in general.</b></p>Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-50518853462377928122022-01-17T11:56:00.012-08:002022-01-18T09:18:04.131-08:00Debunking Shiffman's Latest: "The role and value of science in shark conservation advocacy”
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><b>Although
written in an authoritative style, Shiffman </b></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i><b>et
al</b></i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><b>.’s
paper “</b></span></span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-96020-4" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i><b>The
role and value of science in shark conservation advocacy</b></i></span></span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><b>”
(2021) contains a number of lethal flaws which invalidate it. In
particular, it claims that the survey on which it is based shows that
conservationists favour bans over sustainable shark fishing more than
scientists. </b></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><b>But in fact
the survey of scientists cited (Shiffman & Hammerschlag 2016 b)
showed that 63% of scientists favour bans while this paper states
that only 41% of conservationists do. This mismatch between the
findings of the two surveys and the claims of these authors
invalidates much of what they state. Their survey also establishes
that conservationists do in fact base their published information on
scientific papers, rather than public belief or moral considerations,
so the authors’ conclusion is seriously in error.</b></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">Leaving
aside for the moment the reason why alleged “shark scientists”
would spend the time it took to write this attack on people who value
biodiversity and are concerned about the current status of sharks,
this paper is based on a mickey mouse questionnaire which fails to
take into account the nuances in a complex subject, telescoping it
into two political positions. It would have been tossed in the bin if
submitted in any philosophy class in a learning institute. That it
could have been published at all strongly supports our conviction
that 'sustainable shark fishing' is not being defended against
unsustainable shark fishing, but against effective shark protection
from the forces that are driving them to extinction.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">The
authors focus only on the conservationists’ attitude to the
subjects of the two bills now being considered as future legislation
in the USA, revealing an essentially political stance. </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i>The
Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2018 </i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">is
the shark fishing industry’s supposed solution to shark depletion
(Gehan 2016), while </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i>The
Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of 2017</i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">,
which would effectively remove the USA from the shark fin trade, is
the choice of those who want effective protection for sharks. The
cited article’s slanted presentation suggests, therefore, that it
is political in nature, and written to grant scientific credibility
to the erroneous idea that the shark fin trade is sustainable (see
their Fig. 5). Indeed, Shiffman’s rhetorical arguments tend to
echo, often almost word for word, those of the shark fishing industry
spokesmen from the Sustainable Shark Alliance (Shiffman & Hueter
2017, Gehan 2016). </span></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">The
only evidence offered to establish the existence of sustainable
commercial shark fisheries is Simpfendorfer and Dulvy’s 2017 paper
“</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i>Bright
spots of sustainable shark fishing,</i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">”
a work that was already in error two years after it was published. It
claimed, for example, that the mako shark fisheries in the North and
South Atlantic serving the shark fin trade could be sustainable with
management. But at the same time, scientists from the </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">International
Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) </span></span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">found
that </span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">the
status of the mako shark was so dire that even if all fishing was
stopped immediately, its numbers would continue to decline for the
next fifteen years. </span></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">With
a population collapse imminent, th</span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">ere
was a probability of only about 50% that the stock would be rebuilt
by 2045, and the probability that it would be rebuilt would not
exceed 70% until 2070, 50 years from now (ICCAT 2019). </span></span></span></span></em></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">Commercial
fishing of the blue shark was also promoted by Simpfendorfer and
Dulvy (2017) as being potentially sustainable in spite of a paucity
of data. </span></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">They
used MSY to make their claim, but MSY is based on actual landings so
it is completely inapplicable to a species which is mostly disca</span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">rded
(Campana 2016). The blue shark is also </span></span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">considered
to be overfished in the North Atlantic (ICCAT 2020).</span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
sharks in the North Atlantic are managed by ICCAT, which represents
48 contracting nations and groups, including the European Union.
Member nations provide data – of highly variable quality – for
their fisheries, and there are several major fishing nations working
the North Atlantic that are not party to ICCAT and provide no shark
catch data to anyone. It is estimated that only a quarter of the
sharks killed there are reported, and that illegal finning is rampant
(Campana 2016). No scientific paper brings any evidence as to how
shark fishing could possibly be managed sustainably under such
circumstances. Indeed, i</span></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">t
has been scientifically established that it is </span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-US">impossible
</span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">to
manage the commons (Agrawal 2001), especially the high seas. These
authors should be aware of that.</span></span></span></em></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
North Atlantic, right in the heart of the “civilized” world,
should be the very epitome of excellent fishing management and
sustainable shark fishing. The truth clearly is far from that, and
the situation is even worse in the Pacific and Indian oceans. </span></span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">Yet
Shiffman </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i>et
al.</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">
write:</span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;">“</span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i>Results
show that in general, the environmental advocates who most strongly
supported bans on fisheries and trade were the least familiar with
the current state of scientific knowledge on sustainable shark
fisheries.”</i></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">On
the contrary, it appears to be Shiffman </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i>et
al. </i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">who
are out of touch with the current state of scientific knowledge on
sustainable shark fisheries. They also cite Walker (1998) as evidence
of their existence, but his paper actually questions whether
sustainability in commercial shark fishing can be realized and
focuses on the difficulties of accomplishing it. Further, it was
written before the shocking results of the shark fin trade became
evident and so is completely irrelevant here. The only other paper
which the authors cite as evidence that sustainable shark fisheries
exist is Shiffman’s own paper (Shiffman & Hueter 2017), which
claimed that they exist all over the world, but provided no evidence
whatsoever that they actually do. It was indeed thoroughly rebutted
(Porcher </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i>et
al.</i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">
2019). </span></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">Contrary
to what the authors state, there is much evidence which throws into
question the idea that long-term sustainable commercial shark
fisheries are possible, particularly in the face of the secretive and
largely criminal shark fin trade (Porcher & Darvell 2021,
submitted). Traditionally, the shark and skate fisheries that have
been managed sustainably were those few, mostly in the USA and
Australia, that took the animals for meat (Dent & Clarke 2015).
But this present paper fails to differentiate between those and the
current hunt to supply the shark fin trade, which now involves
industrial fisheries from nations around the globe.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">That
is all the scientific evidence that these authors can find to support
their statement, </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">made
about four times throughout the paper, that “</span></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">there
is no scientific doubt that sustainable shark fisheries exist”</span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><span style="font-style: normal;">.
However, there are plenty of papers that document the loss of sharks
as a result of seven decades of industrial fishing, and with the
added scourge of the shark fin trade, increasing numbers are listed
by IUCN as being threatened with extinction. This makes it clear that
whoever is saying that sharks are being sustainably fished is
claiming that black is white. That this claim can seriously be made
and published indicates a </span></span></span></span></em><span style="color: black;">monumental
level of cognitive dissonance not only in shark fisheries, but in
‘shark science.’</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">This
paper’s theme of promoting shark fishing while belittling
conservationists is a common one in Shiffman’s writings (Shiffman &
Hammerschlag 2014, 2016a,b). The claim that the public is concerned
about sharks because they “</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i>can
be ecologically important</i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">”
implies that sharks may or may not be of much ecological importance,
and minimizes an important concern with regards to the current and
ongoing extent of shark depletion. </span></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">All
relevant ecological studies have found that, as top and middle
predators, sharks</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">
are among the most strongly interacting animals in the food chain,
with the result that the extreme disruption wrought by more than
seven decades of industrial shark removal has caused major, cascading
biodiversity shifts throughout the originally complex and diverse
aquatic ecosystems which evolved during the previous 500 million
years (</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><i>e.g.
</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Okey
</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><i>et
al</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">.
2004; Ward & Myers 2005; Myers </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><i>et
al. </i></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">2007;
Heithaus </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><i>et
al. </i></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">2007,
2008; Ferretti </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><i>et
al</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">.
2010). </span></span></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">There
is also the claim that the public is concerned about sharks because
they “</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><i>are
a popular encounter for scuba divers and other marine tourists.</i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">”
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Terming
divers “</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"><i>marine
tourists</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">”
disparages a major force behind shark conservation efforts. A large
proportion of divers dive locally and regularly, knowing their area
well. They </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">have
personally witnessed the disappearance of sharks from the oceans and
coasts the way the buffalo vanished from the plains of North America
during the 1800s. Therefore, they have always been at the forefront
of shark conservation efforts. This statement wholly misrepresents
the reasons why so many members of the public are concerned about
sharks.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;">The
results of the survey on which this paper is based show that two
thirds of NGO employees read scientific papers regularly and more
than half have published scientific papers. This was found even
though the authors deliberately excluded scientific researchers
working in conservation from the survey, which is an altogether
startling bias. The data show that NGOs use scientific and not moral
reasons for their arguments for shark protection, so the conclusion
should have been that NGO employees working on shark conservation
are, with few exceptions, scientifically-informed, rather than the
contrary. </span></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">To
anyone who is aware of the actual state of shark depletion, it is
extremely worrying to see this sort of pseudo-philosophical,
pro-shark fishing propaganda neglecting biological facts, yet being
published as if it were science. </span></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; margin-top: 0.49cm;"><span style="color: black; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US"> </span></span></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span>
<p class="western" style="orphans: 0; widows: 0;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><b>References</b></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Agrawal
A (2001) Common Property Institutions and Sustainable Governance of
Resources. World Development 10(29): 1649-1672. </span></span></span></span></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Campana
S. E. (2016) Transboundary movements, unmonitored fishing mortality,
and ineffective international fisheries management pose risks for
pelagic sharks in the Northwest Atlantic. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci.
73:1599–1607.</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Dent
F, Clarke SC (2015) State of the Global Market for Shark Products.
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Fisheries and
Aquaculture. (Technical Paper 590)</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Ferretti
F, Worm B, Britten GL, Heithaus MR, Lotze HK (2010) Patterns and
ecosystem consequences of shark declines in the ocean. Ecology
Letters. 13(8):1055–1071 doi.org/0.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01489.x</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Gehan,
S. M. (2019) Testimony of the Sustainable Shark Alliance Before the
House Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife March 26, 2019
naturalresources.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Gehan%20Testimony%20WOW%20Leg%20Hrg%2003.26.19.pdf
Accessed 14 April 2020</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Heithaus
MR, Frid A, Wirsing AJ, Dill LM, Fourqurean JW, Burkholder D, Thomson
J, Bejder, L (2007) State-dependent risk-taking by green sea turtles
mediates top-down effects of tiger shark intimidation in a marine
ecosystem. Journal of Animal Ecology 6:837-844
doi.org/</span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2007.01260.x"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span lang="en-US">10.1111/j.1365-2656.2007.01260.x</span></span></a></u></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Heithaus
MR, Frid A, Wirsing AJ, Worm B (2008) Predicting ecological
consequences of marine top predator declines. Trends in Ecology &
Evolution. 23(4):202-210. </span></span></span></span></span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ICCAT
(2019) International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic
Tunas Report of the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics
(SCRS) Madrid, Spain, 30 September to 4 October 2019
www.iccat.int/Documents/Meetings/Docs/2019/REPORTS/2019_SCRS_ENG.pdf
Accessed 22 April 2020</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">ICCAT
SCRS (2020) Advice to the Commission, English version Madrid, Spain
2020 </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="https://www.iccat.int/Documents/SCRS/SCRS_2020_Advice_ENG.pdf"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">https://www.iccat.int/Documents/SCRS/SCRS_2020_Advice_ENG.pdf</span></a></u></span></span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
Accessed 18 September 2021</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Myers
RA, Baum JK, Shepherd TD, Powers SP, Peterson CH (2007) Cascading
Effects of the Loss of Apex Predatory Sharks from a Coastal Ocean
Science. 423(6937):280-3 doi.org/10.1126/science.1138657</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a name="bAFF26"></a><a name="bFN1"></a><a name="bAFF25"></a><a name="bFN2"></a><a name="bAFF41"></a><a name="bAFF23"></a><a name="bFN3"></a><a name="bAFF5"></a><a name="bAFF22"></a><a name="bAFF21"></a><a name="bAFF6"></a><a name="bAFF2"></a></span>
<span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Okey
TA, Banks S, Born AF, Bustamante RH, Calvopiña M, Edgar GJ, Espinoza
E José MiguelFariña J, Garske LE, Reck GK Salazar S, Shepherd S,
Toral-Granda V, Wallem P (2004) A trophic model of a Galápagos
subtidal rocky reef for evaluating fisheries and conservation
strategies. Ecol. Model.172:383–401</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Porcher
I. F., Darvell B. W., Cuny G (2019) Response to “A United States
shark fin ban would undermine sustainable shark fisheries” D.S.
Shiffman & R.E. Hueter, Marine Policy 85 (2017) 138-140. Marine
Policy. 104:85-89 doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.02.058</span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Porcher,
I. F. & Darvell B. W. (2021) Shark Conservation – Analysis and
Synthesis. </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Preprints</span></span></span></em><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
2021, 2021020145 doi: 10.20944/preprints202102.0145.v3</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Simpfendorfer,
C. A. & Dulvy, N. K. Bright spots of sustainable shark fishing.
Curr. Biol.27(3), R97–R98 (2017). </span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Shiffman D. S.
& Hammerschlag N. (2014) An Assessment of the Scale, Practices,
and Conservation Implications of Florida's Charter Boat–Based
Recreational Shark Fishery, Fisheries, 39:9, 395-407, DOI:
</span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03632415.2014.941439"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">10.1080/03632415.2014.941439</span></a></u></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">
</span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Shiffman, D.
S. & Hammerschlag, N. Shark conservation and management policy: A
review and primer for non-specialists. Anim. Conserv.19(5), 401–412
(2016). </span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Shiffman, D.
S. & Hammerschlag, N. Preferred conservation policies of shark
researchers. Conserv. Biol.30(4), 805–815 (2016). </span>
</p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Shiffman D.
S., Hueter R.E. (2017) A United States shark fin ban would undermine
sustainable shark fisheries. Mar. Pol. 85:138–140.</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p class="western"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: medium;">Shiffman D.
S., Macdonald C. C., Wallace S. S., & Dulvy N. K. The role and
value of science in shark conservation advocacy
1Vol.:(0123456789)Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:16626 |
</span><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><u><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><a class="western" href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96020-4www.nature.com/scientificreports">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96020-4</a><a class="western" href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96020-4www.nature.com/scientificreports">www.nature.com/scientificreports</a></span></u></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><p align="justify" class="western" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: navy; font-size: medium;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Ward
P, Myers RA (2005) Shifts in open-ocean fish communities coinciding
with the commencement of commercial fishing. Ecology 86:835–847.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<style type="text/css">p { color: #000000; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-GB }p.cjk { font-family: "WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: zh-CN }p.ctl { font-family: "FreeSerif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: hi-IN }em { font-style: italic }a:link { color: #000080; text-decoration: underline }a.western:link { so-language: zxx }a.ctl:link { so-language: zxx }</style><style type="text/css">p { line-height: 115%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; background: transparent }a:link { color: #0000ff; text-decoration: underline }em { font-style: italic }</style><style type="text/css">p { color: #000000; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-GB }p.cjk { font-family: "WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: zh-CN }p.ctl { font-family: "FreeSerif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: hi-IN }em { font-style: italic }a:link { color: #000080; text-decoration: underline }a.western:link { so-language: zxx }a.ctl:link { so-language: zxx }</style><p><style type="text/css">p { color: #000000; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; orphans: 2; widows: 2; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; background: transparent }p.western { font-family: "FreeSerif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: en-GB }p.cjk { font-family: "WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 12pt; so-language: zh-CN }p.ctl { font-family: "FreeSerif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; so-language: hi-IN }em { font-style: italic }a:link { color: #000080; text-decoration: underline }a.western:link { so-language: zxx }a.ctl:link { so-language: zxx }</style></p>Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-72736348340657614722021-03-12T10:16:00.000-08:002021-03-12T10:16:47.281-08:00Randall Arauz on CITES Loopholes<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyPP6shtCMmWtPDlcu8wEkV2ANffM5EsFJnTIjKT3aYJCt-1e2Lekw3aBV_YftY8cHOTWfRpKc2RzMT_vp5LexkQ-o33XPuF-mc1exKAy-gSaShzQHoP0ua1GKBK3NNgNHnCeMhk9hSm-n/s1000/portrait.of.a.tiger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="1000" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyPP6shtCMmWtPDlcu8wEkV2ANffM5EsFJnTIjKT3aYJCt-1e2Lekw3aBV_YftY8cHOTWfRpKc2RzMT_vp5LexkQ-o33XPuF-mc1exKAy-gSaShzQHoP0ua1GKBK3NNgNHnCeMhk9hSm-n/w640-h468/portrait.of.a.tiger.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />
<p></p><p align="justify">It is well known that in spite of all of the work
concerned people are investing, decade after decade, in an effort to
save sharks from extinction, they are being depleted faster and
faster, with fisheries around the world in a frenzy to profit from the value of their fins.
</p>
<p align="justify">Randall Arauz has more experience in fighting for
sharks than anyone I know, so I asked him why CITES listings have not
been working. Because getting sharks listed on CITES is the only way
of protecting sharks that we currently have.
</p>
<p align="justify">This is what he told me:</p>
<p align="justify"><a name="firstHeading"></a>“There is a reason
why Appendix II listings DO NOT WORK. CITES is a Wildlife
Conservation Convention, and as such, its domestic implementation is
held by the Ministries of Environment, which have Wildlife and
Biodiversity Conservation Laws for the implementation of such
conventions. This is true for the Convention on the Conservation of
Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD).</p>
<p align="justify">“However, at least in the case of CITES, in
order to get as many countries as possible to sign, they have to
leave little “escape hatches”, so that countries that do not want
to abide by the agreements can get away. One such “escape hatch”
for instance, is the possibility of doing a second plenary vote on
the last day of the meeting, when many delegates have left. Or
countries can file for “exceptions” if they do so during a
certain time-frame after the agreement was reached, I think it’s
three months.</p>
<p align="justify">“The biggest loophole of them all, is the
allowance by the Convention for a country to have two different CITES
administrative and scientific authorities. So, what countries all
over the world have been doing, is that once CITES implementation
time comes, is claim that sharks are not wildlife but species of
fisheries interest, and they promulgate that CITES authority for
endangered species of sharks is the Ministry of Agriculture, or
Ministry of Production, of Fisheries Department, for the
implementation of Fisheries legislation and agreements with Regional
Fisheries Management Organizations and CITES alike. Its a major water
down.</p>
<p align="justify">“For CITES to work, we need endangered species
of sharks to be acknowledged as wildlife, and countries must use
their domestic wildlife conservation laws to protect them. Allowing
fisheries, production, and agriculture ministries to dictate
conservation policy for endangered shark species is condemning them
to extinction.
</p>
<p align="justify">“Colombia just a few days ago removed shark and
ray species from the commercial species list.
</p>
<p align="justify">“Next March 17 I have the final hearing of a
trial in a case we filed against the Ministry of Environment and
Ministry of Agriculture for promulgating that sharks aren’t
wildlife in 2017, and which stripped the Ministry of Environment of
any authority over endangered shark species. We want the authority
returned to the Ministry of Environment, and we want the full
implementation of the Wildlife Conservation Law.</p>
<p align="justify">We have important jurisprudence on our side in
this case. In 1999, I filed a suit against the Costa Rican Fisheries
Institute for allowing the catch and slaughtering of 1800 green
turtles per year from July to September for human consumption along
our Caribbean coast. INCOPESCA’s defence was that green turtles
were commercial species that had been consumed along the Caribbean
coast for hundreds of years, and that it was better to regulate this
activity which otherwise would be held illegally. The Constitutional
Court ruled in our favor, saying that the commercialization of an
endangered species is a violation of the Precautionary Principle and
thus of the Constitution itself, and the wildlife and biodiversity
conservation conventions that the country has signed and ratified.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /></p><p align="justify">
<br />
</p>
<p align="justify">Thank you, Randall, for revealing how things
really work out when we think we are getting sharks protected. It is
appalling to realize that human beings will actually do such things,
knowing that they are sending large animals towards extinction.
</p>
<p align="justify">What is the world coming to?</p>
<p align="justify">And what is really ironic, is that we call sharks
monsters.</p>
<p><style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 115%; }</style></p>Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-64795091589112478862020-09-23T11:27:00.021-07:002020-09-24T09:44:48.642-07:00Misinformation Spread by the Shark Fishing Industry<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkO2h3n91BLTrINcVFaWSkDXVsUlajmyFx50S2sjtJrcorKsJKDQ0fcCrBPl-wi_tNN8jueOXEhUAX2YIfRf_traorqh0AVPXzeYwF0QubdQUYdgM4aGUCazMnJmgXsM8_rQOTdlY4DXpi/s550/finning.s.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="550" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkO2h3n91BLTrINcVFaWSkDXVsUlajmyFx50S2sjtJrcorKsJKDQ0fcCrBPl-wi_tNN8jueOXEhUAX2YIfRf_traorqh0AVPXzeYwF0QubdQUYdgM4aGUCazMnJmgXsM8_rQOTdlY4DXpi/w640-h331/finning.s.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<p></p><p class="western">Misinformation is being spread around by the shark
fishing industry in an effort to take the focus off the dangers of
the shark fin trade and see that <i>The Shark Fin Trade Elimination
Act</i> is not passed. This Act would make the fin trade illegal in
the USA, and conservationists consider it to be an important step
towards weakening the lethal trade and working towards lessening
shark mortality worldwide.</p>
<p class="western">
</p><p class="western"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
the </span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">shark
fishing industry intends to continue to sell its fins, and is
promoting </span></span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act. T</span></i><span style="font-variant: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">h</span></i></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">e
Sustainable Shark Alliance,</span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
which is</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> an allian</span>ce
of shark fishermen, processors and <span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">dealers,
argues</span></span> that it will solve the problem of shark
depletion and render the complete ban on shark fins unnecessary.</p>
<p class="western"><style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; page-break-before: auto; }p.western { font-family: "FreeSerif", serif; }p.cjk { font-size: 10pt; }a:link { }</style></p>
<p class="western">But though the catch word “sustainable” makes
it sound attractive, it would be impossible to supply the demand for
shark fins from sustainable fisheries, if you actually look at the
numbers. For many reasons, this Act would be impossible to put into
practice. However, if enough misinformation is spread around, their persuasive
propaganda could block the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act, to the
detriment of sharks.</p>
<p class="western">One of the most voluble spokesmen for the shark
fishing industry is David Shiffman, a shark fisheries scientist, who
argued in 2017 that the shark fin trade is “good for sharks.” He
and his partner, Robert Hueter, are promoting <i>H.R. 788, The
Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act, </i><span style="font-style: normal;">while
claiming to be shark conservationists. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">But
they are not. They promote the shark fin trade. Shiffman, especially, has a
long history of papers promoting shark fishing, including sports fishing of sharks, while </span><span style="font-style: normal;">suggesting
that</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> conservationists </span><span style="font-style: normal;">don’t
know what they are talking about.</span></p>
<p class="western">Word for word, the ideas expressed by the
Sustainable Shark Alliance, (SAS) are almost identical to the points
that David Shiffman and Robert Hueter make in their articles.
