Post by LSDeep on Aug 4, 2005 9:12:11 GMT -5
By John W. Grandy | August 3, 2005
AMERICA'S SHARK mania was born on Martha's Vineyard 30 years ago. It's time for it to die there -- and everywhere else.
We were afraid to go into the water in the summer of '75, thanks to the hit movie ''Jaws." It was filmed on the Vineyard and raised goose bumps and an often-morbid fascination with sharks around the world. It was good for the box office but terrible for sharks.
The movie spawned a whole industry of shark films and created a new class of fisherman, the shark hunter. Sharks became popular as food and prized as trophies. It was the beginning of hard times for the world's shark populations.
Global shark populations are in steep decline. Like many other fish species, they are overfished and undermanaged. The shark may be a fierce and magnificent predator, but it is no match for humans' high-tech fishing gear. Overfishing has reduced shark populations by as much as 90 percent in the last several decades. Despite that, relentless fishing pressure continues.
Sharks' worst nightmares are contests like the Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament, held on the Vineyard last month. Organized by the Boston Big Game Fishing Club, the tourney drew shark hunters from as far away as Florida. More than 125 boats entered, vying for a $130,000 grand prize. Entrants caught thousands of sharks and brought 46 to the docks as contest entries, including a 1,191-pound tiger shark landed minutes too late to qualify for the contest but big enough to win worldwide publicity for the tournament.
The organized shark-killing melee will get another publicity boost in the fall, when the cable channel ESPN plans to air the tournament. The Humane Society of the United States has sent a letter to ESPN on behalf of its 9 million constituents asking it to cancel the show because of the cruel and sensationalistic nature of the event.
On a moral level, the monster shark tournament is shameful. A civilized society should not condone and glorify a contest that involves the mass killing of any living species for sport. It is repugnant and barbaric behavior. The sometimes rowdy demeanor of participants and the public display of dismembered sharks add to an image that some Oak Bluffs officials find troubling, as do many of us.
But if that isn't enough, consider the environmental costs. The tournament glamorizes what is really a big problem: With 100 million sharks killed every year, the predators' global populations are crashing. Some species caught in the Vineyard tournament -- the porbeagle shark for one -- are classified as an endangered species by countries as close as Canada. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources lists porbeagle, blue, and tiger sharks (all three targeted and caught by the Oak Bluffs contestants) as ''near threatened."
Tournament organizers, abetted by a Massachusetts shark researcher, try to wrap themselves in the mantle of scientific investigation, saying that examinations of the sharks caught in the contest help advance understanding of the species. That's how bird researchers once justified their hunting habits. And today, that's a defense that draws international scorn for Japan's bogus ''scientific" whaling. The truth is, there are many ways to expand our knowledge of sharks without encouraging mass killing. And since only the biggest fish are landed, it's questionable whether they provide accurate information about the whole range of their species.
The shark researcher, Greg Skomal, threw another red herring when he told one interviewer: ''This is a fishing contest. How can you condone the striped bass and bluefish derby and not the Monster Shark Tournament?" That's easy. When striped bass populations sharply declined, there were strict limits imposed on size and amount of catch, and, fortunately, bass and bluefish are prolific breeders, so their numbers rebounded quickly.
Sharks, as Skomal well knows, aren't so lucky. They are live-bearers, not reaching sexual maturity for a dozen years or more, and then have only two to four pups a year. Unless fishery habits change soon, shark tournaments may someday be a memorial observance.
Beyond the simple barbarity of the shark tournament, the critical issue is saving these beautiful predators and the ecosystem they help keep in balance. Doing that will require a worldwide effort at regulating the various fisheries and giving sharks a chance to survive. But we as a society can advance the cause immeasurably if we remove the glamorous trappings from the dubious sport of shark-killing. It's time for the Monster Shark Tournament to end. And it's time, too, for ESPN to do the responsible thing and call off its plans to air a program that will only encourage the further demise of a great and intriguing creature.
For three decades, we've had our fling with shark mania. It's time to end it, for the good of sharks and humanity, neither of which should be subjected to such callous and brutal violence.
John W. Grandy is senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. He directs the society's wildlife programs, which include the Cape Wildlife Center in West Barnstable.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.
