Happy Earth Day!
April 22nd, a day to celebrate nature and all we can do to
protect it. My dear friend (and
mentor, frequent inspiration, guidance counsellor, and once-upon-a-time boss) Jackie recently wrote a post for Earth
Day on her blog ‘The Marine Detective’ asking if we were doing enough with
respect to diminishing our footprint (check it out here). It got me thinking, along with my experience
here, about the larger question of conservation in a world where people are
struggling to survive and thrive.
The fact is, I live a kush life. I have everything I need, plus a lot more. With everything covered, I am afforded the
luxury of trying to be conscious about my consumption. Sure, I want and can often have bamboo
clothing, organic veggies, and designer cloth bags instead of plastic. The truth is my footprint is still
enormous. And enviable. Of course people want to live like I live,
and here in lies the problem.
This issue is very well illustrated by a situation that is
happening not too far from me right now.
A nearby town fishes for manta rays.
Mantas are listed as ‘vulnerable’ by the IUCN and the global population
of mantas is not known. Very little is known about manta biology, but they do
know that they are very reproductively conservative (they only have one pup at
a time) and that populations are localized, meaning they can be easily
depleted and won’t be ‘topped up’ by other mantas coming into the area. Both these characteristics mean that fishing
mantas sustainably is probably very tricky.
Fishing mantas in the Philippines is technically illegal. However, demand from international trade is
high and mantas are lucrative. The local
fishermen who catch them (purportedly as a result of bycatch from the legal
mobula fishery) can get upwards of $1000USD for one.
Let’s think about that:
A small fishing village, no other real industry, $1000USD.
Throw into the mix that no one is enforcing the so-called
ban on hunting mantas and the fact that there is significant demand for this
product from other Asian nations. It’s
easy for me to be on my rich, Western country soap box and say ‘Save the
Mantas’ and quite another to visit and see this community and their operation. It’s essentially the same situation and
dilemma I had with the whale sharks, just consumptive vs. non-consumptive use
of the wildlife. One big factor that is different is the question WHY is there a demand for manta gill rakers? That would be another post altogether (the answer is for traditional chinese medicine, but again, another post altogether).
Right now they will allow us to come and collect data from the
mantas they land. We are not doing
anything further to push the issue until some social issues can be worked
out. A Philippino colleague wants to
work with the community to find alternatives.
This is awesome, but also where it gets trickier still, because really,
why would this community stop fishing mantas and fish for other species that
are less profitable? Are there other livelihoods that will be equally
lucrative? How does one go about asking
a community to assign different values to a big fish? Is it a manner of enforcement, a matter of
finding alternatives, a matter of education?
Or maybe all three?
 |
| Drying manta and mobula |
 |
| Landing catch. |
I expected to go in for my first sample collection and feel
sad or upset. But I didn’t, I just felt
conflicted about everything I’ve just brought up. When the mantas come in everyone gathers on
the beach. They work together to land
the giant fish and begin processing it.
A manta dealer chats into the phone, trying to find a high price from a
buyer. They are ok with us being there
and are excited for us to measure the animal, interested in how big it is (the animal in the pictures above was over 5 meters across). There is an air of celebration, probably
because this catch is worth so much more than the regular.
To give some further context to the dilemma of this situation,
let’s look at the Philippines in general.
It is the 12th most populous country in the world. In the last 20 years the population has
increased by 50%. It is also a country
in economic transition, from primarily agricultural to one more based on
manufacturing and services. Despite
this, in small communities people are still just struggling to eke out a
livelihood.
The same story is being played out around the world,
including in communities in Canada. We
are all striving to have the best lives possible. This often means making money at the
expense of the environment. Short
sighted exploitation for short-term gain (hello oil sands and the Enbridge
pipeline).
So, where does all this leave us on Earth Day 2012? Well on our way back from dinner last night,
I had an interesting conversation with my colleagues about energy
conservation. One side of our discussion
was pro-invention, with nuclear fusion and other fancy technologies coming in
to save the day. The other side was
pro-grassroots conservation, with each of us doing our part to use less. In the end, I think we agreed that to really start fixing things we are going to need a combination of both. Each of us doing our part AND some new ingenuity. I think this is the same for
situations like the manta. We need to
make sacrifices to protect the environment, but we also need some creativity to find new solutions to old problems. Should you have the answer, please let me
know. Honestly though, this is what really makes me excited and passionate recently- looking at issues like these here, at home, wherever, and working towards innovative, practical solutions. It isn't easy, but it's the direction I feel more compelled to explore these days.
I'll admit that this is a bit of a depressing post. So like all good Aquarium-interps, let’s
finish it off with a call to action.
- Use your voice in your own backyard. There are appalling things happening in Canada right now with respect to the environment . Don’t sit back and let our awful government get away with what they are trying to do. Write your MP, go to rallies, make a stink! Please.
- Seriously, let’s start shrinking our footprint. For real. Go read Jackie’s blog post for inspiration.
- Let’s support communities and people that are using ingenuity to make their livelihood. You can help by investing in Kiva credits- a super cool program that uses your donation to make micro- loans. Once they are paid back, your money gets re-invested again.
PS. Happy Birthday,
dear Jackie. As always your insights
stirred a lot of thought in my little pea-brain. XO
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