</p>
<p class="western">For example:
</p>
<p class="western"><b>Point one</b>: Law abiding American shark
fishermen need to continue to make the same amount of money from
their catch:</p>
<p class="western">SAS:</p>
<p class="western">"[The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade
Act] ensures that our domestic fishermen can continue to realize the
full value of their strictly regulated catch."</p>
<p class="western">S&H<b>:</b></p>
<p class="western">"The proposed fin ban would therefore
eliminate about 23% of the ex-vessel value of legally caught sharks,
causing economic harm to rule-following fishermen and undermining
decades of progress towards sustainable shark fisheries management in
the United States."</p>
<p class="western">(In other words, American shark fishermen should
profit from the shark fin trade, in spite of how depleted sharks have
become.)</p>
<p class="western"><b>Point two</b>: American fisheries losing out to
unregulated or illegal fisheries from other nations:</p>
<p class="western">SAS:</p>
<p class="western">“...the net fins exported from sustainable
American fisheries represented by SAS will be replaced by those from
unmanaged and unsustainable fisheries,”
</p>
<p class="western">“Barring possession, domestic sales, exports,
and imports of shark fins has no extraterritorial impact other than
ceding the global fin market to nations with cruel and unsustainable
fishing practices.”</p>
<p class="western">“Sustainably-sourced fins from our well-managed
fishery will be replaced by those from bad actors. Only American
fishermen, abiding by the world’s strictest shark conservation
laws, and sharks in unmanaged waters will suffer.”</p>
<p class="western">S&H:</p>
<p class="western">“...the elimination of United States-supplied
fins in world markets would open the door to increased market share
for IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing) nations not
practicing sustainable shark fishing.”</p>
<p class="western"><i>(But the fin trade is so huge and sustainable
shark fisheries are so few, if they still exist at all, that it would
be impossible to supply the fin trade from sustainable fisheries.)</i></p>
<p class="western"><b>Point three:</b> more sharks will be killed if
the shark fin trade is banned:</p>
<p class="western">SAS:</p>
<p class="western">“In fact, limiting fin sales will make it more
difficult for other nations to effectively manage their shark, skate,
and ray fisheries because more of these fish will have to be caught
to obtain the same level of income.”</p>
<p class="western">S&H</p>
<p class="western">“...the probability that a reduced value per
shark may also cause fishermen to simply catch more sharks to obtain
the same income as prior to a ban.”</p><i>
</i><p class="western"><i>(But American shark fishermen are supposed to be
“rule following”.)</i></p>
<p class="western"><b>Point four</b>: focusing on shark fins ignores
the demand for meat.</p>
<p class="western">SAS<b>:</b></p>
<p class="western">“Notably, however, it is demand for shark meat,
which has sharply increased over the past couple of decades, and not
the declining demand for fins, that is prompting the need for
stepped-up conservation efforts in other parts of the world.”</p>
<p class="western">S&H</p>
<p class="western">“... a United States shark fin ban would likely
not significantly and directly reduce shark mortality and would
ignore the growing global trade in shark meat.”</p>
<p class="western"><i>(But it is the shark fin industry that has loaded
toxic shark meat onto local markets as a result of fins attached
regulations, where vendors have tried to sell it under other names.)</i></p>
<p class="western"><br />
</p>
<p class="western">Shiffman and Hueter, through publishing their
recent papers arguing in favour of the shark fin trade, have managed
to give these ideas, and others along the same lines, the ring of
scientific credibility, though they are not scientific—they are
nothing but industry propaganda. But, once they are published in a
scientific journal—even if it is a fisheries journal—they gain
the same status as the results of pure scientific research, and
become part of scientific truth.
</p>
<p class="western">Thus industry propaganda is laundered the way
criminals launder money.
</p>
<p class="western">In my response to Shiffman & Hueter 2017, I
systematically debunked each of their points using top scientific
articles published on the status of sharks. This was not hard,
because they all agreed; not one scientific paper supported their false,
rhetorical claims. The figures they used were incorrect,
and grossly misrepresented the facts to claim that the USA is scarcely involved in the shark fin trade, when, in fact, it is heavily involved.<br /></p>
<p class="western">The claim that it is the demand for meat that is
threatening sharks is simply a lie. It twists the fact that the shark
is killed for the value of its fins. But then what do you do with the
shark? The meat has been proven to have high levels of mercury and
other toxins so is likely dangerous to human health. No worries. The
shark fishing industry loads the meat onto local markets, relying on
the use of other names to sell it. This has been found to be true in
countries around the world.</p>
<p class="western">Another angle Shiffman uses to muddy the waters is
to claim that there is a lot of disagreement among conservationists
about what to do about shark depletion.
</p>
<p class="western">But that is not true. The disagreement is between
the shark fishing industry, which wants to go on profiting from the
shark fin trade, and conservationists (Shiffman is not a
conservationist) who are raising the alarm because the expanding
demand for shark fin soup, driven by high prices and profits,
contrasted against the continuous depletion of the animals supplying
the trade, is driving sharks to extinction.</p>
<p class="western">Another way shark fishing propaganda is trying to
confuse the facts is by saying that we need to be concerned about
treating each species properly, so need more data. However, the shark
fin trade is not at all concerned about what species the shark is, as
long as it has fins. Every shark which is accessible to commercial
fishing fleets is therefore in danger. This is reflected by the way
one shark species after another is being listed on the IUCN redlist
of threatened species. Some have been more resilient than others, but
around the world, studies of shark catches reflect the same
situation. Catches consist of mostly immature sharks—caught before
reproducing, they will not be sustained.
</p>
<p class="western">More data on the status of many shark species is
difficult and in many cases almost impossible to get. And while much
money and time is spent trying to get more information, shark
fishermen go on killing.</p>
<p class="western"><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">Sharks
have become the only profitable prey, along with tuna, because the
shark fin trade has made their fins valuable. </span></span><span style="font-family: FreeSerif, serif;"><span lang="en-US">It
is daunting to see the effect on sharks around the world, just
because of one recipe for one bowl of soup in just one of the world’s
cultures. That national fishing fleets from around the world,
including the western powers, are willing to profit
from this trade is a telling comment on the ethics of shark
fisheries.<br /></span></span></p>
<p class="western">Indeed, means must be found to end the domination
of industry.
</p>
<p class="western">Please share this article to spread the
word about the misinformation being broadcast by the shark fishing industry.</p>
<p class="western">(c) Ila France Porcher</p><p class="western">To subscribe to my newsletter, click <a href="https://ilafranceporcher.wixsite.com/author" target="_blank">HERE</a><br />
<br />
</p>
<p><style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; page-break-before: auto; }p.western { font-family: "FreeSerif", serif; }p.cjk { font-size: 10pt; }a:link { }</style></p>Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-64093939724373387692019-12-31T08:20:00.000-08:002019-12-31T08:21:41.700-08:00The Year of the Shark 2019 is Ending<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZCj6NAH4J-7GS9TZ8ach9V80XMR2BMwT6DW3W5sOOuAx7FhNv7lGNtaigv5bVpx8SxK4mbVfQbJ7Cn3b96yijAKscGcYLnmxFp7M2XsQi32ekwxlVp_MHWj5gOAYRAR9SOI2f_NClkLs/s1600/shark.year.ends.image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="1200" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ZCj6NAH4J-7GS9TZ8ach9V80XMR2BMwT6DW3W5sOOuAx7FhNv7lGNtaigv5bVpx8SxK4mbVfQbJ7Cn3b96yijAKscGcYLnmxFp7M2XsQi32ekwxlVp_MHWj5gOAYRAR9SOI2f_NClkLs/s640/shark.year.ends.image.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b><span id="goog_39846284"></span><span id="goog_39846285"></span>As The Year of the Shark 2019 draws to a close, we look out across
the planetary oceans to learn the plight of sharks, after a year of
spreading the word about their desperately needed protection. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What we see is that sharks are being targeted by international
factory fleets around the world who trail millions upon millions of
baited hooks through their realm, trawl the sea floors for rays, skates
and other bottom dwellers to 4000 metres, and slaughter them by the
millions. Sharks are the only profitable prey remaining, now that ninety
percent of the original (fish) fisheries are fished out.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thanks to the shark fin trade, the shark has become one of the most
valued animals, with the result that these top predators are being
targeted even by fleets that used to toss them out as trash. Their meat
is thrust onto the markets and sold by different names; there is such a
surplus that it is being used in everything from dog food to make-up. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Further, the meat of sharks is toxic. As top predators, they
accumulate high levels of mercury, lead, and other poisons during their
lives and they should not be taken for food. Even hunters would not
recommend that we turn to eating wolves and cats instead of chickens and
cows.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An ecological catastrophe has resulted from the shark fin market.
Sharks are the worst off of all vertebrate animals while having high
ecological importance as top and middle predators. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And in spite of all of our efforts, and those of shark
conservationists around the world, shark killing continues to escalate
and there is less hope for them now than ever.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If history has taught us anything, it is that no animals can
withstand targeted, mechanized, industrial hunting—not whales, not
turtles, not fish and not sharks.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Fisheries industry spins tales about this robbery of Nature being
‘sustainable,’ even while one shark species after another reaches the
point of critical endangerment.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet Fisheries management, apparently afflicted by some territorial
idea that sharks belong to them, continue to claim that they retain the
right to fish sharks, even though they have already caused the loss of
an estimated ninety percent of sharks globally. Their talk is bombastic
and rhetorical; they sound as if they are addressing their buddies over
beers in a bar, and they never mention what happened to all of the fish.
Or explain why we, the people, should now let them kill all of the
sharks. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
These are the same people, who, just years ago, were killing sharks
and throwing them away, declaring that they were nothing but “trash.”
Now they want to profit from the shark fin trade and recreational shark
fishermen are on the same wagon. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But according to the biggest global studies of shark depletion,
Fisheries’ management has failed this entire line of animals. The shark
biomass of all species required to support the documented shark fin
trade was estimated to have exceeded the catch Fisheries reported to
FAO, (the only organization that keeps track of the figures globally) by
three to four times. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The suffering of fish was established nearly twenty years ago; they
may actually suffer more intensely than we do. Yet, Fisheries, as a
multi-billion dollar industry, has managed to take control of the
public’s perception of these animals, as well as the animals themselves.
As a result, in spite of the facts, fish have not been protected by the
anti-cruelty laws that have protected mammals, birds and reptiles. In
Florida, for example, you are guilty of a felony if you are caught
fighting dogs or birds, but it is legal and considered culturally
admirable to hook sharks through their mouths or guts and fight them to
death. The recreational shark fishery in the USA is the largest in the
world. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And the conclusions and recommendations of the fishing industry and
its spokesmen are always in favour of fishermen—not fish, and not
sharks. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, sharks are not owned by shark fisheries, but by the
ecological systems that evolved them. They are the children of the
eternity that has passed since our planet filled with life, and we have
an over-riding responsibility to protect sharks, marine animals, and
wildlife in general, and keep their ecosystems in good health—in
trust—so that future generations will enjoy the continuation of our
bountiful planetary biosphere.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The priorities now should be to remove increasingly large areas from
Fisheries access through the establishment of Marine Protected Areas,
and at the very least to have sharks protected from international trade,
which is the protection given to sea turtles. Since the protection
afforded by CITES listings is opposed by shark hunting nations, given
one species at a time, and fails to protect the animal from death, it is
not working. There is no reason why the decision could not be made to
protect all sharks. A ninety percent depletion of their numbers is
already too much. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The effort to weaken the shark fin trade is vital, through the
banning of commercialization of fins and encouraging consumers to change
the recipe of the fatal soup and stop buying shark fins.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The World Bank published a study entitled “<i>Sunken Billion</i>s” in 2009,
and an update in 2017. It found that unsustainable Fisheries management
practices have led to globally depleted fish stocks that produce $83
billion less in annual net benefits than would otherwise be the
case—ninety percent of fisheries are over-exploited. To address this
global crisis, the main requirement is that fishing effort is
diminished, while at the same time, fish stocks must be rebuilt, and
coastal ecosystems returned to a state of health. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This study specifies that little is known about the actual carrying
capacity of most fish stocks that are subject to commercial
exploitation, and in spite of what it claims, Fisheries’ data are often
highly uncertain.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sunken Billions predicts that social unrest will result from the
necessary reduction of fishing effort that must come, because some
fishermen will have to turn to other occupations.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So the current outcry from the shark fishing industry in the face of
shark conservation efforts has been predicted, and is understandable,
but indefensible. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The World Bank recommends that the fishing subsidies that have
facilitated over-fishing in the past be used to ease this social
transition.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Priority should be given to local fishers who depend on the sea for
their protein. Western consumers, who are already eating too much
protein, would just choose something else if fish were not on the menu.
These are wild animals, and with the human population already so
bloated, and growing fast, no wild animal should be expected to support
us.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The international trade in shark fins has wasted billions of animals
for a bowl of luxury soup prized in just one of the world’s cultures.
This fact is an illuminating example of just how wasteful and arrogant
human demands can be on planetary resources. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
(c) Ila France Porcher </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
December 31, 2019</div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-12924235747841697062019-12-14T01:32:00.001-08:002019-12-14T06:14:40.512-08:00The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> A Fisherman’s Farce</i></b></span></h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>If you think
that the shark fin trade is confined to Asia and a few dingy warehouses
along the coast that are “somewhere else,” the fact is that all of the
shark fisheries in the United States of America are part of the deadly
trade. With <i>The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act</i>,<i> </i>shark
fishermen are pushing hard to make sure that they will continue to be
able to profit from it and disseminating a large amount of propaganda
about it that does not reflect the true facts.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They claim that
they fish sharks sustainably, so should not have to give up their
lucrative profits. But the fact is that sustainable shark fishing is
nothing but a fishermen’s farce.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If history has taught us
anything, it is that no animals can stand up to sustained, targeted,
commercial killing—not whales, not turtles, not fish, and not sharks.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sharks
have become so valuable due to the rising demand for their fins that
intensive shark fishing spans all oceans and it is associated with much
illegal activity, including murder. No record is kept of most shark
kills, so the idea that the entire shark fin trade is going to be made
sustainable, under the guidance of the USA, is ridiculous. In fact just
the documented shark fin trade, which is a tiny fraction of the true
numbers, proves that shark Fisheries have underestimated the numbers of
sharks killed by at least 400%.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is the <b><i>Sustainable Shark Alliance</i></b>
(SSA), which represents shark fishermen, dealers, and processors, and
those who advocate their views (shark fisheries scientists, lawyers, and
lobbyists), who promote <b><i>H.R. 788, The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2019. </i></b>They
actually admit that without the profit from shark fins, shark fisheries
in the USA will be shut down. The only profitable part of the shark is
its fins. (However, all shark fishermen in countries where sharks were protected, had to give up the profit from the fins.)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They
reason that American shark fishermen fish sustainably, so they should
be able to sell their shark fins on the lucrative shark fin market. They
promote the idea that if only shark fins from sustainable fisheries are
used for shark fin soup, this will put an end to shark finning
worldwide, and those countries who continue to practice it will suffer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However
the numbers reveal that the large market for shark fins in the USA
could never be filled by fins from sustainable shark fisheries, for only
a few of them may temporarily exist.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The USA is the seventh
largest shark fishing nation in the world. It imports several hundred
tons of shark fins annually and this amount is rising yearly, in spite
of bans in such major centers as California and New York. Scientific
studies have shown that the alleged markets for shark meat have resulted
from the fins attached policies. The fins are taken and a vast surplus
of toxic shark meat is thrust on the market. As a result it is being
used in everything including make-up and dogfood.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sharks are so valuable that they are <b><i>always</i></b> killed for the money for their fins--such profits rival those of the drug trade.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fisheries advocates claim that:</div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>If
the shark fin trade is banned, more sharks will be killed, because
fishermen will have to catch more sharks to make the same amount of
money.</li>
<li>The fins should be used because of the general principle that the whole shark should be used.</li>
<li>Sharks are really being killed for meat, not for their fins.</li>
<li>If American fishermen don’t kill the sharks and supply the shark fin trade, “bad actors” will kill them.</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But
these arguments are not based on science, facts, or logic, and rely on
political bias and rhetoric. While it sounds like a good idea to import,
export, and sell products that only come from ‘sustainable’ fisheries, <b><i>The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2019</i></b> is completely unrealistic to put into practice.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fisheries
governance regimes are very expensive to set up and operate, and the
cost varies depending on the type of measures implemented, ranging from
scientific advice and management to monitoring, control, surveillance,
and enforcement. Every country in the world with a shark fishery would
need to be lobbied to pass sustainable shark fisheries management
legislation. When laws are in place and enough data has been collected
to determine what the sustainable catch rates might be for each species
caught in every shark fishery, development and funding of management
plans would need to be put in place, including staffing, training,
purchase of equipment, and so on. Then, enforcement plans would need to
be developed, implemented, and funded.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The problems of who would
set the standard, who would lobby other countries to accept the USA’s
evaluation of what is sustainable, who would monitor the program,
research, and pay for it, are all unaddressed. Whether the American
public would be willing to finance it through their tax dollars has not
been mentioned.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
These costs tend to fall on the public sector while the benefits are enjoyed by fishermen.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All
that is involved in the <i><b>Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade
Act</b></i>—putting American practices into play on a global scale—would need to
be maintained long-term, while somehow requiring every country to keep
politics, financial self-interest, and corruption, to say nothing of
criminality, out of the process.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is no international body
that can force sovereign countries to do anything on this scale. Some
countries, especially those with large fisheries, have consistently been
resistant to controls on fishing based on scientific data.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Europol
reported in 2018 that illegal fishing of tuna was twice that of legal
fishing in the Atlantic. If it is not possible to effectively manage a
species for which there is probably more data than any other, the idea
that the USA will create sustainably managed fisheries for all 500 shark
species (and all fish species) throughout the entire world is absurd.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Further,
World Trade Organization agreements require that no country can favour
the imports of one nation over another, nor ban imports of a product
while still locally producing and exporting the product. The <b><i>Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act</i></b>
would appear to be in direct violation of those agreements, and
Fisheries advocates have not stated how the USA will get around this.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A World Bank study,<b><i> Sunken Billions 2009,</i></b> and<i> </i><b><i>Sunken Billions Revisited</i></b><i>, <b>2017</b>, </i>has found that <b>unsustainable
Fisheries management practices have led to globally depleted fish
stocks that produce $83 billion less in annual net benefits than would
otherwise be the case</b>. Ninety percent of fisheries are
over-exploited. To address this global crisis, the main requirement is
that fishing effort is diminished, while at the same time, fish stocks
must be rebuilt, and coastal ecosystems returned to a state of health.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This
study specifies that little is known about the actual carrying capacity
of most fish stocks that are subject to commercial exploitation, and
that Fisheries’ data are often highly uncertain.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><i>Sunken Billions</i></b>
predicts that social unrest will result from the necessary reduction of
fishing effort that must come, because some fishermen will have to turn
to other occupations. So the current outcry from the shark fishing
industry has been predicted, and is understandable, but indefensible. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The
World Bank recommends that the fishing subsidies that have facilitated
over-fishing in the past, be used to ease this social transition.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
(c) Ila France Porcher, 2019</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
See also:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X18301179" target="_blank">Porcher, I.F., Darvell, B.W. and Cuny, G., 2019. Response to “A United States shark fin ban would undermine sustainable shark fisheries” D.S. Shiffman & R.E. Hueter, Marine Policy 85 (2017) 138-140. Marine Policy, 104, pp. 85-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.02.058</a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-66853189545684281432019-10-19T10:53:00.000-07:002019-10-19T10:55:06.121-07:00Shark Fishermen Lobbying Hard to Profit from the Shark Fin Trade<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlc612oUm5tKD2DoSY_T0U3JUrguQ6Zp8QVsPuOHjboOJJMXUt5soDN3d5xRfP7BYo8FNRTWylB-XYoV26CsK83EzDOlvWIimj8HMViewKBVo6k1lWwzVTaGZ_iBYki-tRgT8-YlDqiLd/s1600/lemon.smile.new.4s.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzlc612oUm5tKD2DoSY_T0U3JUrguQ6Zp8QVsPuOHjboOJJMXUt5soDN3d5xRfP7BYo8FNRTWylB-XYoV26CsK83EzDOlvWIimj8HMViewKBVo6k1lWwzVTaGZ_iBYki-tRgT8-YlDqiLd/s1600/lemon.smile.new.4s.JPG" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
With the loss of at
least 90% of sharks worldwide, it would seem to be urgent to protect
the ones that remain. Every global study of their status has reported
a more dire situation than the last, and that the targeted hunt for
the shark fin trade is responsible for their catastrophic depletion.
Only one third of shark species are considered safe, and the most
threatened are those accessible to fishing—those within about 1000
metres of the surface, or, for seafloor dwellers, 3000 metres in
depth.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Shark fins are among
the most expensive seafood products. The total declared value of the
world trade in shark products is close to US$1 billion per year and
it is associated with much illegal activity, including murder. To
supply it, intense shark fishing spans all oceans. Yet, as top
predators, sharks have incalculable ecological importance and their
removal has grave effects on the ecosystems where they live, as
failures cascade down through the inter-tangled networks.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Yet, shark fisheries
scientists, advocates, and coalitions such as the Sustainable Shark
Alliance (SSA), which represents shark fishermen, dealers, and
processors—those who profit from the shark fin trade—continue to
promote shark fishing, claiming that it is already sustainable, and
will be more so.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
But is this true, or
just political promotion by industrial interests?</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Sustainable Shark Fishing</h3>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
A close examination of
the best global scientific studies reveals that no shark fishery
serving the shark fin market is sustainable. The markets for shark
fins and shark meat have always been separate, and involve different
species. Those currently considered sustainable are only a few that
have targeted sharks for meat, in Australia and the USA. However,
they are now being propped up by the value of the sharks’ fins and
their long-term viability is questionable.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">For example, the
spiny dogfish fishery, on the Atlantic coast of the United States of
America, is currently considered one of the most notable sustainable
shark fisheries. The meat is sent to Europe and the fins to Asia.