AMERICA'S SHARK mania was born on Martha's Vineyard 30 years ago. It's time for it to die there -- and everywhere else.
We were afraid to go into the water in the summer of '75, thanks to the hit movie ''Jaws." It was filmed on the Vineyard and raised goose bumps and an often-morbid fascination with sharks around the world. It was good for the box office but terrible for sharks.
The movie spawned a whole industry of shark films and created a new class of fisherman, the shark hunter. Sharks became popular as food and prized as trophies. It was the beginning of hard times for the world's shark populations.
Global shark populations are in steep decline. Like many other fish species, they are overfished and undermanaged. The shark may be a fierce and magnificent predator, but it is no match for humans' high-tech fishing gear. Overfishing has reduced shark populations by as much as 90 percent in the last several decades. Despite that, relentless fishing pressure continues.
Sharks' worst nightmares are contests like the Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament, held on the Vineyard last month. Organized by the Boston Big Game Fishing Club, the tourney drew shark hunters from as far away as Florida. More than 125 boats entered, vying for a $130,000 grand prize. Entrants caught thousands of sharks and brought 46 to the docks as contest entries, including a 1,191-pound tiger shark landed minutes too late to qualify for the contest but big enough to win worldwide publicity for the tournament.
The organized shark-killing melee will get another publicity boost in the fall, when the cable channel ESPN plans to air the tournament. The Humane Society of the United States has sent a letter to ESPN on behalf of its 9 million constituents asking it to cancel the show because of the cruel and sensationalistic nature of the event.
On a moral level, the monster shark tournament is shameful. A civilized society should not condone and glorify a contest that involves the mass killing of any living species for sport. It is repugnant and barbaric behavior. The sometimes rowdy demeanor of participants and the public display of dismembered sharks add to an image that some Oak Bluffs officials find troubling, as do many of us.
But if that isn't enough, consider the environmental costs. The tournament glamorizes what is really a big problem: With 100 million sharks killed every year, the predators' global populations are crashing. Some species caught in the Vineyard tournament -- the porbeagle shark for one -- are classified as an endangered species by countries as close as Canada. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources lists porbeagle, blue, and tiger sharks (all three targeted and caught by the Oak Bluffs contestants) as ''near threatened."
Tournament organizers, abetted by a Massachusetts shark researcher, try to wrap themselves in the mantle of scientific investigation, saying that examinations of the sharks caught in the contest help advance understanding of the species. That's how bird researchers once justified their hunting habits. And today, that's a defense that draws international scorn for Japan's bogus ''scientific" whaling. The truth is, there are many ways to expand our knowledge of sharks without encouraging mass killing. And since only the biggest fish are landed, it's questionable whether they provide accurate information about the whole range of their species.
The shark researcher, Greg Skomal, threw another red herring when he told one interviewer: ''This is a fishing contest. How can you condone the striped bass and bluefish derby and not the Monster Shark Tournament?" That's easy. When striped bass populations sharply declined, there were strict limits imposed on size and amount of catch, and, fortunately, bass and bluefish are prolific breeders, so their numbers rebounded quickly.
Sharks, as Skomal well knows, aren't so lucky. They are live-bearers, not reaching sexual maturity for a dozen years or more, and then have only two to four pups a year. Unless fishery habits change soon, shark tournaments may someday be a memorial observance.
Beyond the simple barbarity of the shark tournament, the critical issue is saving these beautiful predators and the ecosystem they help keep in balance. Doing that will require a worldwide effort at regulating the various fisheries and giving sharks a chance to survive. But we as a society can advance the cause immeasurably if we remove the glamorous trappings from the dubious sport of shark-killing. It's time for the Monster Shark Tournament to end. And it's time, too, for ESPN to do the responsible thing and call off its plans to air a program that will only encourage the further demise of a great and intriguing creature.
For three decades, we've had our fling with shark mania. It's time to end it, for the good of sharks and humanity, neither of which should be subjected to such callous and brutal violence.
John W. Grandy is senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States. He directs the society's wildlife programs, which include the Cape Wildlife Center in West Barnstable.
© Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company.