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> By far the biggest threat is becoming accidently captured in fishing equipment and nets, which kills an estimated 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises a yea
by sradman 6y ago
> By far the biggest threat is becoming accidently captured in fishing equipment and nets, which kills an estimated 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises a year.
I suspect that focusing on this one area will have the greatest positive outcome. I’d like to see a better data-centric analysis; dolphin safe campaigns have sufficient history to draw from.
Saving river dolphins in highly urbanized areas might be beyond any reasonable effort. Saving every traditional habitat, such as the St. Lawrence River for belugas, might also distract from ensuring sustainable habitats exist for each species with a broad range.
- beervirus 6y ago> 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises Pretty sly lumping them together like that. There are a zillion dolphins, and it’s probably almost all them getting caught.
- sradman 6y agoThere are a zillion dogs and cats in the world too but I'd rather that they didn't die prematurely due to a panicked and prolonged suffocation. Supporting a charitable interpretation of your criticism, the BBC article is much closer to advocacy journalism [1] than investigative journalism. To be equally fair to the BBC, they are accurately describing the language used in the scientist's open letter The Real and Imminent Extinction Risk to Whales, Dolphins And Porpoises [2]. Like all complex issues, trade-offs exist and we could all benefit from more critical thinking. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocacy_journalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocacy_journalism [2] (PDF) https://www.mammalresearchinstitute.science/s/Scientists-Sign-on-Final-01-October_MasterDocument.pdf https://www.mammalresearchinstitute.science/s/Scientists-Sig...
- beervirus 6y agoI was suggesting that the language in the letter was sly, not that the BBC was.