This fishery markets s</span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">hark
meat as a replacement for cod, the once plentiful fish from that
region which is now gone. </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;">Since
there is little market for shark meat in the country, the meat is
sold </span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">under different
names, such as “rock salmon.” </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
But the stock of spiny
dogfish in the western Atlantic shows wide fluctuations. It collapsed
in the 1990s, and the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, Department of Commerce (NOAA), declared it to be
rebuilt in 2010. However, globally, the species is listed by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as being
vulnerable to overfishing, and it is critically endangered just
across the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the population off the eastern
coast of the USA is unlikely to be stable, either.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">D</span></i><span style="font-style: normal;">ogfishes,
like other species in the deep, cold waters of the northern
continental slopes, have relatively low productivity. They produce
fewer young per pregnancy and are longer lived than many other shark
species. The bio-accumulation of mercury in their body tissues is
greater, too, making this shark highly questionable as a choice to
offer on the market as food.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Global analyses have
shown that the level of threat to sharks through overfishing is
usually greater than what is predicted by fisheries assessments. Such
local assessments can underestimate the risk of collapse of global
stocks of any given species, and have often caused such a collapse. </div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Sharks are already
extinct at St. Paul’s Rocks, for example, where no carcharhinid
reef sharks have been seen in past decades though they were formerly
plentiful. Such local extinctions are the warning signs of fisheries
management failure and are the first steps on the road to global
extinctions. </div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Then there is the
problem of by-catch. The quantities of most shark species taken as
by-catch are not recorded, so some species can be at high risk of
depletion without this being </span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">recognized.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">A World Bank
study, <i>Sunken Billions</i>, 2009, and <i>Sunken Billions Revisited</i>, 2017, has
found that unsustainable fisheries management practices have led to
globally depleted fish stocks that produce $83 billion less in annual
net benefits than would otherwise be the case. Ninety percent of
fisheries are over-exploited. To address this global crisis, the
main requirement is that fishing effort is diminished, while at the
same time, fish stocks must be rebuilt, and coastal ecosystems
returned to a state of health. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">This study
specifies that little is known about the actual carrying capacity of
most fish stocks that are subject to commercial exploitation, and
that fisheries’ data are often highly uncertain.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">What becomes
evident in the current political situation in the USA, in which shark
fishing advocates are lobbying hard for the perpetuation of the shark
fin trade, is that American fisheries are focusing on sharks with the
intention of profiting from their fins, while the over-abundance of
shark meat is being used in everything possible from make-up to
dogfood.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">However, the
fisheries’ current plan to take the top predators, now that they
have depleted the fish, is ecological folly. Shark production is much
lower than fish production, and if these fishermen have their way,
sharks will soon go the way of the cod and the many other species
that they have fished out.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">Sunken
Billions predicts that social unrest will result from the necessary
reduction of fishing effort that must come, because some fishermen
will have to turn to other occupations. So the current outcry from
the shark fishing industry has been predicted, and is understandable.
The World Bank recommends that the fishing subsidies that have
facilitated over-fishing in the past, be used to ease this social
transition.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">Problems with sustainability</span></i></h3>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">While the
idea of sustainability sounds good, the facts as found by the best
science simply do not support the notion that sustainable shark
fishing is possible to put into practice long-term. The scientific
studies done to research the matter have revealed how few such
fisheries are.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">To begin
with, pirate fishing takes one fifth of the total fishing revenue.
Twenty-six million tons of catch are thought to be taken illegally
each year by pirate industrial-scale fishing, and there is no
effective authority to police international waters. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">The
documented shark fin trade shows that fisheries have underestimated
the numbers of sharks being killed by at least 400 percent, which
shows just how unreliable fisheries’ data are.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">Further, only
a small fraction of the shark fin trade is documented. Most fins are
imported from Asia where they have been sourced from many shark
hunting nations, most of which do not keep species-specific catch
statistics, so are impossible to trace.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
When only the fins of
the shark are valuable, when you apply the wise adage to use the
whole animal, the question becomes, not “What do you do with the
fins,” but “What do you do with the rest of the shark?”</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Texas recently passed a
law that required that all dead sharks shipped through the state have
their fins naturally attached, so that the fishermen lost the profit
from the sale of the fins. This income loss effectively closed down
the Western Gulf of Mexico shark fishery in 2019. This shows the
degree to which the shark fin market drives shark fisheries. </div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">Similarly, in
Costa Rica and other South and Central American countries, sharks
were considered undesirable and were not used for food prior to the
1980s. Then the inflated price of shark fins resulted in sharks from
a wide variety of habitats being targeted for their fins alone. The
‘fins attached’ policies obligated fishermen to land fins
attached to the bodies. So the shark fin industry’s surplus meat
was put on the market for domestic consumption, resulting in
merchants pushing the meat on local consumers and relying on the use
of various other names to sell it. Now Costa Ricans alone are
consuming about 2000 tons of shark meat a year and the situation is
similar in many other countries.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">This is a
problem with mandating a ‘fins attached’ policy: it does not
properly address overfishing. Worldwide, the tendency now is less
discarding of the body of the shark, but without a lessening of
mortality.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Toxic meat</h3>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
The problem with
loading shark meat into the local markets is that it is poisonous.
For example, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s
fishing rules specify a minimum size limit of 54 inches for about
half of the shark species caught. At the same time, the Florida
Advisory on Fish Consumption advises that no species of coastal shark
longer than 43 inches should ever be eaten by anyone. Thus fishermen
are specifically advised to catch large sharks, which are breeding
females, and are too toxic to eat. </div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
This makes it clear
that large species such as lemon and tiger sharks are being killed
only for the value of their fins. </div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Thus fisheries
interests lobbying for the perpetuation of the shark fin trade are
targeting an animal that is too toxic to eat, and is globally
threatened, for the benefit of relatively few industry employees.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">The inherent
uncertainties</span></i></h3>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">For a fishery
to be sustainable, shark fishing mortality must be equal to, or lower
than, the number of dead sharks that make up the ‘maximum
sustainable yield.’ But in the case of sharks, those reference
points are often not known or are very uncertain. The global studies
done on shark depletion have emphasized the problems inherent in
assessing the true situation, providing detailed descriptions of the
difficulties on every level. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">For example,
in 2015 the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like
Species in the North Pacific Ocean analysed shortfin mako stocks
using the most complete data available but it found that due to
missing information, untested indicators, and conflicts in the
available data, the assessment was impossible to make at all. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
This species was
assessed on the IUCN Red List in 2000 as being ‘Lower risk/Near
Threatened,’ and in 2009, it was reclassified as ‘Vulnerable.’
Then, in 2017, the shortfin mako fishery in the North Atlantic Ocean
was reported by a fisheries study to be potentially sustainable.
However, that same year, the stock assessment on the NOAA Fisheries
website showed that this shark was overfished and that overfishing
was occurring. IUCN subsequently re-classified the shortfin mako from
‘Vulnerable’ to ‘Endangered’ worldwide, with a decreasing
population trend. So in 2019 USA fisheries began working on a
management plan and urged fishermen to reduce catches voluntarily in
the meantime.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Thus, fishery
management in the USA, which claims to be the best in the world,
allowed this species to go from ‘Lower Risk’ to ‘Vulnerable’
to ‘Endangered’ in less than 20 years, with no conservation
action. Only now, in 2019, are they working on a plan. It is clear
that the ‘sustainable fishery’ management approach is not working
to maintain populations at healthy levels.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
CITES protection </h3>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Listings by the
</span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) </span></i><span style="font-style: normal;">are
currently the only protection available for sharks. But in practice,
such a listing only protects the animal from exportation, not from
being fished in the first place. Protecting an animal with high
m</span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">arket value is
extremely difficult and such listings are opposed by shark hunting
nations due to the high commercial value of the fins, so increasing
effort is required to obtain them. Protection must be gained one
species at a time, and only a few species are currently listed, while
the shark fin market demands fins from all species.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">Once
separated from the shark, it is difficult to determine from which
species any given fin has been taken, so enforcement is weak.
Further, the only protection granted by a CITES listing is the need
for a ‘Non-detrimental’ finding before the fins can be exported.
This often undermines the protection originally intended for the
species by the CITES listing.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Fisheries’ arguments </h3>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Whenever shark
fishermen are threatened with the loss of their shark fin profits,
they protest. Usually this involves claiming that if they don’t
continue to kill the sharks, the animals will soon be out on the
beaches eating people’s babies, and this is currently the case in
the USA. The strong movement to block the shark fin trade there, has
resulted in The Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2019, which is now
before Congress. </div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
But shark fisheries are
fighting back, arguing that the shark fin trade should continue for
the profit of American fishermen. It is fired by coalitions of shark
fishermen, dealers, and processors, such as Sustainable Shark
Alliance, and the shark fisheries scientists, lawyers, and lobbyists,
who advocate their wishes. They promote H.R. 788, The Sustainable
Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2019, and actually admit that
without the profit from shark fins, shark fisheries in the USA will
be shut down.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
They reason that
American shark fishermen fish sustainably, so they should be able to
sell their shark fins on the lucrative shark fin market. They promote
the idea that if only shark fins from sustainable fisheries are used
for shark fin soup, this will put an end to shark finning worldwide,
and those countries who continue to practice it will suffer. However
the numbers reveal that the market for shark fins in the USA could
never be filled by fins from sustainable shark fisheries, few as they
are. Further, to support a trade responsible for such shark losses
worldwide, is considered by many to be an ethical issue, on which the
USA should be careful to remain on the good side.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Fisheries spokesmen
claim that:</div>
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
If the shark fin
trade is banned, more sharks will be killed, because fishermen will
have to catch more sharks to make the same amount of money.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
The fins should
be used because of the general principle that the whole shark
should be used.
</div>
</li>
<li>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
Sharks are
really being killed for meat, not for their fins.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
If American
fishermen don’t kill the sharks and supply the shark fin trade,
“bad actors” will kill them.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">However, these
arguments are not based on science, facts, or logic, and rely on
political bias and rhetoric. While it sounds like a good idea to
import, export, and sell products that only come from ‘sustainable’
fisheries, the The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2019
is completely unrealistic to put into practice. The problems of who
would set the standard, who would lobby other countries to accept the
USA’s evaluation of what is sustainable, who would monitor the
program, research, and pay for it, are all unaddressed. </span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">Whether
the American public would be willing to finance it through their tax
dollars has not been mentioned.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Fisheries
governance regimes are very expensive to set up and operate, and the
cost varies depending on the type of measures implemented, ranging
from scientific advice and management to monitoring, control,
surveillance, and enforcement. Every </span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">country
in the world with a shark fishery would need to be lobbied to pass
sustainable shark fisheries management legislation. When laws are in
place and enough data has been collected to determine what the
sustainable catch rates might be for each species caught in every
shark fishery, development and funding of management plans would need
to be put in place, including staffing, training, purchase of
equipment, and so on. Then, enforcement plans would need to be
developed, implemented, and funded.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
These costs tend to
fall on the public sector while the benefits are enjoyed by
fishermen.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">All that is
involved in the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act—putting
American practices into play on a global scale—would need to be
maintained long-term, while somehow requiring every country to keep
politics, financial self-interest, and corruption, to say nothing of
criminality, out of the process. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">There is no
international body that can force sovereign countries to do anything
on this scale. Some countries, especially those with large fisheries,
have consistently been resistant to controls on fishing based on
scientific data. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">Europol
reported in 2018 that illegal fishing of tuna was twice that of legal
fishing in the Atlantic. If it is not possible to effectively manage
a species for which there is probably more data than any other, the
idea that the USA will create sustainably managed fisheries for all
500 shark species (and all fish species) throughout the entire world
is absurd. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Further, World Trade
Organization agreements require that no country can favour the
imports of one nation over another, nor ban imports of a product
while still locally producing and exporting the product. The
Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act would appear to be in
direct violation of those agreements, and fisheries advocates have
not stated how the USA will get around this.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">To complicate
matters, the USA itself obfuscates its records of its involvement
with the shark fin trade. It records trade in dried shark fins only,
under just one commodity code, while its exports of raw, frozen shark
fins are classified as meat. Thus its official records are very
misleading, so that fisheries’ advocates can easily make the case
that the country scarcely contributes to the shark fin trade.
However, other countries have reported exporting large amounts of
shark fins to the country. In 2007, for example, o</span><i><span style="font-style: normal;">ther
countries reported exporting 1,012 metric tons of shark fins to the
USA, thirty-five times the figure of 28.8 metric tons reported by
NOAA. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">At least
several hundred tons of shark fins are consumed annually in the USA,
and imports have been rising each year, in spite of the bans in such
major centres as California and New York. Ninety-three percent of
imports enter through the Los Angeles customs district, and in 2017
one-third of species traded in the Hong Kong shark fin market, (the
central Asian market for fins), were found to be threatened with
extinction. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<h3 class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Conclusions </h3>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
Sharks reproduce far
more slowly than fish. While fish lay thousands of eggs, sharks are
more like mammals. Female sharks take many years to reach
reproductive age, then give birth to just a small number of offspring
every one or two years. When fish stocks are commercially exploited,
the most valuable stocks and larger individuals are targeted first.
With this pattern applied over decades, global marine catches over
time have comprised an increasing proportion of juvenile sharks,
while the breeding adults are vanishing.</div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">Sharks have
high importance ecologically due to radial evolution into new vacant
niches in the aftermath of several planet-wide extinctions. As a
result, they are woven throughout the world’s aquatic ecosystems.
As large animals at the top of the food chain, their removal is
causing whole ecosystems to collapse. Further, due to the
continuously increasing human population, the pressure upon them is
likely to grow more intense as the years pass. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">A variety of
indicators show an accumulation of extinction risk throughout the
oceans as a result of many decades of overfishing. These are
complicated by the effects of climate change—the melting icecaps,
the changes in major oceanic current systems, ocean acidification,
coral death, warming waters, and rising sea levels. Along with
industrial and plastic pollution, these changes pose serious threats
to marine life, including sharks. The World Bank’s recommendation
that fishing effort be reduced to a point that allows the healthy
recovery of coastal ecosystems, including their top predators, should
be adopted until, with careful management and the allocation of many
more Marine Protected Areas, the oceans regain a state of ecological
stability. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">Priority
should be given to local fishers who depend on the sea for their
protein. Western consumers who are already eating too much protein,
would just choose something else if fish were not on the menu. These
are wild animals, and with the human population already so bloated,
and growing fast, it is self-evident that no wild animal should be
expected to support us.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">For these
reasons, no large-scale shark fishery is going to prove sustainable
in the long-term. If history has taught us anything, it is that no
species can stand up to sustained, targeted, commercial killing—not
whales, not turtles, not fish, and not sharks. </span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></i>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">At the very
least, sharks should be given the same protection now granted to sea
turtles—complete protection from international trade.</span></i></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Ila France
Porcher (c) 2019</i></span></i></div>
<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; }p.western { font-family: "FreeSerif", serif; }p.cjk { font-size: 10pt; }</style><style type="text/css">h2.western { font-family: "FreeSans", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; }h2.cjk { font-family: "WenQuanYi Micro Hei"; font-size: 16pt; }h2.ctl { font-family: "Lohit Devanagari"; font-size: 16pt; }p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; }p.western { font-family: "FreeSerif", serif; }p.cjk { font-size: 10pt; }</style>Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-79186488654308021522019-10-03T09:24:00.001-07:002019-10-03T09:52:37.711-07:00Letter to Editor of Marine Policy—publication refused!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy5p1sUiXUevQyxSkR2bYMof2xWwC5bN55a_H2Ovc3DsQ-EGMh0FqMAQYTI0YudL2eYBFjY2UaGD4A4TWeIO6lj5A_WzDTc4GQIvB_U0TdDuItXAe2Re1dP5rimDeZCFvCpO3d6rpPv8uC/s1600/ifp.tiger.prtrt.4s.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy5p1sUiXUevQyxSkR2bYMof2xWwC5bN55a_H2Ovc3DsQ-EGMh0FqMAQYTI0YudL2eYBFjY2UaGD4A4TWeIO6lj5A_WzDTc4GQIvB_U0TdDuItXAe2Re1dP5rimDeZCFvCpO3d6rpPv8uC/s1600/ifp.tiger.prtrt.4s.JPG" /></a></div>
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With co-authors Dr. Brian W. Darvell and Professor Gilles Cuny, I recently published a paper in Marine Policy: <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X18301179">Response to “A United States shark fin ban would undermine sustainable shark fisheries” D.S. Shiffman & R.E. Hueter, Marine Policy 85 (2017) 138–140</a><br />
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It showed that the authors had used incorrect figures in order to promote shark fishing in the USA in their paper and had also minimized the shark fin trade and the dangers of eliminating the oceans' top predators.<br />
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The same authors reacted by publishing another paper which essentially said the same thing, except that it claimed to be a rebuttal of our paper, and made several incorrect statements about it<i><span style="color: black;">—</span></i><style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: 115%; }p.western { }p.cjk { }p.ctl { }a.western:link { }a.ctl:link { }</style>their paper was essentially a thinly veiled personal attack. Similarly, we became aware that those authors, who appear to be incapable of making any kind of intellectual argument, have been personally attacking us openly elsewhere on the Internet. <br />
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So with my co-authors, I wrote a Letter to the Editor to make sure that the errors in it are noted, but Marine Policy refused to publish it. The text is below:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Titled with a strong claim, the paper “Rebuttal to “Response to ‘A United States shark fin ban would undermine sustainable shark fisheries’ I.F. Porcher et al., Marine Policy 104 (2019) 85–89”” does not begin to address, never mind rebut, the many points we made in debunking the authors’ original paper, Shiffman & Hueter 2017 [1]. <br /><br /> "It claims that we cited the Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2019 (SFTEA2019) instead of peer-reviewed scientific papers, thus implying that our work is unscientific. But it was Marine Policy, through its reviewers, that insisted that we add citations to SFTEA2019 where applicable. Our paper was fully referenced with top scientific studies before it was reviewed. <br /><br /> "Our statement on commercial shark fishing was also required by our reviewers. In pretending that it is a “central premise” of our paper”, Shiffman and Hueter misrepresent it. Debunking their points one by one was the whole purpose of our paper, which should be self-evident. We dealt with each systematically, with cited support from rigorous peer-reviewed papers. Marine Policy knows that our position on commercial shark fishing was added in revision because it was required, and was not part of our original work. Permitting such invented criticisms to be printed now seems perverse. <br /><br /> "That statement is also misquoted. Shiffman and Hueter say now: “The central premise of Porcher et al.’s argument is that no shark fishery “beyond that for immediate local consumption” [2] can be sustainable.” The omission of the critical qualifier “any commercial operation” changes the sense fundamentally. This is simply dishonest. <br /><br />"In the absence of any actual rebuttal of our points, and in the failure even to address them, one must conclude that they are sound in the eyes of Shiffman and Hueter. For example, a major point we made was that the current trend of turning to sharks for meat, which is what Shiffman and Hueter recommend, is a dangerous development due to sharks’ ecological importance. This is not addressed. <br /><br />"Only peripheral details are criticised. Sharks have been seriously depleted by the fin trade in most of the countries that have declared themselves shark sanctuaries. Shiffman and Hueter deny that and focus on the Bahamas to say that we are wrong. Yet the largest recreational shark fishery in the world lies just across the straits from the Bahamas in the USA, so it is not surprising that the Bahamas acted to protect its sharks. <br /><br />"Our argument was that the shark fin trade is global in nature, and responsible for a catastrophic decline in shark numbers worldwide. SFTEA2019 was put forth to address that decline. If the USA withdraws from the shark fin market it will not only significantly weaken the trade, but influence other countries considering similar legislation. Shiffman & Hueter 2017 may be politically desirable for shark fisheries but it is scientifically indefensible. <br /><br />"Our discussion of the impossibility of accurately assessing mortality and sustainability in sharks is dismissed by protesting that we have a distrust of fisheries science. The fact that the USA classifies imports and exports of raw frozen fins as meat, thus obfuscating the data, is ignored, as is the lack of agreement between FAO’s data and NOAA’s customs data, which indicates that many times the quantities of shark fins recorded in USA official records are imported into, and exported from, the country. <br /><br />"Shiffman and Hueter’s quibble over minor details in Dent and Clarke (2015) [2] seems to highlight their lack of concern for the actual status of sharks and the global impact of the shark fin trade. <br /><br />"This paper now, as did Shiffman and Hueter (2017), reflects very closely the ideas of the shark fishing coalitions now lobbying Congress not to adopt SFTEA2019, particularly the Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA). If there is such a link, it ought to be declared, whether or not subject to remuneration. Although we did not discuss the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2019 (SSFTA2019), the authors refer to it now as if it will easily solve the problem of shark depletion and make SFTEA2019 irrelevant, ignoring the fact that SSFTA2019 would be impossible to implement and actually illegal under international law. <br /><br />"SSFTA2019 would require the imposition of American fishing rules worldwide. How it would be financed and controlled, how a sustainable harvest could be established for each of the nearly 500 species of shark, how it would be maintained long-term, and how every country would be made to keep politics, financial self-interest, and corruption, to say nothing of criminality, out of the process, are not addressed. There is no international body that can force sovereign countries to do anything on this scale. Some countries, especially those with large fisheries, have consistently been resistant even to controls on fishing that are based on scientific data, let alone foreign diktat. <br /><br />"World Trade Organization agreements require that no country can favour the imports of one nation over another, nor ban imports of a product, while locally producing and exporting that product. SSFTA2019 appears to be in violation of those agreements. <br /><br />"A recent global study by the World Bank, Sunken Billions Revisited (2017) [3], found that fishing effort should be reduced to get the best economic result in the evolving global fisheries crisis – 90% of fisheries are overfished. The necessary fundamental reforms must follow two parallel and simultaneous paths: (a) stock recovery (primarily by reduction of fishing effort), and (b) habitat restoration. Sunken Billions Revisited specifically predicts social unrest in fisheries because jobs will be lost. It recommends that fishing subsidies, which have encouraged overfishing, be used to help ease the social transition. <br /><br />"The authors’ failure to argue a scientific case, and their lack of concession to the facts that undermine their original pro-shark-fishing paper, constitutes an unscientific belittling of much work beyond our paper."</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <br />References: <br /><br />[1] D.S. Shiffman, R.E. Hueter, A United States shark fin ban would undermine sustainable shark fisheries, Mar. Pol. (2017) 85: 138–140. <br /><br />[2] F. Dent, S.C. Clarke, State of the Global Market for Shark Products, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Fisheries and Aquaculture (Technical Paper 590) (2015) <br /><br />[3] World Bank, 2017. "<a href="https://ideas.repec.org/b/wbk/wbpubs/24056.html">The Sunken Billions Revisited</a>" <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/s/wbk/wbpubs.html">World Bank Publications</a>, The World Bank, number 24056. </span><b><br /></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br />Ila France Porcher <br />Dr. Brian W. Darvell <br />Prof. Gilles Cuny </i></span></span></div>
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In spite of this, however, it is becoming evident that with these latest, completely unscientific efforts to block the Shark Fin Elimination Act of 2019, these authors have essentially committed career suicide. Support for their ideas has collapsed, which may explain this desperate attempt to save face. <br />
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This is not the first time that Shiffman has written to support shark fishing, commercial and otherwise. That is about all he does, while posing as a shark conservationist. Each time he writes promoting shark fishing, I criticize it. Here are two earlier examples:<br />
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<a href="https://sharkwords.blogspot.com/2014/10/forget-pseudoscience-all-fish-feel-pain.html" target="_blank">Forget the Pseudoscience: All Fish Feel Pain </a><br />
<a href="https://sharkwords.blogspot.com/2016/02/more-fisheries-pseudoscience.htm" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="https://sharkwords.blogspot.com/2016/02/more-fisheries-pseudoscience.htm" target="_blank">More Fisheries Pseudoscience</a><br />
