The DEATH of a SPECIES

[King Saba]

Originally Posted by kirkdavis

We did the same thing to the bison, whales, and to a lesser extent elk, turkey, deer, etc. We have learned from our mistakes, but when we try to point it our to other people, they say "what makes you so special? Who do you think you are to tell us what to do with our natural resources?" It is a tough nut to crack.
The mentality is different. The people who are doing the actual poaching are just trying to make a living. The middlemen in many cases are the ones making the profit.

As long as there's money attached to our problems these problems will continue to exist. Greed will be the end of all life.

[iethinker]

UH...Cute little fellows those Vaquita....there may be a chance for them yet!

"You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. Let me tell you about our planet. Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old. There's been life on it for nearly that long, 3.8 billion years. Bacteria first; later the first multicellular life, then the first complex creatures in the sea, on the land.

Then finally the great sweeping ages of animals, the amphibians, the dinosaurs, at last the mammals, each one enduring millions on millions of years, great dynasties of creatures rising, flourishing, dying away -- all this against a background of continuous and violent upheaval. Mountain ranges thrust up, eroded away, cometary impacts, volcano eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving, an endless, constant, violent change, colliding, buckling to make mountains over millions of years.

Earth has survived everything in its time. It will certainly survive us. If all the nuclear weapons in the world went off at once and all the plants, all the animals died and the earth was sizzling hot for a hundred thousand years, life would survive, somewhere: under the soil, frozen in Arctic ice. Sooner or later, when the planet was no longer inhospitable, life would spread again. The evolutionary process would begin again. It might take a few billion years for life to regain its present variety.

Of course, it would be very different from what it is now, but the earth would survive our folly, only we would not. If the ozone layer gets thinner, ultraviolet radiation sears the earth, so what? Ultraviolet radiation is good for life. It's powerful energy. It promotes mutation, change. Many forms of life will thrive with more UV radiation. Many others will die out. Do you think this is the first time that's happened? Think about oxygen. Necessary for life now, but oxygen is actually a metabolic poison, a corrosive glass, like fluorine.

When oxygen was first produced as a waste product by certain plant cells some three billion years ago, it created a crisis for all other life on earth. Those plants were polluting the environment, exhaling a lethal gas. Earth eventually had an atmosphere incompatible with life. Nevertheless, life on earth took care of itself. In the thinking of the human being a hundred years is a long time.

A hundred years ago we didn't have cars, airplanes, computers or vaccines. It was a whole different world, but to the earth, a hundred years is nothing. A million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can't imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven't got the humility to try. We've been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we're gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us."

Michael Crichton
Prologue to Jurassic Park

[monstahfish]

While it is true, life will find a way, do we really want to be the only species to ever cause a mass extinction? I don't want to go down like that, yet it's happening and congress and the executive are pushing it along screaming "drill baby drill" and working to repeal parts of the endangered species and antiquities acts. As fishermen, we should be voting to preserve our fisheries and environment or there will be nothing left to fish for for your kids or grandkids.

[Mahigeer]

We can also make sure that we ourselves do not keep more than we need or allowed.

[makobob]

Originally Posted by Mahigeer

We can also make sure that we ourselves do not keep more than we need or allowed.

In mako-ville, almost all of us fish for sport, taking fish for lunch or dinner that day. Those who do take fish home take a reasonable amount, vacuum bag it and freeze it so they have the best possible quality. That is what I consider sustainable. Our seas are the life blood of our planet, we need to preserve them. Let us keep paradise a PARADISE. Tight Lines all.

[alanw]

We might not have to have to worry about it after 2048 anyways according to a study by AAAS.