Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumThis Is The Vaquita, A Small Porpoise, And It Will Go Away Very Soon. Will We Act?
Of course we won't. Oh, and FUCK CHINESE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE.
SAN FELIPE, Mexico It is a rare moment when scientists can point to an animal at the edge of extinction and predict when it might disappear forever. But it is happening here, under the golden waters of the desert-rimmed sea, where a small porpoise has almost vanished.
Nobody imagined that the end would approach so quickly. What changed was the appearance of a new threat to the snub-nosed porpoise known as the vaquita: organized crime.
The vaquita, a shy marine mammal, is simply collateral damage as poachers here sweep up another endangered species, a giant fish called the totoaba, to please consumers in China. The vaquitas become entangled and die in the nets set for totoaba. Like the Chinese demand for other rare animal parts, including shark fins, the market for totoaba is driven by customers who pay generously, in this case, for the totoabas swim bladder. Dried and served in soup, it is believed to have medicinal qualities.
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The effect of the totoaba poaching on the vaquita came as a shock to conservationists. A study released in July concluded that half of the population, which inhabits the northern reaches of the Gulf of California, had been killed in two years, leaving just 97 vaquitas. The numbers prompted a group of Mexican and international vaquita experts to issue a dramatic warning. Without drastic steps to save the worlds smallest marine mammal, the group said, it would disappear within four years. Its definitely the last call for this species, said Barbara Taylor, a marine mammal expert who is part of the scientists group, the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/world/americas/a-vaquita-is-ensnared-by-criminals-and-nets.html
hunter
(38,322 posts)I've posted about these little guys several times here on DU.
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)delete_bush
(1,712 posts)for my post.
I have absolutely no use for Asian culture. Nothing but a bunch of mindless robots.
And due to the fact that a gaggle of Asian men with tiny little yellow penises can't seem to get it on with prostitutes they resort to these 'ancient' remedies to increase their mistaken notion that partaking of these innocent, beautiful creatures will somehow make their tiny little yellow penises perform. FUCK THEM!
Last year I had the good fortune to follow the great migration in Kenya/Tanzania. In the 13 days of the safari, I ONCE had the opportunity to gaze upon, from a great distance, a black rhino. Wanna know the price of a decapitated head of this magnificent creature goes for? Around $300,000.
We also were bumping shoulders on a regular basis with elephants, same story.
These people are scum of the earth. I'm not a supporter of the death penalty, but for poachers I'll gladly be the one to pull the trigger.
delete_bush
(1,712 posts)Such is the insecurity of many Chinese men that they enthusiastically chase after these cures. Medical studies have been done again and again that show no difference between ingesting these animal parts and taking a placebo, but this makes little difference. Rare and beautiful animals around the world are being made extinct to serve the fragile Chinese penis.
Before Viagra, demand also grew in Asia for seal penises, sold as a male sex aid. In 1996, sealers sold 30,290 penises earning them $940,000. In some cases, male seals were killed for the organ alone.