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<br />Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-74613867450120077432019-03-29T10:07:00.000-07:002019-10-03T08:33:55.617-07:00Debunking American Shark Fisheries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwQJyq_tJxoCYw-elfLZApNbxnW_fOJCxJGbLSvRbnk2eAULslBoy-51jhyN5I7aKRFIDtkZy21pe02GkbC05lapkD0559mQKauRoYRG4pMe0GDvU9IsGwX8aORSXDMRWFumVuw9hxxbAN/s1600/thumbnail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="1364" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwQJyq_tJxoCYw-elfLZApNbxnW_fOJCxJGbLSvRbnk2eAULslBoy-51jhyN5I7aKRFIDtkZy21pe02GkbC05lapkD0559mQKauRoYRG4pMe0GDvU9IsGwX8aORSXDMRWFumVuw9hxxbAN/s640/thumbnail.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="text-align: justify;">Human stupidity is reaching new heights in the arguments put forth by American shark fisheries advocates in an effort to block </span><span style="text-align: justify;"><i>The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of 2019.</i> There are always scientists who are willing to speak up for industry and they, along with a variety of fisheries coalitions are </span><span style="text-align: justify;">doing their best to keep it from becoming law. But their arguments amount to protesting that the ivory trade is good for elephants in the United States, or the trade in rhino horn is good for rhinos, in the United States. </span></b></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6FDiUpmIbhw/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6FDiUpmIbhw?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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This video debunks the main points raised by fisheries advocates.</div>
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When shark fins bring in a fortune comparable to the drug trade, it is natural that these fishermen are going to fight and make up all sorts of stories to continue to get that money--it means so much to them. But <i>The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act</i> has determined that the amount of money that fishermen are losing is not enough to continue to perpetuate the monstrous shark fin trade worldwide. </div>
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In every country that became a sanctuary for sharks, or in which the shark fin trade was banned, fishermen had to give up the money they were getting for the fins. However, they did not try to turn their complaints into a scientific paper, or pretend that they were not implicated in a global catastrophe. It is too easy to make money by killing things that are rare, and those who are willing to do it should be denounced.</div>
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It is easy to say that a fishery is sustainable with no evidence, but if it is, why are more than ninety percent of sharks already lost? Why are some of these so-called "sustainable" fisheries throwing away endangered species as by-catch? Don't believe fishermen's stories. They are used to making up big ones. Compare the size of fish caught in the 1950s with those caught now:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mIorbqBVcDvhqAtiFfI1d365zcCHBaT7k6jtwIAk9SdeZ3SzdT1ktJ-XdlSiJev3_snPP0FXwN56bqB0eX373MJ3Ga6IkF79n0HDo-OLXSXDsLALypePO1346wFEiIrJH1KJR4vVgr26/s1600/fishing.1950s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1187" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mIorbqBVcDvhqAtiFfI1d365zcCHBaT7k6jtwIAk9SdeZ3SzdT1ktJ-XdlSiJev3_snPP0FXwN56bqB0eX373MJ3Ga6IkF79n0HDo-OLXSXDsLALypePO1346wFEiIrJH1KJR4vVgr26/s640/fishing.1950s.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fishermen posing with their catch in a tournament in the 1950s</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_K0knD4lklnXjYSRE4cRx4vYuyKCdXKJCGssb6M5gKosaYUHd-F7mS-cPl5ggNajaQQV0Bjskx4t8ndTBJJ6JI-r4ZRFDIowNjhBDYG-DR9dQqnVANEj3qB4GJ2YkiLIsgdknPSV7Z3wg/s1600/fishing.now..JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_K0knD4lklnXjYSRE4cRx4vYuyKCdXKJCGssb6M5gKosaYUHd-F7mS-cPl5ggNajaQQV0Bjskx4t8ndTBJJ6JI-r4ZRFDIowNjhBDYG-DR9dQqnVANEj3qB4GJ2YkiLIsgdknPSV7Z3wg/s640/fishing.now..JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fish caught in a recent tournament.</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">These photos of the fish caught in tournaments in the 1950's, above, and in a recent tournament, below, gives an idea of what is happening with American fisheries.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Now, with fish stocks in serious trouble, fishermen are turning to sharks to replace such fish as the cod, now that they are gone. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">But look at it logically. How can you replace food fish with top predators? That is like replacing cows with wolves, or sheep with cats. It is simply a crazy idea, and if it isn't stopped, will lead to the crashing of the ecological balance of the ocean. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">No animals can withstand targeted, industrial hunting. Period.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">So please support <i>The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of 2019. </i>It is badly needed to help stall the global catastrophe that has been caused by the shark fin trade.</span></div>
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(c) Ila France Porcher</div>
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Author of<i> The True Nature of Sharks</i> and <i>The Shark Sessions</i></div>
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Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-76317476500557861832019-02-27T12:00:00.000-08:002019-04-30T07:05:12.724-07:00The Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act Defended!<style type="text/css">
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act of 2017 was attacked by shark fisheries' advocates in a political opinion paper entitled, <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">“A United States shark fin ban would undermine sustainable shark fisheries.”</i> <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1YhT7,714MZ1Nx" target="_blank">A new study,</a> by shark ethologist Ila France Porcher, Dr. Brian W. Darvell of the University of Birmingham, and Professor Gilles Cuny, of the University of Lyon, demonstrates that the figures used in support of this claim were selectively chosen and misrepresented to support a pro-shark-fishing argument.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The authors of the original paper, David Shiffman, of Simon Fraser University, and Robert Hueter, of Mote Laboratories, claimed that the United States is a small contributor to the shark fin trade. They stated that the Act was “misguided”, and argued that the United States of America should continue to participate in the shark fin trade, and that American shark fishermen should continue to profit from it, promoting the idea that banning the shark fin trade in America would be “bad for sharks.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">In stark contrast, the new analysis demonstrates that the USA is a major player in the shark fin trade, importing several hundred tonnes of shark fins per year, and that imports continue to rise, in spite of the bans in such major centres as California and New York. The USA is the seventh largest shark-fishing nation in the world and obfuscates its trade by recording much of its imports and exports simply as “meat” instead of as shark fins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The paper in question sought to cast doubt on the idea that the shark fin trade is responsible for the catastrophic loss of sharks that has occurred in all oceans. However, just the documented shark fin trade shows that actually four times the number of sharks have died than have been reported by fisheries. Therefore, since only part of the fin trade is actually documented, the true numbers of sharks that are dying are not known, and evidently far higher than fisheries records.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Only one third of shark species are considered safe, and the most threatened are those accessible to fisheries—those within approximately 3500 feet of the ocean’s surface. Fisheries' management has failed this line of animals.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f3f3f; font-weight: 400; padding: 0px 0px 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">In spite of efforts to manage its own fisheries responsibly, the United States is thus implicated in a planet-wide disaster, which is why <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Shark Fin Trade Elimination Act</i> was put forward.</span></div>
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</div>
</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #002750; line-height: 1.2; margin: 20px 0px 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">A global catastrophe</span></h3>
<h2>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f3f3f; font-weight: 400; padding: 0px 0px 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The pro-shark fishing paper argued that sharks being targeted for meat represents a new and different threat. However, the new study shows how the high value of shark fins has in fact been driving and inflating the market for shark meat simply in order to profit from the fins; the paper in question is, itself, an illustration of this phenomenon. More than eighty percent of fisheries are in trouble because of over-fishing, and turning to sharks for meat is a serious ecological danger sign. Globally, the tendency towards less discarding of the shark’s body has not lessened mortality, which was the optimistic intent of fins-attached regulations.</span></div>
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</div>
</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #002750; line-height: 1.2; margin: 20px 0px 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">The problem with CITES listings</span></h3>
<h2>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f3f3f; font-weight: 400; padding: 0px 0px 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The paper in question dismisses shark depletion by stating that those in trouble are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). However, CITES listings are opposed by shark-hunting nations, and protection must be gained for one species at a time, while the shark fin market demands fins from all species. Since it is difficult to determine the species from which a fin has been taken once separated from the shark, enforcement is weak and once gained, the only protection granted by a CITES listing is the need for a “Non-detrimental” finding before the fins can be exported. The convention is for international trade only; it does not provide protection from being fished in the first place.</span></div>
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</div>
</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #002750; line-height: 1.2; margin: 20px 0px 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Shark fisheries cannot be sustainable</span></h3>
<h2>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f3f3f; font-weight: 400; padding: 0px 0px 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The paper in question claimed success for sustainable shark fisheries and implied that these are in place around the world. In contrast, the new analysis shows that no shark fishery supplying the shark fin trade is sustainable. It describes why the so-called sustainable shark fisheries in the United States are unlikely to be sustainable in the long term, either, even if it is claimed that they are, now.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f3f3f; font-weight: 400; padding: 0px 0px 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Shark numbers are down to around ten percent of 1950's levels. The removal of large predators from the top of the food chain can cause entire ecosystems to collapse, and with the human population expanding so quickly, the pressure on sharks can only continue to grow. No animals can withstand targeted, industrial fishing, and therefore, the authors of the new study find that no commercial shark fishery can prove sustainable long term. They recommend an international ban on commerce in sharks and their parts, which is the protection granted to sea turtles.</span></div>
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</div>
</h2>
<h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #002750; line-height: 1.2; margin: 20px 0px 10px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Importance of The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act</span></h3>
<h2>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f3f3f; font-weight: 400; padding: 0px 0px 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The way that one recipe for soup, in just one of the world’s cultures, has had such a serious effect on the status of wild predators as important as sharks, says a lot about humanity's priorities. The goal, now, should be that there is no market for shark fins whatsoever.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f3f3f; font-weight: 400; padding: 0px 0px 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">The new study removes any doubt about the importance and relevance of the current version of the Act, <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act of 2019 (HR 737).</i> It has a sound evidence base to support its provisions being made law.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3f3f3f; font-weight: 400; padding: 0px 0px 15px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">(c) Ila France Porcher, Dr. Brian W. Darvell, Professor Giles Cuny</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
</h2>
</div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-70241957248249836932019-01-20T03:59:00.000-08:002019-01-20T04:39:01.166-08:00Thoughtful Sharks<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNBo1KYyQVMAOdzpjPOVRTxIFZSacEgSeW7buUQX4j6EEN6of6sRwOl32mtAuDgQl-UlQiJPwjzkMCvzx0ci8Eggz_uGhhvGxnstpahdhKk0ymfOBL_9B6_zjyAONI8bjpfoLZ07M8xAmu/s1600/emma.and.remora.s800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNBo1KYyQVMAOdzpjPOVRTxIFZSacEgSeW7buUQX4j6EEN6of6sRwOl32mtAuDgQl-UlQiJPwjzkMCvzx0ci8Eggz_uGhhvGxnstpahdhKk0ymfOBL_9B6_zjyAONI8bjpfoLZ07M8xAmu/s1600/emma.and.remora.s800.jpg" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: black;"><b></b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: black;">Long
term study of </span><span style="color: black;">the behaviour of
individual</span><span style="color: black;"> sharks has shown that they
are not just acting on instinct. Not only are they thinking and
highly intelligent—they are conscious too. </span><span style="color: black;">So
</span><span style="color: black;">as the</span><span style="color: black;"> Year
of the Shark </span><span style="color: black;">in 2019 </span><span style="color: black;">begins</span><span style="color: black;">,
here is a review of how their actions reveal </span><span style="color: black;">some
of </span><span style="color: black;">th</span><span style="color: black;">eir
mental states.</span></b></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Over
a period of fifteen years, I searched out and observed the reef
sharks on different islands in the South Pacific and for seven years
studied the population of blackfins intensively as individuals. By
recording their actions long-term, I was able to access a dimension
of their lives that had not previously been documented. My records
ultimately included 581 individuals and I could recognize 300
different sharks on sight. Shark science has studied these animals
through fishing them, dissecting them, and tagging, never through
long term underwater observation, even though this is the method,
termed “ethology” used to study wild animals on land. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
concluded that they were using cognition, rather than reacting
automatically to stimuli. Cognition, the process of knowing through
thinking, is the term used for thinking in non-human animals. An
animal shows that it is using cognition, rather than trial and error,
when it must have referred to a mental representation in order to act
as it did. Many life forms, including invertebrates, are increasingly
found to be using cognition in their daily lives, and cognition in
fish has been well studied.</span></span></div>
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</h2>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Vigilance</span></span></span></div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Wild
animals are always vigilant, always on the look-out for danger, and
sharks are no different. Whenever anything was different about my
visit, whether it was in a different place or at a different time,
their behaviour became more cautious. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">All
of the species of sharks I observed use the v</span><span style="font-style: normal;">isual
limit</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> to conceal themselves.
Once out of sight, they </span><span style="font-style: normal;">continue
to </span><span style="font-style: normal;">pay attention from beyond
visual range, by listening and through their lateral line sense.
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">Occasionally they pass </span><span style="font-style: normal;">into
view </span><span style="font-style: normal;">to look</span><span style="font-style: normal;">.
If the shark is interested enough, its approaches bring it closer
each time. Some </span><span style="font-style: normal;">species</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
such as tigers, </span><span style="font-style: normal;">pass </span><span style="font-style: normal;">above
the </span><span style="font-style: normal;">object of </span><span style="font-style: normal;">their</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
interest—</span><span style="font-style: normal;">for example</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
a diver—</span><span style="font-style: normal;">while</span><span style="font-style: normal;">
others</span><span style="font-style: normal;"> tend to approach
horizontally. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
th</span><span style="font-style: normal;">e </span><span style="font-style: normal;">case
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">of blackfin reef sharks</span><span style="font-style: normal;">,
the approach becomes more direct w</span><span style="font-style: normal;">ith
each repetition </span><span style="font-style: normal;">and the shark
turns away at a more acute angle each time. </span><span style="font-style: normal;">Its
closest approach may bring it up to the diver’s mask </span><span style="font-style: normal;">before
it turns away. This close approach is occasionally done very fast in
order to intimidate, for example when the shark </span><span style="font-style: normal;">is
trying </span><span style="font-style: normal;">to force a spear
fisherman to give up his fish.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In
my studies, I found that the older females, which are the largest
individuals, were the most shy. Blackfins would often linger out of
visual range, making few passes into view and never coming close,
while excited bands of males coming into the shallows to mate after
sunset would zoom straight up to me on first meeting. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Other
species tended to approach by making repeated passes in a straight
line, coming closer to the diver each time, but rarely closer than
two metres. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">On
the few occasions that I brought another person with me, the sharks
sometimes vanished beyond visual range when the visitor appeared
underwater. Many minutes would pass before they came back and they
would arrive in long lines led by the boldest among them. In single
file they would glide straight up to the stranger, after which they
milled around and if I had brought food, they would not eat. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This
behaviour demonstrated their alertness to changes, and their ability
to make quick decisions based on unexpected findings. Memories of
events that can be called upon for decision-making are called
<i>declarative memories,</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> and </span><span style="font-style: normal;">are
considered to be evidence that the animal is conscious.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Fishermen
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">who complain that shark
feeding dives cause sharks to harass </span><span style="font-style: normal;">them
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">have failed to understand
this crucial point―sharks easily discern the difference between a
shark feeding event and a spear fisherman. It is the fishermen
themselves who attract sharks, by holding dying fish underwater and
trailing scent. </span></span></span>
</div>
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</h2>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Knowing
Others as Individuals</span></span></span></div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #444444;">In
my study, individual differences marked each shark<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">’</span>s
behaviour. Each one had a unique pattern of roaming, under the dual
influences of the lunar phase and the reproductive cycle. Some were
nearly always present in their home ranges, while others travelled
for months at a time. Individual sharks <span style="color: black;">demonstrated
different rates of learning, and they varied greatly in their
responses to different situations. They had complex social lives and
their behaviour showed a flexible intelligence.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
sharks recognized each other as individuals, which is the
prerequisite for the complex social lives in which cognition is most
evident. Blackfins travelled widely, and tended to go with preferred
companions. At times they joined with others residing in the regions
they passed through. There was always excitement when travellers and
residents met, and since they are not territorial, there was no
aggression. They would follow each other and swim side by side for
long periods, often in a state of excitement, before the companions
moved on. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Companions
were individuals of the same gender, and usually the same age as
well. Some sharks usually travelled alone, some always with the same
companion, and others changed companions relatively frequently. Due
to the circular paths in which they move, they repeatedly crossed
each others<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">’</span> scent
trails, and thus remained in loose contact as they roamed, together,
yet not usually within visual range.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As
far as I was able to determine, such friends came from the same
region. The reef sharks were acquainted with the other individuals
whose home ranges overlapped theirs and their travelling companions
were usually neighbours at home. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Bonnethead
sharks, too, have been shown to recognize each other as individuals,
and at least some species of sharks and rays choose their mates,
providing further scientific evidence that individuals know each
other.</span></span></div>
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<h2>
</h2>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: black;">Memory
and </span>Learning</span></span></span></span></div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Learning
plays an important role in the lives of sharks, as has been well
documented. Learning is closely involved with memory, and the sharks
I knew showed an ability to remember events far back in time.
Familiar sharks recognized me in the lagoon as much as two years
after their last meeting with me, and their behaviour, of greeting
and travelling with me, was unchanged.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lik<span style="color: #444444;">e
people, different sharks had different rates of learning. For
example, among those who accompanied me most often, one of them never
learned to take a treat I threw for her, while only a few caught on
immediately without practice.</span></span></span></div>
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<h2>
</h2>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Hiding</span></span></span></div>
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Often
a shy shark who appeared briefly in visual range would suddenly pass
close behind me, but dart away if I turned and saw her—she had come
to look without being seen. Sharks had no trouble recognizing frontal
views, and they understood the direction in which a person was
looking. In other ways, too, they showed that they were aware of
whether or not they could be seen. When I was with another person,
for example, they would swiftly approach for a closer look when we
raised our heads above the surface to talk.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Once
I was swimming with my step-son, and he climbed on a dead coral
structure to look around above the surface. The shark who was
accompanying us swam over to sniff his legs, and with his head above
the surface, the boy never saw her. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sharks
also surprised me by swimming between my face and hands when I was
drawing their dorsal fins for identification purposes; this never
happened when I was paying attention to them. One unusual shark
passed me nearly every time I went to the lagoon, drifting by from
left to right, always and only when I was looking the other way. She
did this for eight months before relaxing her vigilance and moving
around me more freely.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Always
on the alert, the sharks used their awareness of whether or not a
person could see them to their advantage. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Therefore,
it is not surprising that it is said that you never see the shark who
bites you. As with other predators, it is best to face them, and pay
attention to them when you are with them. But, that said, shark bites
are very rare. Sharks were the only wild animal with which I was in
intimate contact for many years, and who never bit me, either through
accident or irritation. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
eventually concluded that sharks have an inborn inhibition against
biting companions, or others of their own species. This is well known
among species that have evolved dangerous weapons, though not in
humans, who invented theirs. No dog, for example, will bite another
who rolls on his back in submission, while human gunmen have no
trouble shooting people who are begging for mercy.</span></span></div>
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<h2>
</h2>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Attention,
Curiosity and Observation</span><span style="font-style: normal;"><b> </b></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
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</div>
<h2>
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</h2>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
sharks were very curious, and investigated anything new. If a coconut
floated across the surface, one would notice and rise to sniff it,
followed by the others. They would often follow me for long
distances, sometimes for hours, while remaining hidden beyond visual
range. From time to time I checked to see who was with me by suddenly
stopping, whereon they came into view. It was surprising that they
would remain concentrated on one thing for such a long time.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sometimes
unexpected events revealed patterns I might not otherwise have seen.
When one of the sharks became ill, each evening I tried a different
tactic to give him a piece of food in which I had inserted
antibiotics. The other sharks seemed to anticipate each of my
attempts, and their actions made it very difficult for me to medicate
him. One of the tactics they used after several nights of missing out
on the food, was to wait beyond visual range. When the time came to
medicate the sick shark, and I went to the kayak and threw his chunk
of food into the water, seven sharks, whom I thought had left an hour
earlier, soared in, and the fastest one snatched the treat in mid
water. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Since
they had been out of view, they had based their decision to act on a
signal they had heard. They had understood the sounds of me getting
the treat and throwing it, and their actions were effective, because
one of them did get the food! This example shows their ability to
predict something that might occur in the future, and to concentrate
on it. Cognition is indicated because they must have held a mental
representation of possible food coming, the signal that would trigger
its imminent arrival, and what they planned to do when it came.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It
often seemed that the sharks tried to be one step ahead of me. In
long-evolved predators who catch swift and evasive fish for a living,
the strategy of watching and waiting, and trying to predict from past
experience what the prey would do next, could well have been selected
for. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;">
<h2>
</h2>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Self-awareness</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
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<h2>
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</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Cognitive
ethologist Donald R. Griffin pointed out that when an animal hid
itself from view, it was demonstrating self awareness. He described
how Lance A. Olsen had reported that grizzly bears sought places from
which they could watch hunters while remaining hidden. Other
observers had reported too, that bears tried to avoid leaving tracks.
The researchers concluded that these bears were aware of being
present and observable, as well as creating effects―their
tracks―through their movements, which could be seen by others. The
sharks’ habitual way of remaining concealed behind the veiling
light until an opportunistic moment, or approaching from behind to
avoid being seen, is in the same category of behaviour, and indicates
that they are aware of being present and observable.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This
is the reason why the so called <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">‘</span>shark
counts<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">’ </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">that</span>
divers are asked to participate in, have no scientific validity.
Since sharks are either attracted to divers or avoid them, the
numbers of sharks seen by divers are not representative of the true
numbers on the reef. Where sharks are habituated to divers and come
to see them, such counts may give the impression that there are many
sharks, when actually, their numbers are few. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What
actually happens is that those hunting sharks for the shark fin trade
come and slaughter the sharks at the site as soon as the information
is published.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;">
<h2>
</h2>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Decision
Making</span></span></span></div>
<h2>
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</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Occasionally
reef sharks would flip on their backs to wriggle in the sand,
presumably to scratch or to free themselves of parasites. On other
occasions, a shark would turn to whip the side of its body against a
sand bank. The floor of the lagoon was made up of sand interspersed
with reef flats and coral, and the sharks invariably chose only sandy
places for such manoeuvres. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sometimes
a shark carefully positioned himself to use a smooth, flat surface of
dead coral on which to rub himself. Apparently, he had intentionally
surveyed the environment and chosen a suitable structure to use. He
must have held a mental image in mind of what he wanted, and referred
to it while looking for a formation of the right shape.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Though
this may not seem to be very impressive in terms of thinking in
sharks, the availability of surfaces to use in this way does not mean
that the animal will realize how they can be of benefit. For example,
mynah birds (<i>Acridotheres tristis)</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,</span>
and junglefowl (<i>Gallus gallus</i>), the wild ancestor of domestic
chickens, both spend much of their time foraging for insects on the
ground, and both have strong feet for walking. However, mynah birds
have not discovered that they can use their feet to help them uncover
these insects, while junglefowl do so instinctively.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
was lucky to witness a clear decision made by two sharks, between two
possible choices. One day near my study area, I saw the fins of many
sharks slicing the surface, and found a spawning event underwater.
