A school of Silkies - great pic of an increasingly rare, and very lucky encounter by Ken Howard.I hate petitions.
Very often, all they manage to achieve is to embolden the opposition and to anger those that are being petitioned - but this one, I believe, is different.
Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has proposed rules that would expand the list of protected Sharks to include the highly endangered Sandbars, Silkies (pictured above) and Caribbean Sharpnoses.
Whilst this is certainly laudable, it will apparently increase the fishing pressure on other big Sharks like Bulls, Tigers, Hammerheads and Lemons. The latter are especially vulnerable as they conveniently and predictable aggregate in a small area off Palm Beach, where they are the subject of research and a popular attraction for Shark lovers.
Thanks to incessant lobbying by "Mr. Lemon" Doc Gruber and a coalition of scientists, divers and conservation orgs, the FWC seems to be more than willing to add the Lemons, and maybe even other Sharks to the protected list. It really looks like they are good people willing to do the right thing.
The present petition is meant to lead up to the public workshops at the end of October where the protection of the Lemon Sharks will be discussed and hopefully, sanctioned as well. It will add credibility to the arguments of the pro-Shark advocates, as will a robust turnout by Florida's Shark lovers and marine conservationists.
Please take one minute and sign the petition.
Thank you.
Very often, all they manage to achieve is to embolden the opposition and to anger those that are being petitioned - but this one, I believe, is different.
Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has proposed rules that would expand the list of protected Sharks to include the highly endangered Sandbars, Silkies (pictured above) and Caribbean Sharpnoses.
Whilst this is certainly laudable, it will apparently increase the fishing pressure on other big Sharks like Bulls, Tigers, Hammerheads and Lemons. The latter are especially vulnerable as they conveniently and predictable aggregate in a small area off Palm Beach, where they are the subject of research and a popular attraction for Shark lovers.
Thanks to incessant lobbying by "Mr. Lemon" Doc Gruber and a coalition of scientists, divers and conservation orgs, the FWC seems to be more than willing to add the Lemons, and maybe even other Sharks to the protected list. It really looks like they are good people willing to do the right thing.
The present petition is meant to lead up to the public workshops at the end of October where the protection of the Lemon Sharks will be discussed and hopefully, sanctioned as well. It will add credibility to the arguments of the pro-Shark advocates, as will a robust turnout by Florida's Shark lovers and marine conservationists.
Please take one minute and sign the petition.
Thank you.
2 comments:
Great blog! And thank you pointing out that the FWC commissioners are good people who want to do the right thing.
Thanks!
It's a great cause!
And to your credit, I notice that everybody involved is pursuing a pragmatic and goal oriented dialogue instead of trying to impose those idealistic and uncompromising all-or-nothing agendas that are so typical of the tree hugging faction of conservation.
Kudos to the FWC for being a frontrunner in enlightened Shark conservation.
Which of course begs the question, what are the other comparable state agencies doing? And why does there appear to be such a lack of pro-Shark activism in most states except for Florida and California?
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