coral blasting

[J. Charles Delbeek]

As I said, unless offered alternatives, the resources come second to
survival. The examples you mentioned obviously hilight instances where
alternatives HAVE been found be they better management of resources,
alternative uses, sustainable yield programs, etc etc. Having contacts in
the aquarium industry as well as in organisations such as Ocean Voice
International, the International Marinelife Alliance, and Project
Seahorse, I have some insight to the cyanide fishing issues in the
Philippines and as well as the collection and devastation of seahorse
populations around the Pacific basin.

My comment concerned the message that it is easy to poohpooh people for
dynamiting or overfishing their resources from the comfort of ones living
room. Unless alternatives can be offered there is little incentive to
stop. As a Philippine fisherman once told a friend of mine who was giving
a lecture in a local village about reef ecology and the perils of
overfishing "When I come home with my stomach empty and my family waiting
for food, and I see a fish in the water ... what do you think I will do? 
Will I think I need to leave that fish for the good of the reef or will I
catch it to feed my wife and children?" 

I consider native peoples as the people in living in the area, so yes
Newfoundlanders are "native peoples" too :-) 

I did not mean to imply that being a "native" was in any way a comment on
their environmental ethics. Please don't read between my lines.


J. Charles Delbeek M.Sc.

"The fact that my physiology differs from yours pleases me to no end." 
Mr. Spock


> Your statement regarding native peoples, as I think others will 
> agree,  is quite hasty.  I think you will find there many 
> well documented  examples of native people conserving marine 
> resources.  I suggest you pick up copies of James McGoodwin's "Crisis 
> in the World's Fisheries" and "Words of the Lagoon" by Bob Johannes.  
> Carl Safina's, "Song for the Blue Ocean" also documents some 
> indigenous peoples efforts at conserving resources.
> 
> Examples can also be found in the history of Maine's 'native'
> lobstermen.  If you would like some specific cites I would be 
> more than happy to contribute.
> 
> I would offer  that the fact that the people you refer to are  native 
> people has little to do with resource degradation of this scale.  
> More often such exploitation comes from forcing small-scale, 
> artesinal, and subsistence fishers  into a capital-based economy.  It 
> is a plague that has devastated even the world's most abundant 
> fisheries, from Newfoundland cod to California anchovie and urchin.  
> I've not meant to be rude, but I feel that it is important to see 
> beyond this strong, hegemonistic, and  typically-western viewpoint. 
> Thank you.
> 
> Sincerely, 
> Jonathan Kelsey
> 
> Research and Education Coordinator
> University College of Belize
> Marine Research Centre
> P.O. Box 990
> Belize City, Belize
> Central America
> 
> Phone:  023-0256
> JKELSEY at ucb.edu.bz
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > "The fact that my physiology differs from yours pleases me to no end." 
> > Mr. Spock
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
>