12 November 2009
The Electric New Paper :
Netting giant fish as food? It's time to think out of the wok
I AM writing about the article 'Fisherman nets second monster fish in 3 weeks' (The New Paper, 3 Nov).
The guitar shark or shovelnose ray is a gentle giant and a rare find. But the person who caught this magnificent creature is no hero.
Especially after all the efforts of various organisations trying to highlight the subject of conservation during Shark Week.
On the one hand, we are trying to teach the community to protect the environment and, on the other, when a rare sighting like this comes about, it gets sold for consumption.
How are we going to welcome great aquatic creatures into our waters when we see them only as food?
Celebrities on television ask the world to stop consuming or killing sharks and other marine creatures like turtles because their numbers are dwindling, but how are we to protect them when we have restaurants that still serve their flesh?
This shark/ray could have been a popular attraction at Underwater World, and the fisherman could still have made a profit.
He could have been hailed as a hero if he had saved this beautiful creature from vanishing into someone else's stomach.
It is time for us to think out of the wok.
FROM READER JEROME SEAN FRANCIS