Sharks were gliding among the clouds of dancing fish, occasionally
snapping one up. Two blackfins came over when they saw me, and
returned from time to time to circle me over a fifteen minute period.
When I left and travelled another kilometre into the lagoon in my
kayak, these two sharks followed from the spawning site. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">They
decided to follow me even though they had not seen me for several
months, and they made the choice that was based on a mental
reference—a thought or memory—that sometimes I brought food. Yet,
they were in a situation in which they could see, hear, and smell
food, moving in a stimulating way, and I had not fed them in that
location before. This decision to leave, based on a memory many
months old, indicated that they must have made such memories, and
referred to them, a clear act of cognition that indicates
consciousness.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;">
<h2>
</h2>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Communication<b>
</b></span></span></span>
</div>
<h2>
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</h2>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
could not see evidence of communication between sharks except through
body language. Yet occasionally, companions acted in concert, leaving
the other sharks, and swimming in formation to perform a specific act
together. How they communicated the decision to do this was not
clear, but likely body language played a role.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In
his book, <i>The Secret Life of Sharks</i>, Professor Peter Klimley
described how great white sharks ritualize their conflict when a seal
that one of them has killed comes under dispute. Each slaps the water
at an angle with its tail, and the shark who raises the most water
and blasts it farthest wins the prey. For this ritual to be
effective, each shark must view its opponent<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">’</span>s
gesture as a communication, and understand it, since the winner gets
the seal without a fight, which could badly hurt both sharks.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;">
<h2>
</h2>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Scheduling</span></span></span></div>
<h2>
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</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sharks
often passed the same place at the same time repeatedly. One young
visiting male passed by my observation post about five meters to the
right, between ten and fifteen minutes after sunset each night for
several weeks. Each time, he saw me and came for a closer look, then
turned and went on his way. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Another
rare visitor<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">’</span>s first
four visits, though months apart, occurred precisely at the moment
that the sun touched the horizon, four days before the dark of the
moon. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Intrigued,
when one of the residents who had habitually met me on my arrival in
the lagoon, began coming instead at the end of the feeding session
and missing out on the food, I kept careful track of the time of her
return. For reasons known only to her, she had suddenly begun to
spend her days in the ocean. Over a period of many months, she
returned about ten minutes before sunset, night after night.
Sometimes, she still met me when I arrived at the study site, yet
other times, I saw her return from the sea when it was nearly dark
and pass in the distance without coming to the feeding session.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Besides
illustrating a remarkable ability to follow a daily schedule, and yet
be flexible about it, her actions indicated that she had not become
dependant on my weekly feeding sessions, though she had known about
them since she had been a juvenile.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
sharks seemed to have no trouble catching a fish when they wished to,
and often came to the feeding sessions only to socialize. Resident
sharks routinely left for months at a time, and visitors did not
remain in the area because of the food. Though many came to my
feeding site at the proper time, their long-term schedules were
unaffected by the few scraps I provided weekly to facilitate my
observations.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;">
<h3>
</h3>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Social
Learning</span></span></span></div>
<h3>
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</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
resident sharks learned in time that the fish-scraps I brought to the
feeding sessions were in the back of my kayak. Though this species
has not been documented breaching the surface to eat or to look
around, these sharks found that the food could be accessed by leaping
from the water, and leaning towards the boat, while snapping at
whatever they could locate. The sound of their jaws snapping shut
made loud clapping sounds, and some of the kayak<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">’</span>s
straps were cut, punctured and sliced by their sharp little teeth. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This
behaviour pattern was a new foraging technique that was initiated by
one or two sharks and instantaneously copied by the others present;
it was subsequently used again. This happened twice, in different
locations, under different circumstances, with different groups of
sharks, and is an example of social learning, which is basic to the
development of culture.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Under
normal circumstances, the space above the surface is not something
that these sharks would have reason to consider. But they were
presented with an artificial situation in which I came from above the
surface and returned there, and so did the food in which they were
interested. They would doubtless have stored memories about the
surface from the occasions, particularly when they were small, when
they swam through it or up against it while chasing a fish, though it
is unlikely they could have formed more than a vague impression that
there was a space above, from such brief events. Yet, their behaviour
suggested that they were aware of a volume above the surface in which
things could exist, and from which I came and went.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A
question in cognition is whether an animal knows that something
continues to exist when he or she can no longer see it. An object
apparently ceases to exist for dogs, for example, when it goes out of
sight. So few people would agree that sharks could understand that I
was in the boat, even when I had just left their company and climbed
into it. Yet they were aware.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Could
they see me through the surface? It often appeared that they could,
and when they raised their heads from the water, they raised them
straight towards my face as if they could see it from beneath. Once
their faces were in the air, they could certainly see me there—great
white sharks are known to deliberately look around above the surface.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
electro-sense works at close range, and possibly continued to inform
them that my living body was just beyond the plastic hull when I
vanished. Further, they could hear the sounds of my movements in the
hollow craft with their lateral line sense and sense of hearing, a
way of perceiving the environment that appears to be dominant in
sharks. If the sight of me underwater was replaced by the sound of my
movements in the hollow plastic kayak as I got in, these perceptions
could well continue to inform them that I was still present, even
though their view of me was blocked, just as it was blocked whenever
they listened to me underwater, from beyond visual range.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Indeed,
the many ways that sharks took advantage of the opportunity to hide
behind the veiling light, and to approach when they were not visible,
such as when a person’s face was above the surface, strongly
suggests that they are comfortable with the idea that something
continues to exist, in spite of being out of sight.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;">
<h2>
</h2>
<div style="margin-top: 0.42cm; page-break-after: avoid;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Conclusion</span></span></span></div>
<h2>
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</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Sharks
have exquisitely coordinated senses, and their behaviour indicated
that they used this sensory input alertly to make moment-to-moment
decisions, and respond flexibly and appropriately to changing
circumstances. They remembered the events in their lives, and
referred to these memories in decision making. They were curious, but
cautious, and learned quickly. Their versatile behaviour, individual
differences, and different ways of handling various circumstances,
were not indicative of a set of stimulus / response reactions.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
have observed sharks underwater in the Bahamas, including bull and
tiger sharks, and found that their behaviour was remarkably similar
to the behaviour of the requiem sharks I had known in Polynesia. This
is to be expected since sharks have been evolving for four hundred
twenty million years, and many species travel widely and are found
around the globe. The essential qualities that sharks evolved to be
so successful would already have developed in the ancestral forms,
before they evolved into modern species occupying the ecological
niches we know today. </span></span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="en-US">Though
fish may seem primitive when looking down on them from the altitude
of </span><span lang="en-US"><i>Homo sapiens</i></span><span lang="en-US">,
in fact they are highly complex and evolved life forms. </span><span lang="en-US">N</span><span lang="en-US">o
brain is simple, as anyone who has observed the activities of a
spider will appreciate.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;">(c)
Ila France Porcher, originally written in 2006</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>To subscribe to my newsletter, click <a href="http://ilafranceporcher.wixsite.com/author" target="_blank">HERE</a></i> </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.25cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-38581267438158894412018-12-08T08:47:00.000-08:002019-01-20T03:40:26.963-08:00The French Revolution<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="_3bJ2H CHExY">
<div class="_1l8RX _1ByhS">
<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/1ptod9hPwZQ?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Norbu Gyachung</a></i></span> </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">The news lately has been full of
reports of the revolt in France, of the “Gilets Jaunes” or “Yellow
Vests.” Their demonstration was triggered by a new tax on gas which was
announced for the next year, but its true motive is the increasing
disparity between the rich and poor in the country. Today is the fourth
day of confrontations, and the movement is now nationwide.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">Having
been watching and waiting for years—decades—for a sign that the public
was going to revolt against the ongoing squeezing of the middle classes
between high taxes and low pay by western governments, it does not
surprise me that it is France, the country in which democracy began,
that has started it. After all, they were the people who once cut off
the heads of their monarchy when a similar situation developed following
the building of Versailles in the 1780s, and they still retain enough
democracy to demonstrate without being killed.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">While
the public in the western countries has been led to believe by the mass
media that the hard times we have increasingly faced is just a sign of
the times, it has actually been caused by the global corporations, which
have never enjoyed higher profits. The money is all there—it has just
been taken from the pockets of the middle classes and put in the pockets
of the rich. If you don’t believe me just do a bit of internet
searching about it.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">In
the summertime, while fires raged through the temperate forests of the
northern hemisphere, the French Minister of the Environment, Nicolas
Hulot, simply threw up his hands and quit, an unprecedented act, due to
the way he and efforts to work towards protecting the environment were
ignored by this government. He asked what he could possibly do in a
government in which all environmental matters were treated lightly and
he had no resources with which to work.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">The
same is true in other western countries, but in Canada, during the same
period, and while the country was burning, the Minister of the
Environment announced that its priority was hunting. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">The
new French revolution may well topple a government which has suppressed
the taxes of the rich while raising the taxes of the poor, and has
ignored the threat of climate change. It may or may not spread to other
countries. In America there are a lot of angry people, but they lack the
level of democracy enjoyed by the French—if they took to the streets to
demonstrate widely, there would likely be a lot of killing. In Canada
it would never happen because the people are too brainwashed by
television to see the true picture.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">But
the true picture is there to see, and it is more than high time to
start doing something, to stop working on the old world and begin
working on the new one. Because, far from being a “light” topic, our
environment happens to be all we have.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">Strange
as it may seem, in spite of extraordinary advances in cosmology, this
planet is the only one we know of on which complex life exists. There is
no other planet to escape to, as optimistic right wingers once imagined
would be the case when the time came that they had destroyed this one.
Yet, beneath the infinitely delicate protective layer of our atmosphere,
and led by a system that considers financial gain to be more important
than life, our species, which strangely fancies itself the most
intelligent of all creatures, (the only one(!) “made in the image of
God”), is destroying the biosphere that supports us and treating the
problem as unimportant. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">Repeatedly
during the past century, various thinkers have been writing about the
eventual problems of continuous development on a finite planet, and from
time to time asking whether science could not possibly turn some of its
brilliance to solving the problems that were developing due to the
runaway instincts of this rogue ape, including the population explosion,
to no avail.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">I
have been working for sharks all these years because I had put my
sunset rendezvous with the local reef sharks first in my life for seven
years, and spending time with them for fifteen years, so knew, through
repeatedly confirmed personal experience, what they were like as animals
and individuals. Since no other voice had taken that perspective, I
felt a need to speak out for them, especially after they were finned.
However, at some point one needs to go farther than one’s own little
specialty and it seems to me that the events in France are as good a cue
as any to begin supporting all efforts to demand that the governments
of the world begin to look after the planet first and foremost, and to
identify and stop supporting the true evils—I cannot find a better word
to use—that are destroying the networks of living things using methods
varying from direct killing to global warming. </span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">Climate
change, now undeniable, is causing cascading ecological changes both on
earth and in the oceans, leaving living organisms in environments in
which they cannot survive. For example, the sharks on a reef on which
the coral has died, the fish in a dead zone, the exhausted polar bear
swimming on and on and never finding any ice, the person living in a
burning forest.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 18px;">It
is time to say no to business as usual and begin to demand, in whatever
form that may take, that governments start looking after our planet or
step down from their positions of control, and that they stop rating the
value of money above that of life—our lives, and those of our fellow
living beings.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-18554017679649338702018-07-12T16:24:00.000-07:002018-07-12T19:02:26.557-07:00Shark Attacks and Crow Murders<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; }p.western { font-family: "URW Palladio L"; font-weight: normal; }p.cjk { font-size: 10pt; }a:link { }</style>
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<div align="justify" class="western">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l"; font-size: large;"><b><i> What do they have in common?</i></b></span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> When
you watch the behaviour of many different wild animal species over
long periods of time, you notice parallels which might not otherwise
be seen. Having observed both species in the wild for many years in
many different situations, I found a remarkable similarity between
the behaviour of a flock of crows and a fleet of three dozen sharks.
Though these animals are far apart on the evolutionary tree, it
appears that their behaviour was similar because it had a common
cause: both sharks and crows were angry. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The
crows had systematically bullied the five off-spring of the local
raven couple while they were maturing, and then the raven youngsters
left the area late in the summer. But one of them returned in early
winter, and when she did, the crows congregated around her in the
trees, and when she alighted on the ground, they descended, prevented
her from taking to the air, and pecked her to death with innumerable
pecks to the eyes, face, throat, wing joints, the inside of the
mouth, and the back of the head. Sprays of blood traced across the
snow, and the young raven's face was wet, as if the fluid surrounding
the brain was leaking out.</span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The
crows' action has many parallels with the behaviour expressed
intermittently by the reef sharks I studied in French Polynesia.
There was a period in which the responses of the three dozen blackfin
sharks who knew me, changed, over a period of three months. Instead
of taking the few scraps I brought for them and leaving as they had
done for years, they stayed around, and slowly began to bully me in
different ways. Finally, there was a session in which their behaviour
had become so menacing that I dared not move a muscle, and flew into
my kayak like a dolphin when they briefly circled away. When I
returned three days later, they attacked the boat. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The
heavy weight of the loaded kayak with me on it was bashed with
shocking force first one way, and then the other, as the sharks
slammed it from multiple directions. The surface disappeared―all I
could see was sharks emerging at high speed, twisting, bashing into
the boat, and flowing together as more replaced those shooting away.
Then they came out of the water to snap at the food in the kayak’s
well behind me, like the great whites you see in films. I could hear
the sound of their jaws snapping shut and one got a good bite of a
scrap that overhung the water just a little bit. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> This
behaviour was repeated several times under certain circumstances, and
I discussed it in detail in my recent book, <i>The True Nature of
Sharks.</i></span></div>
<ul>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The
attacks by sharks and crows have the following similarities: </span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">they
were extremely violent</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">they
were carried out by a large number of animals who knew each other as
well as their target individually</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">the
attacks happened suddenly, and both flock and fleet acted
simultaneously</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">they
were short in duration, lasting only a few minutes</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">they
were not predatory in nature</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">the
attacks were upon an individual of a different species</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">they
seemed to be the result of a long term situation</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">they
presented as a highly emotional reaction of a negative nature</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">the
outbreak of the behaviour in both sharks and crows is very rare </span>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Yet
these two species are very distant from each other on the
evolutionary tree, and while crows are generally considered highly
intelligent, on a level with humans in some respects, no one would
put sharks in that category. However, in these cases, it seems that
the key factor was not intelligence, but <i>emotion.</i></span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Are
sharks emotional? Yes, they are. Though humanists imagine that
emotions are unique to humans, ethologists recognize the emotions as
being the subjective experience of the <i>instincts.</i> Instincts
are hard-wired and ensure that the individual behaves as a member of
its own species. Then learning allows the individual to adapt to the
situation in which it finds itself.</span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The
sharks seemed to be experiencing what passes for rage in those
animals and it seems possible that the reason for the similarity
between the shark and crow attacks is that both were motivated by an
anger that was understood and shared by the animals involved. </span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> So
why were they angry? I speculate that in both cases the emotional
state of the animals resulted from a shared conviction that they had
been wronged.</span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> In
the case of the sharks, they seemed to think I had food that I was
withholding from them, and over months their convictions were
reinforced until their rage broke out in violent behaviour. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I
would always keep some fish heads in the back of the kayak to feed
the nurse sharks who came after sunset. Those huge creatures would
lie around on the floor of the site munching them as night gathered.
They especially loved to munch the eyes, which released a yummy odour
of fat into the scent flow, which continued to attract passing
blackfins. Since the most interesting visitors often came late, this
was a win-win situation for me and the nurse sharks.</span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The
blackfins were not interested in those fish heads because they could
not eat them. But they were aware of the scent of them dripping from
the drains in the bottom of the well at the back of my hollow plastic
kayak. Increasing numbers of sharks had been getting together and
going to sniff those drains prior to bullying me, so it appeared
that this is was the point they had misunderstood. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> In
the case of the crows, the point is more obscure. I had not been
feeding that huge flock and it did not usually come to that part of
the valley. But its members have been around for many years, and in
2014, they raided the ravens' nest and destroyed their eggs. It is
likely that the ravens have raided crows' nests, too, probably many
times. Three mated pairs from that flock of crows nested nearby last
year, and they had competed with the young ravens daily. Thus they
had known the bird they killed since she had fledged.</span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Crows
are known to recognize others as individuals and given the
intelligence with which crows are credited, it is likely that the
individuals concerned were aware that the young raven was out of her
own territory and took an opportunity to get her when she was alone.
Possibly the crows' rage was enhanced because I feed the ravens,
while they had to be content with leftovers, but conflicts between
ravens and crows are known to be the rule where the two species live.
Such murders, however, are rarely reported.</span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Ravens,
as well as canines (wolves more than dogs) have been shown to hold <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/ravens-memory-unfair-trade" target="_blank">a sense of justice</a>.
It is likely, given their intelligence and other capacities, that
crows do too. They are in the same family as ravens, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>corvids.</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">
Sharks can outdo dogs on mirror tests, so though it has not been
tested in a lab, there is no reason to assume that sharks could not
also have an innate sense of being wronged. Animals of many species
have been found to appreciate beauty, so why not the essence of
justice? </span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Though
this is only speculation, no other explanation has arisen for the
sharks' behaviour.</span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Two
years after the boat attacks reached their height, those sharks were
being caught and finned, and during that period, when I came to their
lagoon, they would undulate against the kayak as if in affection, and
follow me partway home when I left. They have feelings and their
feelings had changed.</span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> As
long as the source and nature of consciousness is unknown to science,
there is no basis for refusing it to any living thing.</span></div>
<div align="justify" class="western">
<br />
<br />
</div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-62672348116639232622018-06-29T10:04:00.000-07:002018-06-29T15:38:35.007-07:00Fish Sentience, Consciousness and AI<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; text-align: justify; page-break-before: auto; }p.western { font-family: "URW Palladio L"; font-weight: normal; }a.cjk:link { }a.ctl:link { }</style>
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<br /></div>
Lynne U. Sneddon and some of her colleagues have published a paper targeting the resistance raised by fisheries interests to the idea that fish and other marine animals can suffer, entitled, <i>Fish Sentience Denial : Muddying the Waters.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She is the researcher who first established that they can feel pain, and her findings have been confirmed in many ways and expanded upon by other scientists through rigorous scientific experimentation.<br />
Yet each time they publish new evidence of fish sentience, fishing spokesmen attack the results and try to discredit them, sometimes by actually misstating their results. These attacks do not provide contradictory evidence, but only contradictory opinions, most of them based on the anthropocentric idea that since fish lack a human brain, they cannot suffer. You can see and download this important article here:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol3/iss21/1/">https://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol3/iss21/1/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Here is my commentary: <br />
<br />
<br />
Sneddon et al.’s (2018) target article is important because it directly addresses the refusal of fishing interests to accept the evidence that fish — and other marine animals assumed to be “low” — feel pain and suffer. Given the descriptions of the systematic criticisms of each study published to scientifically establish fish sensitivity to pain, it appears that no matter what evidence is presented, it will be argued against, even to the extent of twisting experimental results, as Rose (2014) has repeatedly done when discussing Sneddon’s evidence.<br />
Kahan and his team (2013), researchers at Yale, found that beliefs are stronger than scientific findings in the human mind. Where a strong belief is held, the believer will use available evidence to support it, rather than changing his belief to accord with the evidence. This is just as true of scientists. Fishermen’s persistent anthropocentric arguments against fishes' suffering, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, appear to be examples of this phenomenon. The cherry picking of the evidence and rhetorical nature of their arguments are typical signs. Unfortunately, as Sneddon et al. have stated, by “muddying the waters,” these critics are delaying measures that should be taken for fish welfare.<br />
The idea that fish do not feel pain comes from the mass of information, called doxa, that is believed and perpetuated by the populace, but that is not underpinned by empirical evidence. For centuries, society has reflected the teaching that animals are here exclusively for its use and has treated them as objects without concern for their lives. So fishermen, who have been yanking fish around by their hooks since they were children, feel that they are right and that anyone who disagrees is wrong. If they cannot find fault with the evidence, they will target the experiment or the researcher, or resort to personal attacks and the use of denigrating terms such as “anti-fishing activist.”<br />
In the past, fishermen and the multi-billion-dollar fisheries industry, with all of their dogmas and jargon, have exercised full control not only of fish, but of how they are perceived in the minds of the public. So their efforts to debunk the evidence of sentience in their target animals have the feel of a territorial move against a perceived threat to their dominion. Therefore, this type of criticism is unlikely to stop. It has never been scientifically established that fish cannot feel pain, and there is no reason to assume that they do not. Indeed, the evolution of a host of oceanic stingers has depended precisely upon their sensitivity to pain, and cognitive evidence shows that their subjective experiences cannot be as rudimentary as Rose and his co-authors maintain (Bshary et al. 2002). They assume that subjective states, including pain, are dependent on the complex human brain. But not only has this not been proven, there is no empirical evidence that such is the case.<br />
As long as no branch of science understands the nature and source of consciousness, no basis exists for denying it to any life form. Consciousness researcher and mathematical physicist, Penrose (1989, 2004a, b), postulates that conscious awareness involves quantum mechanical phenomena and that all life forms might well be conscious in their way. Further, like many other things in reality, consciousness does not involve computations — it has the quality of being non-computational — so no computer will ever be conscious, no matter how big, fast, or complex it might be.<br />
Could an animal be using computations to deal with a non-computational reality? Natural selection would have eliminated each one the first time it made a mistake.<br />
The popularity of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has served to amplify the idea that animals are machines. Some arguments against fish sentience actually use the word “robot” to refer to them (Chella 2016). Fishermen will even say that though fish act like they feel pain, they don't really. But by definition, a machine cannot act “as if” it can think and feel — this argument requires that the alleged machine imitate consciousness on cue.<br />
Yet, while sentience is being denied to fish, some thinkers have been willing to accept the idea that a thermostat is conscious (Dennett 1971), and the conjecture that machines will soon outdo human thinking has been held to be true since the 1960s, although no evidence has been found to support it. This curious case of cognitive dissonance in science originates from a second major consciousness theory which holds that after a certain level of complexity is reached, consciousness emerges naturally, as in the human brain. This theory supports AI as well as the arguments against fish sentience that depend on brain comparisons, but it has been criticized for predicting consciousness where it could not arise. Scientific ignorance about consciousness underlies AI (Dehaene et al. 2017), just as it underlies the bias against fish and invertebrates.<br />
For every time it has been examined, evidence of sentience has been found in animals from insects to sharks to elephants. Even the paramecium, a single-celled animal, presents a set of preferences indicating learning and memory (Armus et al. 2006). Recent studies have demonstrated that plants show the ability to learn and remember (Gagliano 2014); and amoebas have demonstrated abilities that have been considered until now to depend on brain circuitry (Reid et al. 2012). Awareness in these life forms indicates that the capacity for consciousness does not depend on the human brain. Indeed, such findings suggest that it might have other roots.<br />
The evidence indicates that we live on a planet alive with conscious life forms, in spite of what we have been taught. I commend Sneddon et al. for speaking up against industry and fishing doxa in the effort to establish the truth and continue the work of building a moral society.<br />
<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>References</i><br />
<br />
<br />
Armus, H. L., Montgomery, A. R., Gurney, R. L. (2006) Discrimination learning and extinction in paramecia (P. caudatum). Psychological Reports Jun, 98(3), 705-11<br />
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<a href="https://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol3/iss21/4/">https://animalstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol3/iss21/4/</a></div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-67695568224282253252018-03-01T12:18:00.000-08:002018-03-01T12:56:04.564-08:00Science's Blind Spot<style type="text/css">h1 { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }h1.western { font-family: "Liberation Sans",sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; }h1.cjk { font-family: "Droid Sans Fallback"; font-size: 18pt; }h1.ctl { font-family: "FreeSans"; font-size: 18pt; }p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify; }p.western { font-family: "URW Palladio L"; font-weight: normal; }p.cjk { font-size: 10pt; }</style>
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<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>You
are freed from the spell of the primate drama when you understand
human behaviour in its correct context. But unfortunately, science
has a blind spot that for centuries has caused it to stand <span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">in
the way of the search for the true understanding of life.</span></span></b></span></span></span><br />
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">T<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">rue
science began with the work of Aristotle, in an effort to
systematically analyse our surroundings—the lines, the curves, the
way a stone would fall—for the understanding of our environment and
from there, the universe. Through observation, measurement, and
reflection, a detailed picture of reality and its mathematical
underpinnings emerged over the centuries, </span></span><i>independent
from the folklore of the times</i><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">.
