Sea Shepherd and Whale Wars

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 19 Comments on Sea Shepherd and Whale Wars
Conservation, Popular Culture

We have been and continue to be critical of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Although their goals are admirable their methods are not only ineffective, but in some cases impair the achievement of those goals.  With the premier of Whale Wars season 3 tomorrow evening, we’d like to take a moment to highlight the issues we’ve raised concerning the SSCS. Over the last two years we’ve written a number of post summarizing our problems with Sea Shepherd:

Our friends at Deep Sea News and Underwater Thrills have been critical of SSCS, too:

The above links cover many of the issues we have with this organization. The New York Times recently published an excellent breakdown of the Japanese Whaling Industry. Below are our main criticisms of SSCS:

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Fieldwork Feasibilities

Posted on By Bluegrass Blue Crab
Uncategorized

readying the CTD for water collection and profile measurements

Two weeks at sea is all some oceanographers get to do all of their fieldwork for the year.  Two weeks, give or take a grace day, including whatever Mother Nature has to throw at the ship. Granted, it’s work 24 hours a day, likely running several experiments at a time. But compared to some brands of science, two weeks is barely enough to say you know what system you’re working in, let alone describe ecological processes at work. To me, someone who employs anthropological methods just as often as ecological ones, anything less than a year doesn’t count as fieldwork. I’m not judging; it’s just a difference in philosophy and feasibility. After participating in one of these two week cruises, I am no less in awe that our understanding of the ocean comes from such a philosophy. Achieving solid results requires such a carefully orchestrated dance in order to work, I’m shocked that we got as much out of the cruise as we did.

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Uncertainty at Sea

Posted on By Bluegrass Blue Crab 1 Comment on Uncertainty at Sea
Uncategorized

watching the experiment go overboard

I began my maritime adventure with the statement “I have absolutely no reason to be at sea”.  That isn’t entirely true.  I decided to join the cruise as a helping hand mostly in order to be able to say that I had been out on the high seas.  During the first day or two on board, when people were still learning each other’s names and expertise, I received the initial raised eyebrow as to why a grad student in environmental policy was on the ship.  The almost unanimous next response was ‘it’s so good to see a future policymaker understanding what it’s like out here’.

Even though I’m not sure that I will ever be in the position of writing legislation (as opposed to analyzing policies and broader governance structures), it’s nice to know that my two weeks on the Atlantic gained me some professional legitimacy.  And since I’m in the business of studying how the creation of scientific knowledge turns into conservation policy, I think it was an important experience to have. One of the biggest issues in environmental policy is how to deal with uncertainty. And a trip at sea certainly yields enough uncertainty to stymie and army of policymakers for decades.

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Ethical Debate: Killing sharks for science?

Posted on By David Shiffman 25 Comments on Ethical Debate: Killing sharks for science?
Conservation, Science

ResearchBlogging.org

While attending last year’s American Elasmobranch Society conference, I was asked to fill out a survey concerning my views on lethal shark research. My response, along with those of many other participants, has now been analyzed and written up into a new essay in the Journal of Conservation Biology. Michelle Heupel and Colin Simpendorfer argue that lethal sampling of some individual sharks is sometimes necessary in order to get the data needed to protect those animals’ entire species. However, attitudes about conservation in general and sharks specifically are changing, and many (including these authors) feel that this is starting to affect marine biology as a science.

 

 

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WhySharksMatter is going to Cairns, Australia!

Posted on By David Shiffman
Science

Later this week, I’m headed to the land down under to attend Sharks International, a once-a-decade shark science conference. Scientists from six continents and dozens of countries will be presenting their research on sharks, rays, skates, and chimeras. This will be the first time I’ve presented my own research at any scientific conference. I’ll try … Read More “WhySharksMatter is going to Cairns, Australia!” »

Second to last day of experiments

Posted on By Bluegrass Blue Crab
Science

At this point we’re running on autopilot a bit.  As one of the Georgia students pointed out earlier today, we’ve become incredibly efficient at the protocols, just in time to start heading home tomorrow.

People have also had time to start analyzing their data from the first round of experiments.  Interestingly, the phytoplankton community has changed significantly in our little patch of ocean over just the short time we’ve been here.  Brian commented “I always assume, incorrectly, that the system will be static throughout the cruise. But it’s not, it’s surprisingly dynamic every year”.

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