|
The world's marine life is being driven to oblivion, and divers are among the worst culprits. John Bantin has his own conspiracy theory and it leaves none of us as innocent parties. You have been warned |
 |
STOP KILLING SHARKS! Yes, I'm talking to you, the Diver reader. Stop killing sharks!
"I don't kill sharks, " you reply. "I give money to the Shark Trust. I tell my local Chinese restaurant they shouldn't serve sharkfin soup. In fact I love sharks. I pay big money to go on diving trips to see them. I want to get close to sharks."
That may all be true, but you're still a major part of the worldwide conspiracy that will soon see the end of sharks.
Then the other fish in the oceans will fall victim to uncontrolled epidemics of disease, the seas will become almost lifeless bodies of water, and there will be no more reason to go diving - and it will be your fault.
Ninety per cent of the world's pelagic species of fish are already missing, presumed dead. Eaten.
"Not by me," I hear some of you say. Yet you're part of this conspiracy too.
How do I know that you're threatening the existence of sharks and other pelagics? Because you may not eat sharkfin soup, or even eat fish at all, but you enable others to do so.
There are 1.3 billion people in China who want to eat sharkfin soup. That's 1,300,000,000, a lot of people.
At present only 100 million sharks are killed each year to satisfy the demand for sharkfin soup. 100 million doesn't sound like so many alongside 1300 million. But the slow-maturing shark does not breed fast enough to withstand such an onslaught.
Wait a moment! Sharkfin soup is still a luxury. At the moment only 200 million people in China potentially have the income to buy such commodities. But they are getting richer, and as they get richer, they can afford to indulge.
How are the Chinese getting richer? Because of you. You are buying their products, and, as it happens, divers are particularly responsible.
It's hypocritical to stand on a dive boat decrying the activities of Chinese longline fleets, and bemoaning the absence of big animals from dive sites, while at the same time wearing a wetsuit made in China.
But most neoprene products come from China. As do your favourite trainers, probably your dive bag, the chip in your computer, even the silicone in your mask and fins. If you stopped sending your money to China, it would not be able to pay the longline fleets for shark fins.
Then there are the Japanese. The average Japanese expects to eat fresh fish at least once a day. How is that paid for? With the money you provided when you bought the video camera you use to try to record big fish; the TV on which you watch the footage; your digital camera; your film camera; even your film.
The list is endless. You are paying the Japanese to pay their fishing fleets, kill the animals and eat the fish.
A single bluefin tuna now fetches around $1500 in a Japanese fish market. How can people afford these prices? With the money you paid for your Nintendo.
What about Japanese cars? What about any cars for that matter? Turn the ignition key in your car and its another blow to the underwater world.
Exhaust emissions are killing our planet. But emissions from your car are nothing compared to what it takes to turn on your central heating, your air-conditioning or even your lights.
Then there's the matter of the great American public and its famed ability to consume energy, which has a direct effect on global warming. Most coral reefs have died but no politician will do anything to stop it. Tell your electorate to turn out the lights and you'll be out of office before you have time to turn them on again.
Still, we can always enjoy looking at small, pretty animals. Sorry, the burgeoning US aquarium business sucks in more and more pretty fish every day. As they die in captivity or grow too big, the owners simply replace them. So stop buying American goods too.
But it's not just the Chinese, or the Japanese, or the Americans. Look closer to home. The Spanish still have a huge fleet which works hard to supply shark fins. Swordfish is still on the menu in the Costas, and we Brits still buy Spanish produce, cars and white goods and take our holidays in their sunshine.
In fact, we would still be fishing ourselves if we had not demolished our own stocks and run the humble cod to the edge of extinction.
No industrialised fishing is ecologically sustainable, so visiting your chippy and ordering anything more natural than a dyed-pink saveloy-in-batter is wrong.
Farmed fish? Sorry, that's no good. The blame for the local demise of some wild species, including salmon, has been laid at the door of fish-farming techniques.
Even eating only chicken may not help. It's probably been fed on fishmeal.
If you divers want to help sharks, stop wearing neoprene. Stop buying silicone goods, and travelling to dive sites in boats driven by fossil fuels. Stop buying electronic goods to try to record the last vestiges of the world's marine life.
Stop buying diving kit made in countries which eat a lot of marine organisms. Stop travelling. Stop diving. Stop buying this magazine.
Did I say that?
Well, perhaps we don't need sharks after all.
|