</span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Thus
the edifice of science was built in tiny increments, as </span></span><i>facts
that could be mutually verified</i><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">accumulated
through </span></span><i>pure research done in the quest for
knowledge</i><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">.
</span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The
Mechanical Philosophy</b></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
the 1600s western society was making swift progress in the invention
of machines, and some intellectuals declared</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">that
the universe, too, is a big machine. These ideas were termed </span></span><i>The</i><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><i>Mechanical Philosophy</i><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">and
included the Christian belief that the human is divine, and that God
put the rest of nature here for us to use</span></span><i>.</i><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Humans
were designated as being supreme over other living things, which were
classified as being mechanical in nature.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">This
view has been assumed by biology ever since as it</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">evolved
with the goal of serving humanity.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Though
biology is defined as being '</span></span><i>the study of life,'</i><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">it
virtually gave up the study of living things and killed them instead.
With the exception of lab experiments, the trend was to </span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">poke
deeper and deeper into their cadavers, particularly following the
discovery of the microscope and other technologies enhancing the
human view. Society reflected the teaching that animals are here for
our use,</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"> </span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">and
treated them as objects without a second thought for their lives. </span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yet
the pet phenomenon was visible to all as the centuries passed, and
would be impossible if animals were mechanical. By definition, a
machine cannot act 'as if' it can think and feel. A common excuse for
treating animals cruelly is the statement, “</span></span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Just
</span></i><i>because they act like they feel pain, does not mean
that they really do,</i><span style="font-variant: normal;">” </span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">yet
this preposterous argument requires that the alleged machine imitate
consciousness on cue. </span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
assumption of the truth of</span></span></span> <i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Mechanical Philosophy</span></i><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">has
resulted in a total failure to understand nature or develop a science
of the living. The play of life across the planet, how it interacted
with the atmosphere, the seas, earth, rivers, and the falling of
rain, was simply ignored. Had the rest of science followed this
pattern, we would know nothing of the universe surrounding us. </span></span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>Science's
failure</b></span></span></span></span> </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">At
the </span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">heights
of science's glory, for example, why has it had such a destructive
effect on the planet upon which we all depend? Why has it failed to
make any discovery of the sort that would offer guidance to humanity
as civilization expanded, by controlling international events or
finding practical solutions to such serious developments as the
threats of nuclear annihilation and human population growth? These
have resulted in dire global problems including the sixth mass
extinction.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;">How
can it be that a species that is exploring the solar system and holds
detailed concepts of what to look for in terms of signs of life, is
also destroying the plant cover of its own planet?</span></span> </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Living
things are the most complex of all the natural manifestations we
know, built from the atoms and chemicals upon which physics and
chemistry have focused, and animated through a process which remains
completely mysterious. So the study of life should have emerged as
the most important science, based as it is, upon the knowledge of
physics and chemistry.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Further,
given our situation as the dominant species on a delicately balanced
planet with nothing but an icy void for an infinity of light years
around, human biology should have been its most important aspect.</span></span></span></span></span>
</span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
any search for the truth, the only rational position to take is the
acceptance of reality.</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Yet,
</span></span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">life</span></i><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">is
one of science's biggest blind spots, and due to biology's failure to
apply the scientific method, the human civilization, a planet-wide
population of a highly territorial species, has developed without
reference to its environment.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Cut
off from</span></span><i> life</i></b></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">When
any animal evolves through competition with others of the same
species, rather than through interaction with its environment, the
direction it takes does not enhance its survival abilities. Yet that
is what humanity has been doing.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Like
peacocks evolving a fabulous tail, competition among us has resulted
in the hectic pace of modern life, and many other undesirable
effects. This has happened because the link between humanity and
nature has been broken and science has kept this fact in its blind
spot.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So
the position that biology takes against animals is highly
questionable. Indeed, given the size and nature of the universe, and
the mysteries concerning the presence of life and of consciousness,
there is every reason to consider life to be precious, and that its
appearance on our planet in this solar system is remarkable.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Overwhelming
evidence reveals that we live on a planet filled with conscious life
forms,</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"> </span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
spite of what we have been taught.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Those
studying wildlife behaviour have to be meticulously careful that all
conclusions are objective, and uninfluenced by one's perspective as a
primate. But anthropocentric biology, serving industry and working
under the assumption of the divinity of humanity, ignores this
essential basis for the maintenance of scientific objectivity and
integrity. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The
uniformity of life</b></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We
are surrounded by evidence of the uniformity of life. Not only do all
vertebrate animals share the same general body plan, but on the
microscopic level our cells, from plants to man, have the same
design, all packed with tiny bodies and molecular structures of
mind-boggling complexity that support their lives. Further, modern
genetic studies have confirmed that from primates (99%) to fish (85%)
a high fraction of the genes of animals are shared with humans.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ideas
about what represents the difference between animals and man have
fallen, one by one, from tool use to the appreciation of beauty.
Every time it has been examined, evidence of sentience has been found
in animals from insects to sharks to elephants; even the one-celled
paramecium is able to learn and remember.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Amoeba
present cognitive behaviour that was thought to depend on brain
circuitry, while plants have been found to behave very similarly to
animals, but more slowly. They tend to use chemical signals to
communicate, and manifest self-awareness in their own ways, but they
do show all of the signs of intelligence that animals do, while
'intelligent'</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">machines
fail these basic tests.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>Human
biology</b></span></span></span></span> </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Everyone
who studies the behaviour of the vast display of animal life
cavorting upon this planet, begins</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">to
wonder what is wrong with humans. Universal patterns are evident that
have allowed the multitude of networking species to thrive while
sharing the planet's finite resources. These patterns provide the key
to the understanding of humanity, whose behaviour is otherwise
indecipherable.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
most basic example is the phenomenon of masculinity and femininity.
These are clear to see across the classes of animals, even in sharks,
who diverged from our evolutionary tree nearly half a billion years
ago. Countless expressions of the two genders working together in
harmony reveal a comprehensive understanding of their interconnected
roles, which could provide much needed insight to those trying to
understand the opposite sex in the modern world.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;">For
example, humans are dimorphic, meaning that males and females look
different from each other. In other dimorphic species, the roles of
each are different too, and complimentary in such a way as to enhance
the survival of the species. In our society, males dominate, and this
is a cultural as well as biological fact in terms of physical power.
The problem is that the female role has not been valued, resulting,
in the past century, in female retribution, which has badly upset the
society.</span></span> </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Try,
for example, to find another female creature for whom the most
important thing is NOT her children. The failure to support women in
their important work in raising the next quality generation has badly
damaged society. However, had society been guided by knowledge of
human biology, this would not have happened.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Similarly,
millions suffering under the stigma of homosexuality would have been
greatly relieved to know that love between members of the same gender
is natural, right, and good, but this scientific information has been
suppressed because it contradicted the teachings of the Christian
church.</span></span></span></span> </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
the scientific quest has the transcendent responsibility to seek the
truth and reject such oppressive and harmful ideas that might issue
from the folklore of the times.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Biology's
refusal to recognize intelligent awareness in animals has been
balanced by its refusal to recognize humanity's true nature. Through
its belief that </span></span></span><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">homo
sapiens</span></i><span style="font-variant: normal;"> </span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">is
divine, instead of being a life form like the others, philosophical
science has denied the presence of our instincts and their power, so
that instead of studying them for the benefit of humankind, it has
supported and facilitated human instinctual behaviour, no matter how
irrationally it presented.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>The
territorial instinct</b></span></span></span></span> </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
level of violence in human society concerns everyone, whether it is
hidden in the family, criminalized in the community, or expressed
internationally in wars. It is a direct result of the territorial
instinct, which produces aggression between members of the same
species. As life expanded, it was the territorial instinct that
ensured the best distribution of individuals for reproduction through
the available habitats, and it is now basic to human behaviour.</span></span>
</span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Each
territory has two important places: the nest, which provides a safe
place to sleep, store treasures, and raise off-spring, and the border
where intruders are repelled. So a conflictual attitude to those on
the other side of a border, be they other tribes, nations, races,
religions, sports teams, the neighbours who encroach on your land, or
the person who takes your possessions, is built into our genes, just
as a hard-wired love of sugar and fat is evident to us all. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Modern
history is an account of wars and domination by one culture over
another, a spectacular affirmation of the power of human instincts
over reason.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">In
a world in which the current alpha males have science fiction weapons
to use in their dreams of world dominion, there is every reason to
consider this type of instinctive aggression as being highly
dangerous. Yet, in an astounding display of denial, science supports
the continuing efforts to create ever more destructive weapons, and
the news as I write today is laced with flagrant attempts by those in
power to arouse everyone to militant enthusiasm for yet more war.</span></span></span></span>
</span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Like
us</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">,
animals will establish borders and have intermittent scuffles upon
them, though only in h</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">umans
do these wars result in intentional mass killings.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Animals
always fight much more furiously the closer they are to their nest,
and less confidently when in another's territory. And in human wars,
a common error occurs when the attacker underestimates the opposition
that will be launched against him by what he had assumed was a weak
country. One good example is the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour; a
second is the American war on Vietnam.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Acknowledgement
of instinctive drives</b></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">if
the violent inclinations that humans feel were accepted as being
natural, providing alternate outlets for our pent up aggression could
become part of our culture, from the family, to the educational
system, the community, and the nation, until the brute force method
fell out of favour.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Recognition
that borders remain in about the same place in spite of wars—whether
between humans, apes, or chickens—could result in a mutual decision
to simply respect the ones we have now. There are no new territories
to conquer. Our races and cultures establish our backgrounds, and, as
a result of globalization, the earth's people are travelling freely
among the countries and seem to like each other. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mutual
respect for each other's territory would free the nations to enjoy
competing in ways other than war. Enthusiasm can be raised in young
people for causes considered worthy by all human beings, including
science, art, and sports.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
territorial instinct is also behind our intense competition for
material gain and monetary earnings. The major goals of most peoples'
lives involve acquiring bigger and better houses, vehicles,
properties, and always more money. Just as the animals with the
biggest territories are most respected, so are people with the
biggest accumulation of material possessions on display.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yet,
human behaviour is considered to be dependent on reason and cultural
tradition alone.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Human
cruelty</b></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Certain
lab</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">experiments
have shown that deprived lab animals are actually more compassionate
than the humans experimenting on them, a situation which leads to the
question of why and how biology could have freed itself from the
observation of any ethical standard, much the way a cult might.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Modern
biology sacrifices millions of animals yearly, wild ones as well as
the species now considered to be nothing more than "lab
animals." All individuality is denied to them as they are
experimented upon as the researcher sees fit, and a </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">high
fraction of these experiments have been unnecessary, frivolous, and
intensely cruel. </span></span></span></span></span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">While
this curious situation could be considered as an affirmation of
science's belief in </span></span></span></span><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
Mechanical Philosophy</i></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">,
cruelty is also widespread throughout human society in many forms,
including torture and human entertainments</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">of
various kinds.</span></span></span></span> </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
though science has been anxious to find ways in which humans stand
out from other animals, never has our capacity for cruelty been
mentioned, possibly because to do so would contradict the assumption
of our divine superiority.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Long
observation caused Konrad Lorenz to conclude that the grotesque
cruelty displayed by our species is due to a lack of the inhibitions
that control aggression in most other social animals. Like sharks,
animals that have evolved dangerous weapons will also have evolved
behavioural strategies to keep them from mortally injuring others.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But,
when the animal has not evolved big teeth and jaws, a sharp, strong
beak, or a powerful, clawed stroke, there has been no selection
pressure to develop inhibitions against killing others. Animals of
such species can kill another one slowly and cruelly in situations in
which the victim cannot get away.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Though
the weapons crafted by human societies are, in almost every case,
their greatest achievement, man lacks the ability to refrain from
using them against his fellow man. <b>Though no dog will bite another
who makes the gesture of submission, humans</b> <b>do not hesitate to
shoot people who are begging for mercy.</b></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Since
we are the only lethally aggressive species who invented, and did not
evolve our weapons, we are the only one lacking the inhibitions which
would otherwise have evolved in synchrony with them. Our evolution
has fallen behind our ingenuity, and according to the way it works, a
lot of killing will have to take place before it catches up.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Many
books have detailed the crimes against nature that have resulted from
the position that traditional science has taken against the rest of
life, so I will not go into detail.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
the destruction and suffering it is causing chills the soul. </span></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Awakening
to the primate drama</b></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Understanding
the root causes of things has always been the method used to control
them, and if human biology were given the important position it
deserves, a major adjustment of attitudes towards humanity and our
place in the universe might come. It is not demeaning to see
ourselves as an intrinsic part of the powerful expansion of life that
has blossomed upon the planet Earth.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">We
remain a species developing without reference to its true
environment, and our situati</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
is a grand example of the peculiarities of human cognition, led by a
pseudoscience in a state of disconnection from the facts.</span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: small;">Humans
are presumably the first living creatures to gain understanding of
the difference between their instinctual reactions, and those wiser
choices that they can make through reasoning. Perhaps that is the
final test of the human spirit—whether we will we have the
intellectual power to get past the need to act on our animal
instincts and to develop a culture that values wisdom and
understanding instead.</span></span> </span>
</div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Other
writers have predicted an "awakening" to save us from the
usual fate that befalls over-populated and highly aggressive species,
and if one appears, it will necessarily involve the acknowledgement
of our instincts, and the conscious effort of all humanity to
understand and rise above them.</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(c)
Ila France Porcher,</span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>March,
2018</i></span></span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.5cm;">
<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span>
<br />
<div align="left" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span></div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-61516279861801755282017-09-30T18:43:00.000-07:002017-09-30T18:49:11.952-07:00Rebuttal to Shiffman and Hueter, Shark Finning Fisheries Lobbyists<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify; }p.western { font-family: "URW Palladio L"; font-weight: normal; }p.cjk { font-size: 10pt; }a:link { }</style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCBlvbMUKq2icBEnqAUSkX9s7VeF5m8ZL_nfIj-rVFSWeXMpdfDiTVY6ZiTLdw9zOa_UlwfzDsH0fNNVeDvqt6sOp-G6dl8aij1nQlYQviLw15B3_RzlcpFDf27X62CBMEFUZCXctfQhI/s1600/finned.shark.series.3.550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="550" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjCBlvbMUKq2icBEnqAUSkX9s7VeF5m8ZL_nfIj-rVFSWeXMpdfDiTVY6ZiTLdw9zOa_UlwfzDsH0fNNVeDvqt6sOp-G6dl8aij1nQlYQviLw15B3_RzlcpFDf27X62CBMEFUZCXctfQhI/s1600/finned.shark.series.3.550.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">"The
Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act"</span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">is</span></span>
considered to be vital in the fight against shark finning. Yet shark
fisheries lobbyists David Shiffman and Robert Hueter are doing their
best to block it. They have published a paper opposing the
legislation, which has been echoed by the press in ways suggesting
that banning the shark fin trade in the United States could be "bad
for sharks."</span></b></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">But their
short and vacuous paper gives only three reasons to support their
position and concerns itself with the well-being of shark fisheries,
not sharks. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Firstly,
they state that passage of the Act will "undermine decades of
progress made towards ensuring sustainable shark fisheries in the
United States and around the world." But in the absence of any
evidence or reasoning in support this allegation, it remains nothing
more than an opinion. The statement is neither scientific nor relevant to the real issue.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The second
reason given is that the legislation "will likely have little
effect on global shark mortality." <i>Likely?</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span><span style="font-style: normal;">This too is just an opinion.
Indeed, t</span>he facts indicate that the extinguishing of the shark
fin trade inside the US will strike a hard blow and weaken the
international fin racket, much of which is in criminal hands. The
sharks being caught up by finning are those species at the highest
risk of extinction, and the US remains the seventh worst nation in the world in supporting shark finning.</span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The third
reason given is that if the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act is
passed, it will "contribute to the misconception that demand for
shark fin soup is the only threat facing shark populations
worldwide." </span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">They have
an assumption that a "misconception" exists and that it is
a reason for the United States to continue to support shark finning.
This absurd statement should have prevented it from being published
in the first place. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And those
are the only "reasons" the authors could find to use to argue against
this important piece of legislation! Indeed, their weak arguments actually underline the importance of the bill. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The authors
then go on to emphasize how complicated the subject is, so much so
that others don't understand it, which is a common theme in
Shiffman's papers. He presents himself as an authority with important
information for the enlightenment of others, while subtly insinuating
that conservation efforts are somehow on the wrong track. But if you
try to find real science in his articles you will come up empty
handed. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Shiffman
has admitted to being financed by everything from Sharknado2 to a
variety of fishing interests, and this latest paper is only one in a
series of articles he has published in the effort to give the
scientific ring of authority to shark fishing and finning. </span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span>
</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">When
industry finances academic research papers, the conclusions drawn will always favor
their interests, and once published, those ideas are accepted as being
scientific. Thus, paying for 'science' provides the fishing industry
with a way to launder biased, non-scientific ideas into a form that
will have the same credibility as pure research, just as criminals
launder money. Remarkably, the academic community accepts this
practice, and it is used openly by the fishing industry. (More<a href="http://sharkwords.blogspot.ca/2014/10/forget-pseudoscience-all-fish-feel-pain.html" target="_blank"> h</a></span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://sharkwords.blogspot.ca/2014/10/forget-pseudoscience-all-fish-feel-pain.html" target="_blank">ere)</a></span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Pure research, such as the global study of shark depletion carried out by the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Shark Specialist
Group (IUCN SSG) found that <span lang="en-GB">fisheries management</span><span lang="en-GB">
has failed th</span><span lang="en-GB">is entire line of animals,
which are of incalculable ecological importance. </span><span lang="en-GB">Their
findings are of even more concern because c</span><span lang="en-GB">atches
are believed to be three or four times greater than reported. </span><span lang="en-GB">M</span><span lang="en-GB">ost
catches of sharks and rays are neither recorded nor reported, are not
regulated, and are discarded at sea.</span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-GB">R</span><span lang="en-GB">epresentatives
Ed Royce and Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan introduced the </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-GB"><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act</span></span></b> on
March 9, 2017. If passed, it will effectively remove the United States from the
global shark fin trade as well as re-establishing the country as a
leader in oceanic and shark protection. </span></span></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-GB">Ila France Porcher</span></span></div>
<div class="western">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="en-GB"> </span></span>
</div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-6715092978733171572017-07-15T07:21:00.001-07:002017-08-02T13:18:58.122-07:00Glenn Ashton's Review of The True Nature of Sharks<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGBja01vBasx2a9Xn92ZrhTEENjTI4cWw45wHfNe4fckJtRIg1dE45WjI9vgwp3-ejrFo4_-7oGgqKOUqWkvtLXvdhfvjRaYPX3XwvU1l-7FXa_7419fzO9MPoLxlgF57DozhPgWkILRGb/s1600/ad.illustration.1.blogsize.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="550" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGBja01vBasx2a9Xn92ZrhTEENjTI4cWw45wHfNe4fckJtRIg1dE45WjI9vgwp3-ejrFo4_-7oGgqKOUqWkvtLXvdhfvjRaYPX3XwvU1l-7FXa_7419fzO9MPoLxlgF57DozhPgWkILRGb/s640/ad.illustration.1.blogsize.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"Occasionally
a special book appears that makes you sit up and reconsider your
understanding of the world, or at least a part of it. The True Nature
of Sharks is such a book. It echoes the way that Diane Fossey and
Jane Goodall forced us to completely reassess how we perceived the
great apes, our closest relatives. While sharks may be only a very
distant relative, Porcher’s book is no less revolutionary, in that
it forces us to reassess how we perceive and understand sharks. Her
work is instrumental in firmly shifting our understanding of sharks
away from the obsolete trope of sharks as killing machines. Instead
she portrays them as intelligent, predictable individual animals
capable of so much more than generally assumed.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"Through the
ages sharks gained a largely unquestioned reputation as frightening
predators just waiting to eat anything and anybody entering the
watery realms. Modern history reinforced these tropes with stories of
pilots and sailors being attacked during the war years and of all
oceans users being at constant risk. This was exemplified in Peter
Benchley’s “Jaws”, a book he later expressed regret about
writing for the way it maligned sharks. Through these influences,
sharks, like all creatures that take humans as incidental prey, have
become perceived as creatures that reflect our deepest primeval
inbred fears of consumption by wild beasts, as mindless, aggressive
predators, without exception.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"Porcher turns
the entire trope on its head. Several years of living on the
beautiful Polynesian island of Moorea enabled her to closely observe
several species of reef sharks in their habitat. She has managed to
combine her observations into a fascinating and ground breaking book
which forces us to completely reassess how we see sharks. Through
careful record keeping and categorisation of the ethology – the
study of formal behaviour patterns of animals observed in wild
conditions – she shares the reality of how these remarkable animals
exhibit behaviours that go far beyond our common assumptions of
sharks.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"From her
first unexpected encounters with sharks in these beautiful fringing
lagoons, Porcher learns that sharks are individuals with
personalities, memories and yes, even a consciousness that combine to
turn conventional wisdom on its head. We are clearly shown that
sharks are everything but the natural born killers that popular media
make them out to be. Even after years of intimate interaction with
these sharks, feeding them, observing them and spending what must
amount to many hundreds of hours in the water with them she never
felt inordinately threatened by the behaviour of these fascinating
creatures.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"She tells of
the tragic consequences of a visit from a shark finning fleet through
the area. This event clearly illustrates how conventional wisdom of
sharks being a danger to humans is not just wrong but antithetical.
