Down to the wire, an international conservation effort failed for spiny dogfish sharks. Even worse, previous action to conserve precious corals was overturned. The international intrigue of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) convention yielded some conservation progress in liminting trade of sawfish, but sharks and corals will have to wait for another time.
Early announcements of coral protections turned out to be premature, as conservation opponents "re-opened" and overturned the Committee decision to limit trade in endangered precious corals. More later as details are available, including who led the anti-conservation charge (usually Japan).
The trend is in our direction, and this is merely a speedbump in the race to conserve. Tweet
2 comments:
how do we (ostensibly the good guys) tap into the apparently effective deviousness on display here? it makes me understand how the monkeywrenching approach to conservation can be appealing when we have to deal with this sort of greed and myopic vision... i guess i have to still believe that when fighting monsters, we must take caution not to become one ourselves...
and talk about shifting baselines for dogfish! i remember fishing in the gulf of maine in late 80' (with nothing more than squid jigs!!) and being unable to catch anything but spiny dogfish... talk about great eating! i dare you to try to catch one today...
it's a sad day for coral and cartilage...
It seems to me that if CITES waits until populations are at the levels of, say, sawfishes, then its good intentions are bound to fail. The postponement is really saddening news (particularly for corals, which should have captured the attention of all but the coldest of hearted). Best of luck to you and TOC in the future meetings...
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