Sharkwater: Must see documentary

Mandingo wrote: what about extensive, flagrant violations of international agreements on: rhinos, elephants, bears, whales and sharks to name a few. THey belive some wacked out stuff in regards to healing properties. THey use this stuff as if it were medicinal.

Mandingo,

do you know enough about Chinese (or any other culture's) traditional medicine to claim it's "whacked out?"

The original point of this thread had to do with widespread destruction of sharks. I haven't seen the documentary, so can't comment on the validity of the claim that 90% of the world's sharks populations have been wiped out, but I will agree that if that were the case, it would be a bad thing.

As for "extensive, flagrant violations of international agreements on: rhinos, elephants, bears, whales..." do you have some factual information to share here, suggesting that the Chinese (or any other country) are any worse managing wildlife than we are (or have been)?

I'm not sure where this thread is going... is this an anti-shark hunting thread, an anti-Chinese thread, or a mixture?

Dogs were food before they were pets. They became pets in Western culture. Don't you think people in India look at us and wonder how we eat cows? Cmon gv10k, get with the program.

Funny you should ask!

As a matter of fact they covered that in the documentary. Chinese believe that sharks don't get cancer or any kind of sickness so most but not all( they interviewed a young chinese bride who said she wouldn't serve shark fin at her wedding because she thought it was silly. She used the example what if someone thought I tasted good but that's a whole other thing)

chinese believe falsely. THey interviewed experts who explained that sharks do in fact get cancer and get sick. As far as wildlife preservation, in Canada for example fish and game officials have sweeping powers to confiscate boats, cars and just about anything else that people hunting out of season have on them. And they do. In china its a free for all, that's there perogative but when they are behind the multi million dollar illegal long line shark hunt off the Galipalogos and costa rica, that's brutal.

I'm not sure of the 90% claim either but it was pretty comprehensive. As far as for this thread, it is officially an anti shark killing thread! I would have figured some marine bioligist guy would jump in by now. The chinese are the ones behind the shark killing. I just thought I'd mention the documentary and people could see for themselves. Gotta head out to do 5 x 1040 meters soon with a sore hamstring, I guess I shouldn't worry about the sharks!

Mandingo wrote: Gotta head out to do 5 x 1040 meters soon with a sore hamstring, I guess I shouldn't worry about the sharks!

When are we gonna get to race again? I'm starting to round into form (still a good ways off, though) and I see you've had some decent early season results. What's on the sked?

Are you doing Harry's this saturday? I'm doing that, then going to Boston to watch, then Montreal half on the 22, then sporting life on the 6th. Are you coming to town for Sporting life?

Runningart2004 wrote:

Fewer big sharks mean more moderately sized fish, seal, etc, which means less small fish, scallops, etc. When you cut the head off the food chain an ecosystem is greatly changed. Eventually it will effect us. All things in the environment are connected.

Alan

Exactly. A new study on the effects of removing sharks from marine ecosystems was published just last week:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/315/5820/1846http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/science/30sharks.html

The researchers found that when the sharks at the top of the food web were removed by overfishing, then populations of their prey species increased; one of these prey species then so depleted the scallop population off the coast of North Carolina, thus destroying a century-old fishery.

Thanks for the links ol Grumpus!

Those science types aren't alarmist enough though!

My understanding is that things like scallops are the tip of the iceberg. SHarks have been around for 400 million years; they are a huge part of the eco system.

Mandingo wrote: Are you coming to town for Sporting life?

Yes, for sure. Don't know if I'll race it or jog it with my wife, but I'll be there for sure. Good luck at Harry's. I never heard back from the race on that one.

Did you still want to run it?

I can get you in and SL as well if you want.

Shoot me an email at:

myfirstnamemylastname@sympatico.ca

no dots, hyphens etc.

(Of course, I mean my real name!)

Mandingo wrote: Did you still want to run it?

No, thanks man. I've got a small, flat 5k near the in-laws lined up for the same day, so that's OK. Better actually, for my training purposes at the moment. I'm really not in shape to be asking to get into Harry's yet, even though the folks at the Canada Running Series have been extremely generous that way.