The reality is that it is people who kill an estimated 70 million
sharks every year, mainly to feed shark fin soup to high-rolling
Chinese diners, or to supply fish and chip shops “flake”, the
commercial name for shark. Sharks also fall victim in massive numbers
as bycatch in commercial nets and longlines, only to be discarded as
bycatch.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"Consequently
sharks have seen catastrophic declines with several species on IUCN
lists of endangered species. For Porcher this reality was brutally
driven home when many of the sharks she was familiar with
disappeared, never to return after Singapore shark fin fishing
companies moved through the area. Through her work shark finning was
banned throughout French Polynesia.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"But where
Porcher’s brilliance really shines through is in her patient
recording of how sharks behave in the wild. She takes these
observations and manages to clearly communicate these interactions to
illustrate the consciousness and individuality of sharks. As she
gradually became familiar with the resident sharks, she named each
one through its patterning, nicks and marks or behaviour. Her
assiduous collection data and observations of each shark, when it was
seen, how it behaved, how they interacted with other sharks and fish
are never allowed to become a fusty scientific record but rather
evolve into a living diary of how these sharks are an intrinsic link
in the life of the reef and of the region. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"This book is
an invaluable record that shows how these sharks return to their
familiar territories after mating in the open ocean, time and again.
More revealingly it shows how these sharks recognise and interact
with her upon return and how the personalities of individual sharks
shine through by their unique behaviour patterns.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"While she
clearly grows fond of the sharks her observations never fall into the
trap of anthropomorphism - providing them human characteristics to
other species where none exist. Instead she builds a solid repertoire
of observed animal behaviour and how they form an intrinsic part of a
much larger web of life. She points out how disruptions, such as the
visit of the shark finners or of sport fishermen, have massive
impacts on the behaviour of sharks in an area and consequently on the
entire web of life that interacts with the sharks.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"This book is
further enhanced by beautiful illustrations. Porcher uses her
considerable artistic talent and shares some of her remarkable
paintings and drawings of sharks. She has also employed clever
techniques to foreground the sharks she has photographed that enables
them to stand out against a background that they are naturally suited
to blend into. These pictures show behaviour that we are fortunate to
be able to share through this medium.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"The True
Nature of Sharks is a must buy for anybody who finds beauty and
wonder in the web of life. It is logically laid out and the narrative
flows well and provides an easy read, an important task in
communicating non-fiction to the layman. Sharks have fairly recently
begun to be appreciated by many as the fascinating creatures they
are. A growing industry now attracts tourists to observe, dive and
interact with them in sites around the world. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">"Porcher
stands out as a pioneer in being able to give voice and logic to our
growing appreciation of these fascinating and ancient creatures. She
shares how these keystone species keep our oceans in balance and how
even traditionally feared species like Tiger and Bull sharks are able
to form unique bonds with humans, showing adaptation that was not
considered possible. Porcher is the first person to enable us to get
under their skin in order to appreciate the beauty of how this
species has evolved over hundreds of millennia.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We still have much
to learn about the complexity and interconnectedness of life. We are
truly fortunate to have people like Ila France Porcher to share their
important stories with the world about how these maligned creatures
display behaviours that are completely at odds with what was
previously considered possible.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br />
</div>
<div align="justify">
~~~~~~~~</div>
<div align="justify">
<b>Glenn Ashton has spent most of his life around the
world’s oceans, working on fishing vessels and sailing around the
world, surfing and diving. He is fortunate to have visited and dived
in the waters of Moorea where this book is largely based and become
familiar with the sharks of this archipelago, amongst others. He
holds a Masters degree in environmental management and is working
toward completing his PhD.
</b></div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-35040211686882106562017-07-01T11:58:00.001-07:002017-07-01T12:28:52.579-07:00Raising Shark Awareness<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; }</style>
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<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";"><b>My personal
campaign to raise shark awareness began when the entire community of
hundreds of sharks that I was studying, as animals and individuals,
were finned for shark fin soup.</b></span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">Sharks (and fish) had
turned out to be more interesting, more varied, and in many cases,
more beautiful, than the North American wildlife I had known. They
were just as intelligent, and far more responsive to me. They were
definitely more alert, and made decisions more quickly, than people.</span></div>
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<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">Sharks were the first
wild animals I had met that came to me instead of fleeing, and though
I had fed the birds all my life, they never fluttered down around my
shoulders when I went outside, or alighted in my hands to be stroked.
But fish did. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">So it is especially
sad to see how these remarkable submarine animals are considered and
treated in our society, as being low, cold and not even capable of
suffering pain.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">That is why I have
been on a personal campaign ever since to improve public awareness of
their true nature, and why I have followed up the many articles I
have written about them with a book describing <i>The True Nature of
Sharks</i>. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">Now I am expanding my
campaign and inviting others to join me in spreading the word about
what these unusual and important animals are really like. Their
intelligent awareness constitutes another reason to save them from
extinction. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">Fish and sharks are
treated worse than any other animals, though they suffer just as
much. Sharks have been cast by the media as monsters for horror shows
and fishing tournaments for so long that the prejudice against them
is not even recognized. </span>
</div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">People really believe
that they behave the way they are shown on Shark Week. But they do
not. . .</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">So please join me in
speaking out against the prejudice that has raised a barrier against
their protection. I will be posting plenty of information and other
material to share as the summer passes.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">Donations, too, help
enormously to spread the word about this campaign. A donation can be
made at this link:</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<a href="https://www.gofundme.com/sharks-need-our-help"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">https://www.gofundme.com/sharks-need-our-help </span></span></a></div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">Many thanks in advance
for any help you can give.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";"><i>About me: </i></span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";"><i>For fifteen years I
spent my free time watching the actions of sharks underwater to learn
about their behavior and their daily lives. During seven of those
years, I kept track of over 600 individuals of which I could
recognize 300 on sight, and wrote several scientific papers about
them. No marine biologist has done comparable work and though more
than a decade has passed since my study was done, it has never been
duplicated.</i></span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";">Ila France Porcher</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br />
<br /></div>
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<br />Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-82212878613066249062017-05-13T10:02:00.000-07:002017-05-23T18:51:21.486-07:00Why I Turned to Sharks<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 100%; text-align: justify; }p.western { font-family: "URW Palladio L"; font-weight: normal; }p.cjk { font-size: 10pt; }</style>
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I was a wildlife artist when my husband and I moved to Tahiti, so I went out each morning looking for something to paint. The fringe lagoons lay glimmering turquoise and silver under a ringing blue sky, protected by a barrier reef and sheltering an intricate lighted world that put fantasy to shame. Fish of every imaginable shape and colour gazed from the coral formations, ranged across the white sand, and travelled purposefully though the blue. There seemed to be so much life that even the water sparkled with it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
One morning I was roaming upon the barrier reef, lost in a spell. The sunshine ran in golden lines across the coral and flashed upon the fish. It was mesmerizing. When I raised my eyes, a grey shark of about my size was moving languidly towards me and all my lights went on. Everything about her was just right—her curves, her fins, her face—the inarguable shape of shark. Nothing had prepared me for the sight of that splendid creature gliding forth through the rushing landscape, as graceful as a snake.<br />
<br />
Having observed the wildlife of the mountains all my life, my knowledge of sharks was limited to the information gained from watching the movie JAWS many years before. All that remained from that brief education was that they bit and badly. Very badly. Essentially, if you met one you died. <br />
<br />
So, expecting her to fly into attack mode at the sight of me, I held my breath and drifted behind a coral. But she paid me not the slightest attention as she passed just a metre away. Her smug little face actually looked bored. I moved to keep the coral between us, but when I peeked out to see her again, she was gone as if she never had been. Soon after that, a second shark passed close by from behind as I headed homeward one evening at twilight. Breathless at such fluid beauty and understated power, I followed. But she quickly drew ahead, became a moving shadow, and vanished in the darkness.<br />
<br />
I began to seek out sharks each day on my underwater forays. I loved to explore along the barrier reef and peer across it under the layer of pouring water. Sometimes a shark came wriggling across, surfing over the reef to arrive in a cascade of champagne water. When the bubbles vanished, it often approached to turn a circle around me, its eye fixed on mine. <br />
<br />
The shark was the first wild animal I had met who came to me instead of fleeing.<br />
<br />
They were so intriguing. Shark behaviour was very different from that of the terrestrial wild animals I had known, and their intelligent flexibility and the complexity of their actions soon convinced me that they had been badly underestimated by science.<br />
<br />
So I launched an intensive study of the reef sharks using the local lagoon, identifying each one by its markings, and keeping track of subsequent sightings. Soon I could recognize three hundred individuals on sight. I wanted to find out what they were like, not only as animals, but as individuals. I wanted to know them. Used to patiently observing wild animals for long periods, I treated them as I would any other new species. I had no preconceived ideas about them.<br />
<br />
Being able to recognize them as individuals revealed a new dimension of their lives, and I had the feeling of a window opening onto another world, one so separate from human daily life that it might just as well have been on another planet.<br />
<br />
But when, much later, I acquired an Internet connection, the information about sharks that I found on-line bore no relation to the animals I knew so well. Most entries mentioned only shark attacks, and discussions focused on those too, along with shark movies and shark fishing. <br />
<br />
Everyone seemed to think that they were vicious. Indeed, the difference between true shark behaviour and their awful reputation was so exaggerated that most people, it seemed, should forget everything they had ever heard about sharks, and start learning about them all over again.<br />
<br />
When I contacted Professor Arthur A. Myrberg, a shark ethologist at the University of Miami, he told me that no one else had studied sharks long-term underwater and encouraged me to publish my findings. Myrberg had worked with Konrad Lorenz and was a friend of Donald H. Griffin, author of<i> Animal Minds</i>, the seminal book establishing that animals are capable of thinking. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Cognition</i> is the word used to describe reasoning in animals, which is a process of sequential thinking that has nothing to do with instinctive reactions. Myrberg and several colleagues were searching for more evidence to support this important new field of zoology, called <i>cognitive ethology.</i><br />
<br />
So, when he was invited to speak on the subject of shark cognition at an international symposium at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, Myrberg wrote to every known researcher—more than fifteen throughout the world—whose work had anything to do with shark behaviour. Yet no one had found any evidence that could even be speculated to suggest that sharks were thinking, and all but one doubted that such an ancient line of animals were capable of any higher mental abilities. <br />
<br />
So he described the situation to me, concluding, "And so it must be shown, as difficult as it is to show, evidence that cognition may well be present rather than to disregard any consideration."<br />
<br />
I had been keeping notes on apparent cognitive behaviour in wild animals for decades, so sent him several pages of examples of shark behaviour that suggested cognition. Arthur used my observations to form the bulk of his presentation at the symposium.<br />
<br />
Afterwards, he wrote: <br />
<br />
“Three days of talks and discussions resulted in agreement among those present that animal cognition can be openly discussed, and that term and its processes need not be treated as a non-scientific entity any longer."<br />
<br />
Though more than a decade has passed, mine is still the only long-term underwater study of shark behaviour ever carried out. Traditional shark science is dominated by 'fisheries science,' which has denied any higher abilities to them, even the ability to feel pain. Nor has it offered much information about the way sharks behave, because the popular practice of shark tagging keeps the researcher at a distance from the animal.<br />
<br />
My upcoming book, <i>The True Nature of Sharks</i>, fills the need for real information about sharks and the actions they take, to help debunk the destructive myths about them that have effectively erected a barrier to their conservation. <br />
<br />
Here is information that can only be found by taking the time to observe these unusual creatures underwater, as animals and individuals, with an open mind.<br />
<br />
Ila France Porcher <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "urw palladio l";"></span></span></div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-41168643708169778392017-04-26T18:56:00.001-07:002018-06-29T15:35:00.233-07:00The True Nature of Sharks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
As a life long observer of wildlife, I recognized as
soon as I began meeting wild sharks that their behaviour was very
different from that of the mammals and birds we are more familiar
with. So for fifteen years I spent most of my spare time watching them underwater to learn as much as I could about what
they are like as animals and individuals. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For seven of those years, I
kept track of hundreds of individual reef sharks using a lagoon, and
could recognize more than three hundred on sight. Studying them as individuals opened a new
dimension on their lives, revealing their companionships, their emotional responses, and
the way they socialized. These studies were supplemented by observing other species--tiger sharks, lemon sharks, and bull sharks--for shorter periods of time.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Many of the actions that sharks will take indicate that they are thinking, rather
than acting on instinct alone, and it became clear
that they have been badly underestimated by science. No one in
the marine science community has done equivalent studies
of sharks underwater, or any similar study involving long term underwater observation of wild sharks. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet, though almost nothing was known about what sharks are really like, they have been presented for the past several decades as monsters by fishermen and in the media. So my book also
examines the current state of shark science, which is inseparable from fisheries, and how and why it has
failed this whole line of animals. At this time many species are plummeting into extinction. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The knowledge that sharks are intelligently aware, feeling, and thinking about the events in their lives means that we cannot continue to regard them as being automatons, cold and senseless. As Professor Emeritus Alan Kamil wrote about pinion jays, </div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>"Awareness of the
cognitive abilities of these animals forever changes our perception of
them and their place in nature, and ours." </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b> </b></span>
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If you love discovering new, intelligent wildlife behaviour, you
will love this book, which will make the mysterious world of sharks
come alive for you. Like my first book, The SHARK SESSIONS, it is
fully illustrated.<br />
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<br />Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-60835772382771960702017-02-23T13:39:00.000-08:002017-05-23T19:00:06.375-07:00The Question of Consciousness<div class="prose" itemprop="articleBody">
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<b>The current science of consciousness has been widely discussed on the Internet, and considering the many claims that soon we will be blessed
or damned by conscious machines, it is remarkable how little is known
about it. </b><br />
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The essential question involves explaining how a physical universe
gives rise to non-physical intelligent awareness, and this boggles
everyone, because it is explainable by no current scientific knowledge,
physical or quantum.</div>
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There are various theories, two of which are considered the most
promising. One, which is favoured by traditional science and supports
the idea that computers could be conscious, holds that after a certain
level of complexity is reached, consciousness emerges naturally, all by
itself. In neurology, consciousness is always mentioned in connection
with the human brain, which, of course is the most complex. Quantities
of rambling text, much of it of a speculative and highly philosophical
nature, have been written on the theory, including such unexpected
claims as Daniel Dennett's, that his thermostat was conscious.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I read of it, this raised my suspicions immediately, since at
the time, I was formulating an argument, based on research from other
fields of science, that my sharks felt pain when they were finned. My
pleas that they be protected in the middle of their slaughter were
laughed at by fishermen, who claimed that science had proven that fish
could not feel pain, because it was impossible that they were conscious
because they lacked a human brain.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet, no study had been done to determine this; the idea was nothing
more than a declaration by fishermen scientists, that lacked supporting
evidence. Were a human brain necessary for sentience, then the pet
phenomenon would be impossible.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Further, in the same year,<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11957395" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"> different researchers had found</a>
that fish were capable of all the varieties of cognition (with the
exception of imitation), that had been identified in the "higher"
animals, including primates. Others felt that cognition is impossible
without consciousness in some form, since the act of cognition indicates
the presence of an intelligent awareness that is doing the thinking.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No brain is simple, as anyone who has watched the activities of a spider will appreciate.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It seemed extraordinary that scientists believed that their
thermostats were conscious, but that animals who shared up to 80% of
their genes, were not. This was one of the first indications I found of how wonky science has become, and formed the backdrop to my research into the subject of consciousness.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The idea that consciousness can be created by man has always been a
high-profile one, and has captured the public imagination through
science-fiction tales and films that have made intelligent robots seem
possible. The current efforts by artificial intelligence research (AI)
to imitate the human brain, (sometimes by creating a machine with as
many connections in it as the brain has), have been more widely
publicized than other areas of research into consciousness.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
More importantly, the
hype that surrounds it has been of vital importance in generating
grants for further research into AI.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But, apart from the point that this theory minimizes the difference
between the intensively programmed machine, and the self-serving living
creature, it directly predicts high levels of consciousness where most
people would deny that consciousness is possible, such as in your CD.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here is a bit of a description, written by <a href="http://shoutout.wix.com/so/8LekiT7J/click?w=LS0tDQozZWJhYzAzZC02ODAwLTRiN2YtNDhiYS00NzI2YWY1N2E2N2ENCmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNjaWVudGlmaWNhbWVyaWNhbi5jb20vYXV0aG9yL2pvaG4taG9yZ2FuNy8NCi0tLQ" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">John Horgan</a> on March 22, 2016:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>“Like heaven, the Singularity </i>[the name for the union of man and machine] <i>comes
in many versions, but most involve bionic brain boosting. At first,
we'll become cyborgs, as brain chips soup up our perception, memory, and
intelligence and eliminate the need for annoying TV remotes.
Eventually, we will abandon our flesh-and-blood selves entirely and
upload our digitized psyches into computers. We will then dwell happily
forever in cyberspace, where, to paraphrase Woody Allen, we'll never
need to look for a parking space.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Singularity enthusiasts, or Singularitarians, tend to be computer specialists. . .”</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A worrying point in this scheme, that has not come up in any
discussions that I have found, is that computers not only just compute
without comprehension, but they use only decimal numbers. Yet, there are
an infinity of numbers which are impossible to write as decimal
numbers. For example, the number one third, easily comprehended by the
smallest child trying to cut a cake into three for him and his two
sisters, becomes 3.3333333. . . ad infinitum in decimals, so any
computer would soon round it off!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You don't have to go very far with numbers to find such surprises.
