This is an interesting story from nationalgeographic.com
Its a shame the shark was eaten as it is so rare, however this is just cultural difference.
In just a short time, one of the rarest sharks in the world went from swimming in Philippine waters to simmering in coconut milk.
The 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) megamouth shark (pictured), caught on March 30 by mackerel fishers off the city of Donsol, was only the 41st megamouth shark ever found, according to WWF-Philippines.
Fishers brought the odd creature—which died during its capture—to local project manager Elson Aca of WWF, an international conservation nonprofit.
Aca immediately identified it as a megamouth shark and encouraged the fishers not to eat it.
But the draw of the delicacy was too great: The 1,102-pound (500-kilogram) shark was butchered for a shark-meat dish called kinuout.
"While it is sad that this rare megamouth shark was ultimately lost, the discovery highlights the incredible biodiversity found in the Donsol area and the relatively good health of the ecosystem," Yokelee Lee, WWF-US program officer for the Coral Triangle, said in an email.
The Coral Triangle, which spans Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste (East Timor), is home to the richest concentration of marine life—including iridescent corals—in the world, according to WWF.
"It is essential that we continue working with the government and local community on the sustainable management of Donsol's fisheries resources for the benefit of whale sharks, megamouth sharks, and the local community," Lee said.
The megamouth shark species, discovered in 1976 off Oahu, Hawaii, was so bizarre that scientists had to create a new family and genus to classify it. With its giant mouth but tiny teeth, megamouth, like the whale shark, is a filter feeder that preys on tiny animals and appears to be no danger to humans.
Only 40 megamouth sharks, including 7 in the Philippines, have been found since the initial discovery. The shark is so rare that the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the megamouth species as "data deficient."
(Related shark pictures: "Rare "Prehistoric" Shark Photographed Alive".)
Scientists who examined Megamouth 41—the Philippine specimen's official name, bestowed by the Florida Museum of Natural History—before it was eaten found facial scars from past run-ins with gill nets. The shark's last meal was shrimp larvae.
Other shark species in Donsol are valued for conservation rather than consumption: The region hosts a successful ecotourism project that allows people to swim with whale sharks, according to WWF.
—Christine Dell'Amore
hotograph by Elson Q. Aca/WWF-Philippines
3 comments:
I guess I've got conflicting views on it.
On one hand, as it's so rare, I s'pose there is a need to study it & learn, therefore the risk of it's dying in captivity.(And I hope they DID learn something from it)
On the other hand, had they just let it go, science would still be very much in the dark about this creature.
A complex issue to say the least!
This just makes me sad. We as a species have such little regard for any other living being. Whether it's fishermen, hunters or scientists doing the killing, we feel completely justified in taking the lives of innocent creatures, be it for food or knowledge. Either way, it's needless. We don't need to eat animals - not in today's world, anyway. There are plenty of alternatives that will keep you healthy and nutritionally balanced for a lifetime. And if we can't study them without harming them, we should be content in the meantime to not understand them, until such time as we can learn about them without destroying their quality of life. Do not expect peace among our own species until we can learn to respect all living beings.
Thank you for sharing this, Victoria.
thanks for sharing pita! it is complex
chris u just say it perfectly each time!
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