Comments on: Sylvia Earle: ‘We’re seeing a decline of 90 percent of many of the big fish species’ http://earthsky.org/water/sylvia-earle-speaks-for-the-sea A Clear Voice for Science Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:25:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: RJ Fleming http://earthsky.org/water/sylvia-earle-speaks-for-the-sea/comment-page-1#comment-14006 RJ Fleming Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:17:35 +0000 http://208.96.63.114/?p=4032#comment-14006 While the article on the work of Sylvia Earle is interesting, its brevity and 'up-beat' message seems to promote a false hope that perhaps this situation is reversible. On the contrary, it is a fact that there is NO HOPE of sharks recovering from overfishing and 'finning' and not even combined human intervention at this late date can save them from extinction. The message that 90% of our large fish species have declined in less than half a century fails to point out even basic warning signs. While 'modern' sharks appeared 290 million years ago and adapted to almost every situation to guarantee their survival, the many years required for most of them to reach sexual maturity and the fact they produce few offsprings means their reproductive rate is very low and centuries would be needed to increase their population even slightly. Sharks will most assuredly be completely extinct within the next few years and the effect will be disastrous to marine ecosystems as well as to the entire planet. Removal of a top predator like sharks causes a chain-reaction which may well reduce the necessary phytoplankton which produces 75% of the oxygen we breath. It is important that researchers such as Sylvia Earle not only conduct their vital academic work, but that the 'bad news' that is both unpleasant and unpopular to voice is heard nonetheless. Very few people other than those involved in the fishing industry and the scientific community are aware of such horrifying facts as those stated above, yet they are true (visit Sharkproject.org). RJ FLeming Geneva Switzerland While the article on the work of Sylvia Earle is interesting, its brevity and ‘up-beat’ message seems to promote a false hope that perhaps this situation is reversible. On the contrary, it is a fact that there is NO HOPE of sharks recovering from overfishing and ‘finning’ and not even combined human intervention at this late date can save them from extinction. The message that 90% of our large fish species have declined in less than half a century fails to point out even basic warning signs. While ‘modern’ sharks appeared 290 million years ago and adapted to almost every situation to guarantee their survival, the many years required for most of them to reach sexual maturity and the fact they produce few offsprings means their reproductive rate is very low and centuries would be needed to increase their population even slightly. Sharks will most assuredly be completely extinct within the next few years and the effect will be disastrous to marine ecosystems as well as to the entire planet. Removal of a top predator like sharks causes a chain-reaction which may well reduce the necessary phytoplankton which produces 75% of the oxygen we breath.

It is important that researchers such as Sylvia Earle not only conduct their vital academic work, but that the ‘bad news’ that is both unpleasant and unpopular to voice is heard nonetheless. Very few people other than those involved in the fishing industry and the scientific community are aware of such horrifying facts as those stated above, yet they are true (visit Sharkproject.org).
RJ FLeming
Geneva Switzerland

]]> By: Steven Earl Salmony http://earthsky.org/water/sylvia-earle-speaks-for-the-sea/comment-page-1#comment-5116 Steven Earl Salmony Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:15:39 +0000 http://208.96.63.114/?p=4032#comment-5116 <p>The time is coming when many people will follow the exemplary behavior of Dr. Sylvia Earle by speaking out loudly and clearly for something, for anything at all to do with the preservation of life as know it and Earth, even though it is not politically convenient and economically expedient to do so, even though thousands of greedy kings and self-proclaimed masters of the universe eschew such open expressions as well as maintain that “silence is golden.” </p> <p>Soon people will be heard speaking out often in many places for something, for anything at all that does not have to do with the unbridled and soon to become unsustainable growth of the global political economy.</p> <p>The silence regarding the threat of rampant economic globalization is deafening. How much longer will it continue?</p> The time is coming when many people will follow the exemplary behavior of Dr. Sylvia Earle by speaking out loudly and clearly for something, for anything at all to do with the preservation of life as know it and Earth, even though it is not politically convenient and economically expedient to do so, even though thousands of greedy kings and self-proclaimed masters of the universe eschew such open expressions as well as maintain that “silence is golden.”

Soon people will be heard speaking out often in many places for something, for anything at all that does not have to do with the unbridled and soon to become unsustainable growth of the global political economy.

The silence regarding the threat of rampant economic globalization is deafening. How much longer will it continue?

]]> By: Steven Earl Salmony http://earthsky.org/water/sylvia-earle-speaks-for-the-sea/comment-page-1#comment-5108 Steven Earl Salmony Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:49:14 +0000 http://208.96.63.114/?p=4032#comment-5108 <p>Many thanks to Sylvia Earle….</p> Many thanks to Sylvia Earle….

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