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Tip: Your message to SUST-MAR must be html-free. So, BEFORE you hit SEND, please go to your "Format" pull-down menu and select "Plain text." Thanks! ____________________________________________________________________________ >===== Original Message From Codmother2@aol.com ===== Dear fellow humans, It is later than you think for seals, fish, whales, etc. in Atlantic Canada. The fishing industry is proposing a Nova Scotia grey seal cull now that will in all likelihood exterminate this species. The smaller, "cuter" harbour seals can expect to be indiscriminately blown away too. Grey seals are being shot on a daily basis by fishermen now, and the only thing that will change is that a full-out blitz will be mounted once the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) gives its blessing to the project. "Management" of nature could not be more inept. Killing seals will not offer one iota of assistance in the "rebuilding" of fish stocks that are generally faltering now, because the root of their problem lies in an alarming decline in plankton production. That is why fish are so small and lean now; they are starving. Seals naturally work towards stimulating plankton production, but perhaps that is beside the point. An important question is why DFO is keeping the plankton problem under their hat, why they are not coming clean to the fishing industry, and to the public, on the implications of this disastrous "unexpected" development. Where's the proof? It's in the gradual disappearance of a multitude of small plankton-feeding animal life along the shoreline. The public can easily see this. Barnacles, mussels, clams, snails, anemones, small fish, are all quietly disappearing from "pristine" coastal areas, and DFO is utterly silent on this. Pollution causes "too much" plankton growth, but these broad trends today point in the opposite direction. Proof of the plankton decline, spanning decades, can also be found in DFO's science data. Why the reluctance of science to discuss the mysterious plankton decline? It seems DFO lacks the courage to contemplate this evidence that the very foundation of their "fisheries science" is fatally flawed. For a short while longer DFO may be able to let the seals take the fall for this, because the general public does not suspect what is happening and has been conditioned to believe that seals are some scourge that is "damaging" fisheries. Lobster fishermen are shooting seals on sight, even as they cannot understand why their prey, plankton-feeding lobsters, is getting physically weaker. Lobsters caught offshore Nova Scotia now are dying like flies. Top prices are only paid for the healthier inshore ones, and this is a new development. Food-stressed populations of fish and lobsters cave in from the outer edges first, in a pattern that has been amply shown by cod and many others before this. Lobsters are also vanishing to the north and the south, yet DFO and the lucrative SW Nova lobster fishery act as if it exists inside a magic bubble. Shrinking options for fish, lobster, and seal are all driven by faltering plankton - and each of these animals, under these stressful conditions, makes adjustments to accelerate the plankton-boosting aspects its own existence. Egg output (which feeds plankton) has been maxed out by fish and others, as "little ones" now unexpectedly carry roe. Thus ocean life strains to maintain its "balance." The more of these animals that we take out, the faster the whole living ocean endeavor sinks. But this version of the truth is unspeakable. Best not to think about something so alarming, and people can instead continue to be "surprised" "shocked" and "dismayed" as marine animal life ever sickens and disappears. Thinking about all of this might be just too hard on the human head. But, wishing for a world in which problems can be solved by blowing off ones frustrations, by shooting seals, will not make it so. Once again, we will only "manage" to shoot ourselves in the foot. If we have no compassion for the now-very-hungry grey seal, can we find any for the future of our children? Please take a couple of minutes to write a "letter to the editor" voicing your opinion on the proposed Nova Scotia grey seal cull. Whether you agree with me or not, a variety of views will make the media more likely to draw attention to this "contentious" issue. Letters to the Halifax Herald newspaper can be emailed to: letters@herald.ca , these need to be short - not over 200 words - and you must include your name, address and phone number (although they will not print that). My arguments against the seal hunt can be found in greater detail at: http://www.fisherycrisis.com/seals/greysealhunt.htm The days are numbered during which DFO will be able to avoid openly discussing the whole truth of what they know about the changes in the ocean. It seems that only public pressure will be able to force it out of them, however. The fishing industry is not particularly keen to bring the nature of this disaster into sharp focus, because the implications for their future are not good. Denial seems to be the most comfortable place for many fishermen to be. But that doesn't change the truth, and the truth is that the whole general public has a serious stake in a healthy ocean, in healthy plankton. Debbie MacKenzie http://www.fisherycrisis.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PLANKTON We're an indolent lot . . . Shiftless microscopic drifters. Here in the oceans a million trillion trillion of us just float and aimlessly worship the sun. We have no brains at all. And we don't do anything at all except procreate with promiscuous abandon and generate most of the Earth's oxygen. And we have no advice at all for you diligent bipeds who use your capacious intellects to so industriously befoul the seas. For about two billion years we got along Quite well without you. And without us, you will suffocate. ---From the poem Love and Anger by Gordon McCloskey. ____________________________________________________________________________ Did a friend forward this to you? Join sust-mar yourself! Just send 'subscribe sust-mar' to mailto:majordomo@chebucto.ca
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