Chris Lowe - excellent Article!

And I cite - the link is mine.

The rise in public and media interest is closely related to the increased focus from a wide array of elasmobranch conservation organisations, many of which religiously sound alarm bells, but often without any need or use for the supporting science....

While sounding the alarm is necessary and will always be needed to promote change and conservation, I worry about its effect on how we do science. I see an unfortunate trend where the best way to make our science important and relevant is to focus on ‘the-sky-is-falling’ issues. Of the past 20 elasmobranch-related grant proposals and manuscripts I’ve reviewed, more than 80% have resorted to ‘the sky-is-falling’ statements to justify the importance their research, regardless of whether they offered a concrete remedy. In addition, there are already signs of ‘the-sky-is-falling’ science having the undesired effect of generating hopelessness among the public and, more disturbingly, among legislators. Crying wolf without good cause is weakening managers’ ability to implement adequate strategies.

Absolutely correct!

You must really read this brilliant article by Chris Lowe, the President of the American Elasmobranch Society.

Well said!

And since we're at it.

Think the recent deluge of pics of the aloha chick posing next to big sharks is conservation like she would have you believe?

Think again.
It's nothing more than the same old self-promotion for, gasp, money - and the inevitable tired old image of her riding a GWS, a protected species, is not only not conservation, it is instead evidence of illegal out-of-cage diving and also animal harassment  = really nothing to be proud of!

So much for "don't be fooled by appearances, I'm more than just a pretty face" as per her recent plea. I say, as long as the chick continues to define herself through those stupidities, caveat emptor - and yes I can certainly leave it at that!

And the Sharkette taking some other random galeophobic gal Shark diving?

I wish it were that simple! Every single one of us Shark diving operators does the very same thing on a daily basis, albeit sans the bombastic noise, the self promotion and the media hype! Were that a legit conservation strategy, the decline in Shark populations would have been halted decades ago!

Plus let's never forget that those same tame friendly Tiger Beach denizens remain wild animals that would have no compulsion whatsoever about snacking on some unfortunate Haitian boat people they would chance upon - meaning that using controlled Shark diving as some kind of "proof" against the hazard of Shark strikes is both stupid and totally misleading!

It's like I said quite a while ago.

The fishermen in, say, Indonesia, UAE and even Spain where the slaughter is happening really don't give a shit about those shenanigans but will only stop fishing for Sharks and killing them as bycatch if and when adequate legislation will prevent them from doing so. Case in point: as we speak, a group of generous philanthropic individuals and foundations are anonymously (!) pumping several million dollars into Shark conservation - and guess what: bimbos and Sharks are not a part of the global strategy mix!

But I'm digressing as always.

All I really wanted to say is, read Chris Lowe's excellent article.

Enjoy!

PS: Case in point: what is better, the drama about some random galeophobic chick, or this? :)