Here is an example (taken from Bloodydecks.com) of people raping and pillaging the sea, and not thinking of the consequences of such actions:
La Paz Manta Ray Slaughter
La Paz Manta Ray Slaughter
"Just returned from a week of fishing/diving/filming in La Paz... We pulled a couple of boats down and stayed at Baja Joe's (nice place).
I fell in love with La Paz 20 years ago because it was the only place on earth where you could dive with schooling hammerhead sharks, whale sharks and giant manta rays (usually all in the same dive!) La Paz is known worldwide for its magnificent diving. The chance to encounter some "really big" ocean creatures has lured scuba divers to Baja for many, many years.
This time the fishing was slow..... and the dive became something I will never forget...
On our second day of fishing, we were south of La Paz and began to see Large areas of something white on the ocean floor. At first I thought we were over a large sunken ship! We stopped to investigate.
I jumped in with dive gear and video camera to examine what we were seeing from the surface. To my horror, I found dozens of piles of giant manta rays rotting on the ocean floor! The same manta rays that dive operators put pictures of in their brochures to attract divers to La Paz... lay on the bottom dead!
How can this be?
The flesh was stripped from their gigantic wings (some measured over 12' across)
When did Giant Manta Ray become a targeted species to this extent?
It made me sick to my stomach! I spent the better part of the afternoon documenting these piles on film. Close to 1000 of these magnificent creatures lie on the bottom in various stages of decomposition....
Several piles were spread out over a 1/4 mile radius and all were within a a large set of gill nets that stretched for almost a mile...
The nets stretched from the sand bottom to the surface of the ocean. Anything that can't fit through the 12" openings in the net is doomed... sea turtles, sharks, rays, mantas, large game fish etc. etc. etc.
Will Mexico ever stop destroying their marine ecosystem in the Sea of Cortez?
Who can I contact to stop this?
Does anyone even care?"
From another site:
"Some mantas are hunted outright; others wind up as by-catch in nets. In Mexico, their dead value is about 40-cents a pound compared to the $10 to $20 that shark fins command (another sad story.) The slaughter of manta rays is senseless especially in light of their relative economic value. Andrea Tomba of the Cortez Club in La Paz, Mexico considers mantas a primary attraction drawing divers from around the world. He estimates that mantas contribute to an average daily income of $3,300-per-day for the 10 local diving tour operators. Sherry, Scott and anyone else who has ever swam with these gentle giants knows that the value of a manta experience cannot be calculated in dollars. For many of us, swimming with the majestic manta ray accounts for an experience of a lifetime."
Hmmm...
Live mantas contribute to an income of over 3,000 dlls a day for 10 diving tour operators, while a dead one is worth 40 cents a pound to one commercial fisherman, with a great portion of the total body mass ending up rotting on the ocean floor...
I think the numbers speak for themselves.
Someday I will get into and explain in detail my thoughts on commercial fishing and the current state of our worlds oceans, but for now I will just leave you with the above photographs, which I feel are fairly self explanatory...
If you would like to learn more, and try to make a difference, please go to: www.seawatch.org
I fell in love with La Paz 20 years ago because it was the only place on earth where you could dive with schooling hammerhead sharks, whale sharks and giant manta rays (usually all in the same dive!) La Paz is known worldwide for its magnificent diving. The chance to encounter some "really big" ocean creatures has lured scuba divers to Baja for many, many years.
This time the fishing was slow..... and the dive became something I will never forget...
On our second day of fishing, we were south of La Paz and began to see Large areas of something white on the ocean floor. At first I thought we were over a large sunken ship! We stopped to investigate.
I jumped in with dive gear and video camera to examine what we were seeing from the surface. To my horror, I found dozens of piles of giant manta rays rotting on the ocean floor! The same manta rays that dive operators put pictures of in their brochures to attract divers to La Paz... lay on the bottom dead!
How can this be?
The flesh was stripped from their gigantic wings (some measured over 12' across)
When did Giant Manta Ray become a targeted species to this extent?
It made me sick to my stomach! I spent the better part of the afternoon documenting these piles on film. Close to 1000 of these magnificent creatures lie on the bottom in various stages of decomposition....
Several piles were spread out over a 1/4 mile radius and all were within a a large set of gill nets that stretched for almost a mile...
The nets stretched from the sand bottom to the surface of the ocean. Anything that can't fit through the 12" openings in the net is doomed... sea turtles, sharks, rays, mantas, large game fish etc. etc. etc.
Will Mexico ever stop destroying their marine ecosystem in the Sea of Cortez?
Who can I contact to stop this?
Does anyone even care?"
From another site:
"Some mantas are hunted outright; others wind up as by-catch in nets. In Mexico, their dead value is about 40-cents a pound compared to the $10 to $20 that shark fins command (another sad story.) The slaughter of manta rays is senseless especially in light of their relative economic value. Andrea Tomba of the Cortez Club in La Paz, Mexico considers mantas a primary attraction drawing divers from around the world. He estimates that mantas contribute to an average daily income of $3,300-per-day for the 10 local diving tour operators. Sherry, Scott and anyone else who has ever swam with these gentle giants knows that the value of a manta experience cannot be calculated in dollars. For many of us, swimming with the majestic manta ray accounts for an experience of a lifetime."
Hmmm...
Live mantas contribute to an income of over 3,000 dlls a day for 10 diving tour operators, while a dead one is worth 40 cents a pound to one commercial fisherman, with a great portion of the total body mass ending up rotting on the ocean floor...
I think the numbers speak for themselves.
Someday I will get into and explain in detail my thoughts on commercial fishing and the current state of our worlds oceans, but for now I will just leave you with the above photographs, which I feel are fairly self explanatory...
If you would like to learn more, and try to make a difference, please go to: www.seawatch.org
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