February 13, 2006
This little piggie says: Implement strong interim measures!
We've been in Wellington for three days now with our deep-sea display in Civic Square. We've talked to a LOT of people about deep sea life and the threat posed by bottom trawling. It's a bit of a mouthful but with our deep sea sculpture in the background it doesn't take long to explain to people that there is a mysterious, ancient and delicate ecology in the deep sea, 
about which science has only an incomplete understanding, that is being systematically wiped out in unregulated international waters by a particularly destructive and indiscriminate method of fishing called bottom trawling. You just have to remember to stop for a breath in the middle!
We're asking people to write messages to the RFMO meeting delegates urging them to put a halt on bottom trawling in the international waters of the South Pacific Ocean while the conversation about how to manage that area continues for the next few years. These processes can move somewhat slowly and if nothing is done in the interim the destruction will continue unabated.
Well over a thousand messages to the delegates have been written both at our stall and through our online form and we'll be delivering them to the meeting some time in the next few days.
The messages range from the poignant through humorous to the deadly serious but one of our favourites is this one from Tristram Stewart:
If I was a sea pig, what I would be saying to you right now in my sea pig voice would probably be "Oink". If I knew better I would say "Give me a chance. I cannot protect myself from bottom trawling. Only with your help will my species, and my friends the Glass Squid, the Rattail, Orange Roughy and the wonderful deep-sea coral we live in be able to survive. On the 14th of February please think of us and not the wallets of the fishing companies. Thank you for listening. Oink. -
Comments on this entry:
Bottom Trawling,like giving ECT to someone whos having a bad day.
Posted by: fleur at February 14, 2006 5:37 PM
deep sea trawling is like using a rake to get your tonsils out
Posted by: jade at February 14, 2006 4:43 PM
Bottom trawling is worse than putting a bull in a china shop
Posted by: Dalray at February 14, 2006 4:07 PM
It's like forcing "The Hoff" on the world just for the Germans entertainment.
Posted by: Carol at February 14, 2006 3:49 PM
Bottom trawling for fish is like hunting quail with a shotgun.
Posted by: Scott at February 14, 2006 3:25 PM
We value virgin olive oil, for its colour, its clarity, the pureness of the taste. We admire anything virginal for its beauty, its purity and for what it holds for us in the future.
Why don't we value our virgin seas?
Its secrets, its abundance, the well of life.
Everything needs to become of age.
Posted by: Lee Weller at February 14, 2006 3:24 PM
Similes for deep-sea trawling:
It's like arresting everyone in the hopes of catching a few criminals
It's like using a steamroller to pick daffodils
It's like using a nuclear bomb on Afghanistan to catch some terrorists
It's like poisoning an entire body with mercury to get rid of syphilis
It's like searching for the right piece of china by hurling everything out of the cupboards onto the floor
It's like killing everything you don't care about and can't make money out of so you can squeeze out that last dribble of self-serving, utterly moronic profit.. oh hold on, it's not LIKE that, it IS that... ooops.
Posted by: Kate Bailey at February 14, 2006 3:22 PM
Surely even the most profligate user of the world's resources must suspect that there are many babies amongst the bathwater they are so indiscriminately throwing away.
Posted by: Desmond Smith at February 14, 2006 3:12 PM
The trawl nets are not the only fishing method that catch coral. The industrial longline can catch coral by entalging the hooks in the branches... and some artisanal traps also!. I have samples of bamboo coral catched by longline and black coral catched by traps in Chile.
This is a wider problem, and you should not refer only to the trawlnets.
Kept in mind the following: sometimes a bad solution is worse than the problem!.
Posted by: Anonymous at February 14, 2006 3:34 AM
