cute dolphin ugly codling ?

[Guest jay_con]

ive just posted a few comments on leons thread about bass pair trawling being banned.

 

It appears the only reason ben bradshawe is proposing this is the death of dolphins. before anyone gets upset and starts shouting i know this is reason enough to stop pair trawling, and i totally agree with the proposal.

 

my point is it appears that dolphins are to be saved whilst millions of fish are dumped into the sea dead on a daily basis. My question is why? Does it simply boil down to the fact that dolphins are cute, can do entertaining tricks and make nice noises whilst baby codling, haddock and whiting are dull boring and dont know how to jump through hoops at your local sea life centre.

[Newt]

I suspect that may be part of the reason and maybe a large part.

 

Since a proposal like this needs broad support and there are lots more non-anglers than anglers, 'cute' is probably the best place to start.

[Leon Roskilly]

The public love dolphins and have written in their thousands to condemn the bass pair trawl fishery.

 

GreenPeace has been shadowing the pair trawlers in their ship.

 

There are a number of UK organisations that exist to promote the interests of marine cetaceans, and the issue has proved popular with the members of other environmental groups.

 

DEFRA don't get so many letters about cod.

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

see http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/sacn/article21.htm

 

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/sacn/release07.htm

 

[ 24. July 2004, 02:12 PM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

[Tog]

Winter you hit the nail on the head!

The public are only interested in 'disneyesque' animals like 'furry mammals' & 'Happy intelligent 'fish'' (and many of them don't know that a Porpoise is not a fish!) proper 'slimy stinky' fish are of little interest to the public - therefore the press & government ignore important issues relating to them. We even see it here on this site (Bass & Mullet are #1 DO NOT KILL! etc etc (they both taste Bloody good & I will continue to take e'm under the right circumstances).

Now I've not yet eaten Dolphin, but I would! I've certainly eaten most things that move (and a lot that don't!) on this planet and found most of them tasty! and the fact I share DNA with them does not give me 'moral issues', after all I share 50% of my DNA with a banana - don't stop me eating her or him?!

But most of the UK public would probably not eat 'Dolphin' (flipper) or horse (red rum) or dog (lassie) or cat (top cat) because they practice 'speciesism', They seem to have some 'pecking order' in which those furry mammals are top, other - sort of 'man friend' animals come next and then the rest of the animals come last (generally they can be eaten!).

If the creature you care about does not come into the first two categories you will be hard pushed to get the Press & therefore the public interested in your cause. Can you imagine trying to get protection for a rare sub species of slug? I'm sure there must be loads of endangered slugs out there!

Good luck with your campaign, but after all it’s only slimy fishes!

[JONNYX]

the late great bill hicks had a rant about hippies that touched on this, something along the lines of -

"those goddamm hippies, always going on about

"dont eat the tuna, dont eat the tuna, the dolphins get caught in the nets", well what about the tuna?

oh, they taste good"

[Guest jay_con]

i got it from denis leary. who is a fan of bill hicks. hes also a better comedian.

[JONNYX]

i suppose not being dead helps.

[gonefishing]

perhaps its something to do with the ratio of dolphins to tuna in extistance and the ratio of them in the nets...

 

cute and cuddly has an effect on the passive, but i think to those who are slightly interested preservation and conservation of all species is of interest.

[Guest jay_con]

ratios?

 

what about the ratio of codling to other species?

and then the ratio of those in the nets (ILEGALLY)?

 

the preservation of all species is of interest to who? not a lot here, theyve already told me "only bass matter". And preservation of all species dont seem to interest DEFRA either. Unless your a dolphin your days are numbered.

[SandTiger]

I prefer sharks over Dolphins which are quite vicious creatures if the truth be told. But politics makes strange bedfellows. And if "flipper" raises public awareness for even the wrong reasons then I don't think we can afford to discount it