Another example, represented perfectly for all life forms on Earth in
the shape of the sun and full moon, is the relationship between the
diameter and the circumference of a circle—the irrational number pi. Pi,
and all such other numbers that go on and on without foreseeable
endings, are rounded off by computers!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Would such over-simplified approximations to the true universal
values still result in the generation of consciousness? No thoughts on
this obvious point have been offered! That such inconsistencies are
considered irrelevant seems quite an assumption for those claiming to be
on the verge of producing conscious machines, when those machines
cannot even represent one third correctly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Given the mind-boggling complexity of the universe—we are personally
about halfway in size-scale between the universal and the sub-atomic
ranges of sizes—human considerations are really fairly simple.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Though in the eighties, exaggerated claims were made about the
conscious machine that would soon be created, as time passed, none of
the algorithms (combinations of mathematical formulae) originally
postulated to imitate cognitive functions were successful. Many of the
leading AI labs eventually shut down, and no new algorithms have been
developed. The progress that we have seen since, has been due to
advances in complexity, miniaturization, and size, which have increased
the computational power of computers, but have not given them the power
of understanding.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You can demonstrate this to yourself by typing any short piece of
writing into Google Translate, to see how well it is translated into a
different language of your choice. The poor ability of robots to
translate phrases from one language to another is due to the inability
of the computer to understand the words. Those meanings are <i>conceptual</i>, not computational.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet, robot hype continues at a high pitch, though, like everyone
else, the researchers involved have no idea what consciousness is, or
what is required for its manifestation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The other main theory of consciousness was put forth and argued by
Roger Penrose, a mathematician at Oxford, and originator of black hole
theory, among other things. He believes that consciousness, along with
quite a few other things in this universe, is essentially not
computable, so no computer could ever be conscious, no matter how big it
might be. He postulates that consciousness is a manifestation of
quantum mechanical behaviour.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He regrets that biologists are unaware of how matter really behaves,
because they ignore the actions of matter at a sub-atomic level, which,
after all, takes place all the time all around and within us, not just in physicists' particle accelerators.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You have likely heard of the big problem in physics—that the laws
found that govern the universe, as described by such lights as Euclid
and Einstein, do not agree with those found in the sub-atomic world of
quantum mechanics. One of the curious things about quantum mechanical
behaviour, is that at a very small size scale, our universe becomes a
mush of probabilities—probabilities that this or that will come down.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The peculiar aspect of this phenomenon is that it appears to be
conscious awareness of the probabilities, that makes one or the other
actually come to pass. The name given to the transition from the
probabilistic state to the collapse into reality is <i>reduction</i>. The need for consciousness to trigger reduction, is another clue to it, that appears in a completely different way.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The subatomic reality is not like the mechanical one we can see, nor
does it operate by the same rules, and no one, not even the rocket
scientists, have found a way to picture it in their minds. Decades of
experimentation in which this was tested repeatedly, and mind boggling
mathematics, were necessary before it was accepted at all.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Penrose started one chapter in his book<i> The Emperor’s New Mind,</i>
by describing a poor lost man trying to walk home from the pub, and not
being able to figure out which way to go. He sits down, gazes at the
moon, and goes <i>up</i>, instead. He goes into Plato's world.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Plato first described a world we could access only by the intellect,
one which appears to have an independent existence outside of space and
time, where the transcendent laws of mathematics, physics, chemistry,
music, and maybe even ethics and beauty, exist. Only by going there can
we understand the world and the universe, and <i>Plato's world reveals itself to each of us through conscious reflection</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An example of something that exists only in Plato’s world is the
square root of minus one. This is the number which, when multiplied by
itself, will give minus one. While at first glance this could seem like
nothing more than a mathematical joke, since all numbers when squared
are positive, the square root of minus one has proved indispensable for
working out some of the details of the functioning of the universe--the
behaviour of subatomic particles cannot be understood without it!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The mathematical phenomenon known as the Mandelbrot set is the solution to an equation invoking the square root of minus one.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-full-width" data-imgsrc="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAx7AAAAJDczOTYwZjI4LTM0YTgtNGFhOS05NDJkLTE1MDYzNzU1Nzc0Mw.jpg" style="text-align: justify;">
<img height="640" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAx7AAAAJDczOTYwZjI4LTM0YTgtNGFhOS05NDJkLTE1MDYzNzU1Nzc0Mw.jpg" width="424" />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The illustration shows it graphed, and then a part of the set
magnified over a million times. The intricate boundary does not change
on magnification, which is one of the qualities of a fractal.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The remarkable beauty of the graphed Mandelbrot set, named for Benoît
Mandelbrot who found it, was inaccessible until we developed the
computational power to unveil it. Yet, it was always there in Plato's
world!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Music, too, leads us into Plato’s world, and since some birds sing
using the humanly defined scale, it appears to be accessible to other
species.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Roger Penrose offered this way of conceiving the idea. He describes
three worlds, the mental world of consciousness, the physical universe,
and Plato's world, or the place where mathematical reality lies. He
calls the relationships between them the three profound mysteries.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="slate-resizable-image-embed slate-image-embed__resize-full-width" data-imgsrc="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAtvAAAAJGMyOWJhOTJjLTcyYjItNGQ0MS05ZDhhLTMyOTk4OTViN2RiMQ.jpg" style="text-align: justify;">
<img height="335" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/AAEAAQAAAAAAAAtvAAAAJGMyOWJhOTJjLTcyYjItNGQ0MS05ZDhhLTMyOTk4OTViN2RiMQ.jpg" width="400" />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As shown in the diagram, in the physical world appears consciousness, which reflects and finds
Plato's world, the truths of which lie behind the manifestation of the
physical world.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Working with a biologist, Stuart Hameroff, Penrose has developed his
complex theory of quantum consciousness further, since, and has written
more books on these subjects, including <i>Shadows of the Mind</i>, and <i>The Road to Reality</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are other theories discussed at the conferences on the Science
of Consciousness, including one that states that just as rats cannot do
arithmetic, so we are not capable of comprehending consciousness, though
of course, we can't give up!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Others cover a vast range of subjects including evidence from altered
mental states, taking hallucinogenic drugs, and the realms of the
paranormal.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet, in all of these writings on the subject, an assessment of how
consciousness manifests in life on Earth has not been mentioned. Its as
if only humans and their machines are of any concern, though evidence of
cognition has been found in all animals studied, from the great apes to
sharks, octopi, bees, and even Paramecia. These are one-celled animals,
so they have no brain, or even nerves, yet they can learn, remember,
and make decisions based on whether or not they were in a place before,
and whether or not, when they were there, they had a good time (Armus et
al 2006, Day and Bentley 2016).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This fact throws cold water on some of science's assumptions that
only "higher" animals are capable of cognition in the sense I had to
argue it for the sharks. And if one-celled animals show this level of
awareness, it leads to the question of whether or not such awareness may
be an intrinsic aspect of life itself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet, the question of life is not included in the discussions of consciousness, possibly because that would exclude computers!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This strange state of affairs ably represents the current state of <a href="http://sharkwords.blogspot.ca/2016/08/commentary-on-science-price-of-ignoring.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">disconnection apparent between science and the facts</a>,
a subject I will return to again. And, in contradiction to what
traditional science (which in the case of sharks means "fisheries")
claimed, my beloved sharks suffered when they were finned and died.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ila France Porcher, author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shark-Sessions-Ila-France-Porcher/dp/1629022632/ref=sr_1_1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><i>The Shark Sessions</i></a></div>
</div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-40575750831100523172016-08-11T15:34:00.003-07:002018-03-01T12:02:55.486-08:00Commentary on Science ~ The Price of Ignoring Natural Law<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYRMZ5Zo1J8P3OEvWMRbwr9zWTlSoF454zSnlVCCesrp3-DKAHZI9H82KbiGdKnqZ4GWCbiSAnv7WYoPpy-zlUyzWudLDu11E96PVby9m6pNZLWU2gk-xD2CcJm4oC40IwDSpyR30-1zmi/s1600/portrait.of.a.tiger.500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYRMZ5Zo1J8P3OEvWMRbwr9zWTlSoF454zSnlVCCesrp3-DKAHZI9H82KbiGdKnqZ4GWCbiSAnv7WYoPpy-zlUyzWudLDu11E96PVby9m6pNZLWU2gk-xD2CcJm4oC40IwDSpyR30-1zmi/s1600/portrait.of.a.tiger.500.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i> </i>
In April, 2016, National Geographic featured an article
entitled “<i>The War on Science,</i>” which questions why many
scientific claims face a storm of opposition from the public. It explains that these criticisms result from a tendency to believe in
one's religious or political position, rather than in the facts,
which is <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2319992" target="_blank">a recent finding by Dan Kahan</a> of Yale University.</span><br />
<br />
Yet, the problems with modern science which
might contribute to this public attitude were not examined--when one looks out across the ravaged earth, National Geographic's
statement “Modern science is based on things it got right,”
appears in a different light.<br />
<br />
In addition to widespread pollution and
the destabilization of the climate, human activity has caused the
sixth mass extinction, the tropical forests needed to support the
life-giving atmosphere are devastated, and the oceans are showing
signs of ecological collapse.<br />
<br />
Why, at the height of science's glory, has it had such a
destructive effect on the planet upon which we all depend? Why has it
offered no guidance to humanity, as civilization expanded, in
controlling international events, or finding practical solutions to
such serious developments as the threats of nuclear annihilation, and
human population growth, which have resulted in dire global problems?<br />
<br />
<i>Materialism</i><br />
One important reason is that for a material science in a material
world, money has been a decisive factor in determining the direction
taken by scientific research.<br />
<br />
Science began with the work of Aristotle, in an effort to
systematically analyse our surroundings—the lines, the curves, the
way a stone would fall. It was a quest for understanding of the
reality in which we find ourselves, and through observation,
measurement, and reflection, a detailed map of reality and its
mathematical underpinnings, came into being over the centuries. The
edifice of science was built step by step, as facts that could be
mutually verified, accumulated through pure research done in the
quest for knowledge.<br />
<br />
Then came the unholy marriage with industry. Instead of studying
life, biology focused on using the biosphere to solve human problems,
and it neglected an appropriate analysis of nature. The play of life
across the planet, how it interacted with the atmosphere, the seas,
earth, rivers, and the falling of rain, was simply ignored.<br />
<br />
The result was that western society developed without reference to
its environment, and the current state of discontinuity between
'science' and the facts is the result.<br />
<br />
<i>The influence of religion</i><br />
The assumption of human superiority over Earth is a religious one
which science adopted centuries ago. The human was considered
superior—the only one (!) made “in the image of God”—while
the rest of the universe, including all other forms of life, did not
share the human gift of consciousness, and were considered mechanical
in nature. This convenient idea, attributed to Rene Descartes, has
well served a civilization that regards our planet as nothing more
than a resource.<br />
<br />
But in ignoring the uniformity of life, it took a dramatic
departure from evidence-based science. Human beliefs began to be
considered more important than the facts while, in ignoring our
biological heritage, philosophical science imbued our leaders with
the sort of arrogant pride which not only comes before, but causes, a
fall.<br />
<br />
In science, the only rational position to take is the acceptance
of reality.<br />
<br />
<i>The uniformity of life</i><br />
We are surrounded by evidence of the uniformity of life. Not only
do all vertebrate animals share the same body plan, but on the
microscopic level, our cells, from bacteria to plants to man, have
the same make-up. Genetic studies, too, confirm that from primates
(99%) to fish (85%) a high fraction of genes are shared among us.<br />
<br />
The pet phenomenon, which has been visible to all for centuries,
would be impossible if animals truly were mechanical, because by
definition, a machine cannot act “as if” it can think and feel. A
commonly used excuse for treating animals cruelly is the statement,
“Just because they act like they feel pain, does not mean that they
really do.” This preposterous argument requires that the alleged
machine imitate consciousness on cue.<br />
<br />
Every time it has been examined, evidence of sentience has been
found in animals from insects, to sharks, fish, and elephants. Even
one-celled animals, lacking both brains and nerves, are able to learn
and remember.<br />
<br />
There is every reason to question the prevailing negative attitude
to animals, and its origin. There is simply no evidence to support
the idea that life as it arose in this solar system, is inferior and
unworthy as traditional science maintains.<br />
<br />
Quite the contrary. Given current knowledge of the size and nature
of the universe, and the mysteries concerning the presence of life
and of consciousness, there is every reason to consider it
remarkable.<br />
<br />
People studying wildlife behavior, as I do, have to be
meticulously careful that all conclusions are objective, and
uninfluenced by one's perspective as a human. So it is disappointing
to see this essential basis for maintaining scientific integrity
being ignored by so many scientists. Yet, their consistently
anthropocentric attitude goes unquestioned, while they stand in the
way of the search for the true understanding of life.<br />
<br />
<i>Human behavior as part of the continuum of life</i><br />
Human behavior is considered to be dependent on reason and
cultural tradition alone, yet this approach has failed to produce any
insight into the current state of human affairs, or ways to avoid
disaster in the future.<br />
<br />
However, when looked at as part of the continuum of the behavior
of all living beings, the comportment of the human species fits like
a piece in a puzzle. Universal trends are evident in animal behavior,
and of these a great deal has been learned. But the information has
been ignored, due to the denial of the link between humankind and the
rest of nature.<br />
<br />
<br />
The male/female phenomenon, for example, has framed sexual
reproduction for at least half a billion years. Myriad examples of
how the two genders work together provide a comprehensive
understanding of their interconnected roles, which could greatly
relieve the difficulties people face in understanding the opposite
sex in the modern world.<br />
<br />
Similarly, millions suffering under the stigma of homosexuality,
would have been greatly relieved to know that love between members of
the same sex is natural, right, and good. (note 1)<br />
<br />
Monkey trickery on the scale of the modern human appears truly
diabolical. There are many cases in which evidence points to huge
deceptions, but they remain uninvestigated due to the territorial
command to follow your leader. (note 2)<br />
<br />
War is waged by animals from ants, through rats and chickens, to
primates. It results from the aggression territorial animals feel
toward those on the other side of the border.<br />
<br />
The territorial instinct evolved to assure the best distribution
of animals of each species through their environment, and each
territory has two vital places: the nest with all of its treasures,
and the border where intruders are repelled. (note 3) Thus, a
conflictual attitude to 'others', be they other tribes, city states,
or nations, races, religions, or sports teams, is built into our
genes, just as a genetically based love of sugar and fat is evident
among us.<br />
<br />
This explains why violence is so widespread in our society,
whether hidden in families, criminalized in communities, or expressed
internationally in wars. The continuing clash between religion and
science, which was show-cased by National Geographic's article, is an
example of the tendency to attack those with different beliefs, and
serves as a daunting reminder that even our brightest lights are no
more capable of managing their aggressive inclinations than any
animal.<br />
<br />
Some primate, including human, societies live in a constant state
of war with the surrounding tribes, and our history is an account of
wars. It is easy to see how the clans whose warriors could not keep
up with the continuous demand for violent responses, would simply
have disappeared, resulting in an increasingly militant population.<br />
<br />
Ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote :<br />
<i>“Unreasoning and unreasonable human nature causes two nations to
compete, though no economic necessity compels them to do so; it
induces two political parties or religions with amazingly similar
programmes of salvation to fight each other bitterly and it impels an
Alexander or a Napoleon to sacrifice millions of lives in his attempt
to unite the world under his sceptre. We have been taught to regard
some of the persons who have committed these and similar absurdities
with respect, even as ‘great’ men, we are wont to yield to the
political wisdom of those in charge, and we are all so accustomed to
these phenomena that most of us fail to realize how abjectly stupid
and undesirable the historical mass behaviour of humanity actually
is.”</i><br />
<br />
In a world in which the current alpha males have science fiction
weapons to use in their dreams of world dominion, there is every
reason to consider this type of instinctive aggression as the
greatest of all dangers. Yet, in an astounding display of denial,
science supports the continuing efforts to create ever more
destructive weapons, and the news as I write today is full of
flagrant attempts by those in power to arouse everyone to militant
enthusiasm for yet more war!<br />
<br />
<i>Accepting the truth</i><br />
Insight into how to control the forces of nature has always
resulted from the understanding gained through investigation of their
natural causes. Were our true inclinations accepted as natural,
providing alternate outlets for our aggression could become part of
our culture until the brute force method fell out of favor.<br />
<br />
Recognition that borders remain in about the same place in spite
of wars, could result in a mutual decision to simply respect the ones
we have now, and enjoy competing in other ways. Militant enthusiasm
can be raised in young people for plenty of other challenges,
including science, art, and sports, causes considered worthy by all
human beings.<br />
<br />
<br />
The bonds of love and friendship that join individuals together,
work like magic to defuse the hackle-raising communal defense
instinct evolved by our pre-human ancestors, and an awareness of them
has the power to change the world. The greatest danger is the
instinctive tendency to regard those who speak or look differently,
as inferior. Recognizing that this inclination is common to us all,
as people growing up in different areas of the world, and that in
spite of cultural differences we all share similar interests in life,
makes it easy to find reasons to like those who are different from
us.<br />
<br />
Individuals communicating with and befriending others in a spirit
of brotherhood could, given the power of the Internet, swiftly
connect the people of the world in friendship, which would go far
toward defusing international hostilities. A day could come in which
they might tell their leaders, when summoned to slaughter their
friends, “We the people, have met on the Internet, and we like each
other. So please, just let us live.”<br />
<br />
In time, adequate knowledge of ourselves would determine the
directions to take to avoid the dangers implicit in our ignorance of
the nature of aggression.<br />
<br />
Other thinkers have written of an “awakening” that might come
about to save the world, as human destruction threatens the planet.
Indeed, we may be the first life form to gain understanding of the
difference between instinct and the wiser choices that are possible
through using the intellect.<br />
<br />
Perhaps that is final test of the human spirit—that we gain the
courage to manage our own biological heritage and remake our world
using wisdom and understanding instead.<br />
<br />
(c) Ila France Porcher<br />
<i> August 2016</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Notes</i><br />
1) Homosexuality is widespread in nature, but because it runs
counter to Christian beliefs about the purpose of love and sex, this
has not become widely known. There is a BBC documentary which serves
as a review of this subject on youtube at :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
<br />
2) Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarians 2006. Humans have a tendency
to follow a leader, to the degree of giving up the guidance of their
own conscience. In a famous experiment, he found that you only need
to ask three or four people before finding someone who is willing to
hold another person down and shock him to death, if you present
yourself as an authority.<br />
3) Schjelerup-Ebbe (1922), Z.Psychol. 88: 226-252<br />
4) From Konrad Lorenz's book <i>On Aggression</i>, written in 1966 as an
overview of aggressive behavior, and a warning to humanity. His
choice of the species closest to humans in behavior was the rat; at
that time he considered that humans had about the same chances as
several hostile clans of rats on a ship that was almost out of food.
My advisor with the sharks, Professor Arthur A. Myrberg Jr., had
worked with him, and we both felt that his ideas were in accordance
with what we too had observed.<br />
My choice for a comparable species, based on my own experiences is
the junglefowl--the ancestor of modern chickens, a species more
affectionate and loving than the rat, as well as expressing most
dramatically the single-minded determination to fight to gain power,
that one sees among humans. These highly territorial birds will also
wage war, on a modest scale, with the alpha male using the younger
beta males as warriors. Thus he avoids being hurt himself, and rids
himself of future competition. With them, too, the borders remain in
about the same place.<i></i></div>
</div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6683783853148382001.post-2815709441611284262016-02-17T17:26:00.001-08:002016-02-17T17:27:44.022-08:00More Fisheries Pseudoscience<style type="text/css">p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify; }p.western { font-family: "URW Palladio L"; font-weight: normal; }p.cjk { font-size: 10pt; }a:link { }</style>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnY1mlLoQcv5nR8r72SnBx8Mkr9mj4U9gDcP0-JXBWA85I6JptL3cdr57cX6D8LKcgb4bBS5yR48HPaTFiBrwaO77jeU19h_4Bchut77SoRcQQjjJ5gulsJ-Wxbr6RiZ0uvfhp1EbuaBf/s1600/peaceful.tiger550.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrnY1mlLoQcv5nR8r72SnBx8Mkr9mj4U9gDcP0-JXBWA85I6JptL3cdr57cX6D8LKcgb4bBS5yR48HPaTFiBrwaO77jeU19h_4Bchut77SoRcQQjjJ5gulsJ-Wxbr6RiZ0uvfhp1EbuaBf/s1600/peaceful.tiger550.JPG" /></a></div>
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Another piece of<a href="http://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/nine-out-ten-shark-scientists-agree-sustainable-shark-fishing-fine" target="_blank">
shark fisheries propaganda</a> has been published. Shark fisherman
David Shiffman now claims it to be scientific fact, that most shark
scientists believe that shark fishing and shark finning are the best
ways to “manage” sharks, when done sustainably. The fact that
most shark scientists work for the fishing industry is omitted. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
What true scientist would condone shark finning
when it involves the waste of 95 percent of the shark, in a protein
starved world? Shark finning has been documented to be responsible
for the 25% of shark species currently threatened with extinction,
but a little known fact is that the United States is the<a href="http://sharkstewards.org/fin-free-tool/top-nations-killing-sharks/" target="_blank">
seventh worst shark finning nation</a>. The paper even affirms that it was the shark
fisheries scientists who were the most likely to be in favour of
sustainable shark fishing as opposed to outright protection for
sharks.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
At about the same time as this paper was announced
in the news, <a href="http://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/gsri_globalprioritiesforconservingsharksandrays_web_spreads_1.pdf" target="_blank">The
Global Strategy for the management of sharks and rays (2015 to 2025)</a>
summarized their plan thus : </div>
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<b><i>“This Global Strategy aims to dramatically alter
the current trajectory of shark and ray decline by promoting the
protection and recovery of the most endangered species, advancing the
understanding and conservation of all species and their critical
habitats, and ensuring that the fisheries, trade and demand for these
species <u>shift from overexploitation towards sustainability</u>.”</i></b> (note
1)</div>
<br />
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
When stated in context, one can see
where working towards sustainable fishing practices is beneficial
when the current practice is chronic overfishing. What is different
about Shiffman's paper, is that it seeks to use the authority of
science to manipulate public opinion to support shark fishing, and to
weaken the efforts of shark advocates to protect them in other
important ways. The very worrying point that shark meat is
increasingly<a href="http://news.discovery.com/human/health/mercury-levels-off-the-chart-in-some-shark-meat-140606.htm" target="_blank">
toxic </a>due to the accumulation of poisons, including mercury,
making sharks unfit food, is not even mentioned. The findings of a dangerous depletion of sharks by
overfishing has been echoed every time an <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X13000055" target="_blank">intensive
global study on shark and ray depletion</a> has been done.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
NOAA (2011) itself states:</div>
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<b><i>“The law calls for the United States to pursue
an international ban on shark finning and to advocate improved data
collection (including biological data, stock abundance, bycatch
levels, and information on the nature and extent of shark finning and
trade). Determining the nature and extent of shark finning is the key
step toward reaching agreements to decrease the incidence of finning
worldwide. “</i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
In October 2014, in an <a href="https://rjd.miami.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Shiffman-Hammerschlag_2014_Fisheries.pdf">article</a>
in the journal “Fisheries” Shiffman made another effort to give
the ring of authority to fishing sharks, this time by promoting shark
sports fishing in Florida. Though both bird fighting and dog fighting
are illegal in Florida, he had no qualms about promoting the
“fighting” and killing of sharks. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
Based on the findings that in French Polynesia,
the biggest shark sanctuary in the world, one shark can be worth over
2 million dollars in its lifetime through shark diving, he
recommended that Florida's sharks were similarly worthy through
“catch and release,” which he argued was a good way for the state
to make money!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
Yet, for one shark to earn 2 million dollars for
Florida, it would have to be fished 4000 times. This is calculated by
dividing 2,000,000 dollars by 500 dollars—which is an average price
charged by shark fishing charters to go out and catch a shark. The
possible effects on the lives and biology of the sharks living there,
as a result of being repeatedly “fought” nearly to death at this
intensity, was not a subject that concerned him. <br />
<br />
When
questioned about it, it became clear that he had not even thought
about the mathematics, though math is an important tool for other
scientists. Nor could he come with any argument to back up his
position. </div>
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<br />
Sharks are not trout. They are large
animals that have to swim continuously forward just to keep an
adequate supply of oxygen moving over their gills, and their strong
horizontal undulations are like a heartbeat, a powerful automatic
motion they cannot stop. Their desperate efforts to escape death
while pulling with so much force against a big shark hook piercing
their faces or internal organs, can cause serious internal and facial
injuries. And as any wildlife rehabilitator soon learns through
experience, serious injuries to wild animals are usually fatal
without the benefit of treatment and supportive care.</div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
Further, examination of Shiffman's own data
reveals that the near threatened <span lang="en-GB">blacktip shark is
the most frequent species caught, and its survival rate from catch
and release fishing is one of the lowest of all species shown.
Blacktips and the endangered</span> <span lang="en-GB">great
hammerhead</span> showed “high physiological disruption and low
survival following release<span lang="en-GB">.” (note 2) </span>In
contradiction to this information, he states many times that the
sharks are released “unharmed.” </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
It is now a matter of record that industry will
deliberately support a political platform for favoured, and often
paid researchers, to influence public opinion. This was done, for
example, by the <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12791525" target="_blank">tobacco
industry</a> and the <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/got-science/2015/got-science-march-2015#.VsTA3UJyhyQ" target="_blank">oil
industry</a>.</div>
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<br />
According to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce (NOAA),
two million, seven hundred thousand sharks were caught by sports
fishermen in the U.S.A. in 2011. Since those were only the killings that were reported, this
figure could be low compared with the true numbers killed if the toll
from private boats that were not reported, were added in. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
The fishing industry is a multi-billion dollar
power that has taken control of both the wild fish populations, and
the way these animals are viewed by the public. The result is that
irregardless of available facts, their conclusions are always in
favour of fishermen, and not “fish,” a word which fisheries will
apply to all marine animals, including sharks, whales, and turtles.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
Another example of unsubstantiated claims used to
support the fishing industry is the<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/faf.12010/abstract;jsessionid=E8AD5C75656417D75E1C0CCCF9C6DA2F.f01t02?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+unavailable+on+Saturday+27th+February+from+09%3A00-14%3A00+GMT+%2F+04%3A00-09%3A00+EST+%2F+17%3A00-22%3A00+SGT+for+essential+maintenance.++Apologies+for+the+inconvenience.&userIsAuthenticated=false&deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=" target="_blank">
Rose paper</a> which sought to give scientific authority to the old
tale that fish don't feel pain. Though Rose has never done a study to
prove his allegations, and though his argument applies to all animals
except man and possibly the great apes, and though it was published
in a fishing journal and not a neurological journal, it received so
much publicity that people got the idea that science had really
proven that fish were too simple-minded to feel pain. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
Yet at the same time, other researchers had
learned that fish have cognitive skills that rival those of birds and
mammals, and they are likely conscious. Veterinarians who work on
them systematically use pain relief, and have said that they found
fish to be more sensitive than birds. It is more logical to believe those who treat and look after fish, than those who kill them.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
Scientists have a duty to humanity and the search
for objective truth, to remain open-minded. Arguments against
established ideas are welcomed when they are based on evidence and
logic, but when they are based on political agendas which are not
supported by evidence, they fall under the definition of
pseudo-science. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
(c)<a href="http://ilafranceporcher.wix.com/author" target="_blank">
Ila France Porcher </a></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>note 1 : This was the result of a collaboration
between the Shark Specialist Group of IUCN, and scientists from the
major conservation organizations, following the SSG study, published
last year, which found that 24% of sharks and rays are in danger of
imminent extinction.</i></div>
<i>
</i>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="en-GB">note 2 :</span></i><i>
</i><i><span lang="en-GB">According to the International Union for
Conservation of Nature, IUCN, great hammerheads are endangered, and
blacktip sharks are near threatened.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
Ila France Porcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06864521615878468677noreply@blogger.com4