Friday, December 18, 2009

Actions speak louder than Words

Fisher and the hook - and still proud of it!

The San Diego Reader has just published this story.

It's a great and well researched piece about the Shark fishing tagging disaster in the Farallones and the outrage it sparked among scientists, divers and the public alike. Kudos to all of them for having spoken up and said it as it is.

Alas, the perpetrators remain completely unfazed.

Not that I would have expected anything else from Fisher.
As amply documented by his public boasting, all he really cared about was to hook and subdue (if that doesn't say it all) a couple of giant Sharks - and the scientific research was just a pretext to do so within two marine sanctuaries, and to subsequently sell the show to Nat Geo. Very savvy indeed, and pretty cynic on top of that - but again, hardly surprising considering his track record.

What however baffles and quite frankly saddens me is that Domeier just doesn't seem to get it.
What is being criticized is the brutal handling of the Sharks, not the fact that this or that tag was deployed. In fact, everybody seems to agree that SPOT tags are the current cat's meow and that the long-term observational data collected would provide valuable and unique information about the GWs life history - but apart from Fisher's obvious requirements: was hooking and subduing really the only possible procedure?

Really?
I may be repeating myself, but just imagine the outcry if anybody dared to state that the level of temporary stress we subject these animals to is unfortunate, but the scientific advancements are well worth the effort, and then proceeded to go and hook and subdue, say, an Orca! And then released it with a huge hook embedded in its throat!

Are we really to believe that Domeier could not have adapted the proven non-invasive techniques for capturing and handling large Cetaceans? That he could not have tagged the Shark by keeping it in a cradle next to a skiff, like everybody else seems to do? That he could not have built some tool like the grabber this guy has invented, or used nets instead of rod and reel? Or re-designed the anchors so that the tags could have been deployed by using pole spears? Or developed some other non-invasive technique?

Did he even try?
Thing is, he just doesn't seem to give a rat's ass about the animals, does he.

Eagerly awaiting news of the Shark you tortured and injured!

2 comments:

Wolfgang Leander said...

Gosh, just looking at this heartless guy's body language makes me wanna throw up.

Does this 'Arschloch' think that because he does scientific work he can get away inflicting pain on, and worse: endangering, the very subjects of his research?

He should be f.........g ashamed of himself, at least as I feel ashamed for him.

DaShark said...

I would have to agree – though to be fair, that's not the scientist but the producer, Chris Fisher.

All you need to do, is to follow the links I posted in order to see what he does & what he stands for - and i'll leave it at that, lest I too start reverting to my native language, as in
an bös dal cüü coma quell li, vegnaress propri vöia da tiragg un para da sc’gannasson! or the like...

Howz that for a linguistic challenge Wolf