Palestinians kill rare & endangered sea turtle

[EvilMonkey]

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=...=23&sp=true

 

Somehow if this were the Japanese I don't think it would be greeted with such a ho-hum attitude. Espercially considering how much crap they get for whaling. Where is PETA!!!!

[Balta1701]

Ahhh! Bear!

[FlaSoxxJim]

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=...=23&sp=true

 

Somehow if this were the Japanese I don't think it would be greeted with such a ho-hum attitude. Espercially considering how much crap they get for whaling. Where is PETA!!!!

 

Yeah, I'd like to not see any intentional sea turtle harvesting – especially one with so much baloney folk remedy aspects to it like giving the blood to kids with respiratory illness.

 

But, FAR AND AWAY, the leading threat to leatherbacks is accidental catch by the global longline fishing fleet, and the US loses all of its moral high ground there because it allows longliners to continue to operate and has even reopened Hawaiian longline fisheries with full knowledge that it will be the chief contributor to the local extinction of the population.

 

There are probably only around 50,000 breeding pairs of leatherbacks worldwide as of now, and that's a huge decline from 25 years ago. Compae that number to the 50,000 leatherbacks (many are non-breeding subadults) that people like Larry Crowder at Duke estimate are accidentally captured by the global longline fleet every year. Crowder estimates that a leatherback has about a 50/50 chance of being killed by a longline hook every year.

 

A species that dates back 100 million years may be gone in our lifetimes if global fishery practices aren't quickly overhauled.

 

And you know I'm not meaning to call you out on the Palistian slaughter of the animal you posted, Alpha – certainly I hate seeing that. I just wanted to give some perspective as to where the real threats to the species come from. The World Conservation Union recognizes the species as endangered, but there isn't an international moratorium on targeted harvest. And even if there was, it wouldn't fix the longline bycatch problem.

 

To be even more depressing, as damaging as the longlines are to sea turtles, it pales compared to what they are doing to the world's albatross populations. 3/4 of the 24 living albatross species face immediate extinction threat due primarily to longlines. Well over 100,000 birds are accidentally killed each year by longlines (that's probably a major underestimate).

Edited April 7, 2008 by FlaSoxxJim

[EvilMonkey]

Yeah, I'd like to not see any intentional sea turtle harvesting – especially one with so much baloney folk remedy aspects to it like giving the blood to kids with respiratory illness.

 

But, FAR AND AWAY, the leading threat to leatherbacks is accidental catch by the global longline fishing fleet, and the US loses all of its moral high ground there because it allows longliners to continue to operate and has even reopened Hawaiian longline fisheries with full knowledge that it will be the chief contributor to the local extinction of the population.

 

There are probably only around 50,000 breeding pairs of leatherbacks worldwide as of now, and that's a huge decline from 25 years ago. Compae that number to the 50,000 leatherbacks (many are non-breeding subadults) that people like Larry Crowder at Duke estimate are accidentally captured by the global longline fleet every year. Crowder estimates that a leatherback has about a 50/50 chance of being killed by a longline hook every year.

 

A species that dates back 100 million years may be gone in our lifetimes if global fishery practices aren't quickly overhauled.

 

And you know I'm not meaning to call you out on the Palistian slaughter of the animal you posted, Alpha – certainly I hate seeing that. I just wanted to give some perspective as to where the real threats to the species come from. The World Conservation Union recognizes the species as endangered, but there isn't an international moratorium on targeted harvest. And even if there was, it wouldn't fix the longline bycatch problem.

 

To be even more depressing, as damaging as the longlines are to sea turtles, it pales compared to what they are doing to the world's albatross populations. 3/4 of the 24 living albatross species face immediate extinction threat due primarily to longlines. Well over 100,000 birds are accidentally killed each year by longlines (that's probably a major underestimate).

S'ok. I'l admit I didn't really post it because of the turtle ('WHAT? I don't believe it', you say). I was trying to point out how even in the killing of endangered animals, the Palestinians get a pass from most of the world media. They throw rocks at soldiers with guns, and wonder why they get shot. They lob rockets in at schools and then wonder why they can't cross the border into Israel. They blow up busses and wonder why that house full of terrorists on the corner suddenly exploded. And all the while, they play the victim, and have than card as their excuse for just about everything they do. Like I said, if this had been Japan, or Canada, I think the outrage would have been noted.

 

But speaking of the turtle, where are their habitats located at? Are they around the globe, or just in a few areas?

[FlaSoxxJim]

But speaking of the turtle, where are their habitats located at? Are they around the globe, or just in a few areas?

 

They are trans-oceanic migratory animals, present in all tropical and temperate waters worldwide. And that is at the heart of the conservation problem. 90% of coastal nations may on board with cooperative conservation efforts, but those efforts are undermined if the animals hatched on a beach in one part of the world are not protected in all the waters they may end up in during various stages of their life.

 

I'm not getting on the Isreall/Palestine who's-the-worse-bad-guy merry-go-round. It never seems to do much good.

 

[EvilMonkey]

They are trans-oceanic migratory animals, present in all tropical and temperate waters worldwide. And that is at the heart of the conservation problem. 90% of coastal nations may on board with cooperative conservation efforts, but those efforts are undermined if the animals hatched on a beach in one part of the world are not protected in all the waters they may end up in during various stages of their life.

 

I'm not getting on the Isreall/Palestine who's-the-worse-bad-guy merry-go-round. It never seems to do much good.

Fair enough. Back to the turtles, are their migratory paths all year round, or are they usually within a certain time? Just wondering if a few weeks of no fishing could be enough, if they moved across the ocean only at certain times.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Scientists don't know all of the life history ins and outs of any of the sea turtle species. There is a well-defined seasonality to nesting, but that's only the adult females and individual animals only nest every other year or so. By and large, the world population is scattered throughout their range and seasonal fishery closures would not be too effective.

 

Some longline fleets have made some improvements in longline fishing gear – replacing "J-hooks" with hooks that are not as lethal to turtles and changing the baits to items not as enticing to them. But the world fleet is far from 100% compliant, and it's still only an incremental improvement.

 

It has been estimated that around 3.8 million hooks are put into the oceans on longlines EVERY DAY, so it's just a staggeringly large-scale issue. And to make matters worse, there is sort of a snowball effect in the fishery such that when target stocks decline and it's harder to catch quotas then the number of longlines deployed tends to go up rather than down. That makes it hard for target and non-target species to withsand that kind of harvest pressure.

[Texsox]

We are one of the major breeding grounds for the Ridley sea turtle and take that responsibility very seriously around here. All dredging operations are required to have nets out in front to capture and release the turtles, we have regular beach patrols during breeding season to protect the nest, a very active Turtle center. And it's all worth it each summer when we have the releases and see them heading to the ocean.

[Kyyle23]

i used to visit fripp island south carolina, and they have active turtle breeding grounds. I believe the sign said trespassing onto the breeding grounds could result in jailtime and up to a 250,000 fine.

 

I couldnt even watch the video, them dragging that thing out of the water made me feel pretty bad. Such an old creature, probably on its way to a breeding ground

[Balta1701]

I couldnt even watch the video, them dragging that thing out of the water made me feel pretty bad. Such an old creature, probably on its way to a breeding ground

I clicked on the link and got a video of a polar bear swimming.

[Texsox]

I clicked on the link and got a video of a polar bear swimming.

Which is what the world with have with the Palistinians killing all the turtles

[Kyyle23]

I clicked on the link and got a video of a polar bear swimming.

 

the video is in that link, next to the bear video. I got the Bear swimming too