Shark Fins and Snow Leopards
The president of Ecuador has reversed his order to deport an American who was involved in a police raid that seized over two tons of shark fins.
The president, Rafael Correa, accused the American of illegally involving himself in Ecuadoran affairs; the American, Sean O'Hearn, a volunteer for Sea Shepherd, pointed out that he has an Ecuadoran wife and child.
In the background of this: a controversy over a new regulation passed by Correa which allows the sale of fins from sharks that are "accidentally" caught, but contains no specifics on how to determine whether a shark is caught accidentally.
Noting that each fin can fetch about $80 in Asia, where they are considered a delicacy, he called the measure a way to help fishermen who "want to bring bread to their children."
"They’re telling us to be sensitive with sharks and insensitive with people," Correa said.
Well, that ought to give the fishermen of Ecuador work for another three or four years, until there are no more sharks left in Ecuadoran waters.
Here's a petition you can sign asking Correa to reinstate the ban on shark fishing, which was in effect before he took office and lifted it.
Meanwhile, police in China seized an illegal cache of rare animal furs.
Police raided a flat in Linxia in the central province of Gansu where they found the remains of bears, snow leopards, clouded leopards and lynxes, Xinhua news agency said.....Bones of exotic animals are an ingredient of traditional Chinese medicine.
Why is it that it's only the exotic animals which get killed for "medicine"?
My guess: Because the medicine is a crock, and its efficacy, also known as the placebo effect, depends upon the primitive consumer believing in it, something which is more likely to happen if you can say, "contains claw of bear, shark fin, and kidney of snow leopard" than if you say, "It's chicken soup."
The question is, Will Chinese culture modernize sufficiently to address these myths before its growing consumer culture depopulates the world of beautiful and rare animals?
By the way, know why the snow leopard is in demand? Because it's a substitute in that "medicine" for the bones of tigers, which the Chinese have forced into extinction across Asia.
