Black Coral Jewelry

[tursiops]

I was at CoCo View in November. One evening a gentleman was selling black coral jewelry. I commented to the resort manager that I was kind of surprised. She explained that it was perfectly OK, that the coral was the by-product of deep trawling and the fishermen would just throw it away if it were not used, and further that the Honduran goverment was OK with all this.

I guess, in retrospect, there is very little about this that I find acceptable. Trawling is abhorent as a sustainable fishing method, and I'm not compelled that what the Honduran government thinks is what I ought to think. I'm sure the poor salesman was trying to feed his family, and the resort was trying to make an exstra dollar or two, but none fo that makes me feel any better.

Am I being too narrow?

 

[redacted]

Related thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/cozumel/497430-black-coral-jewelry.html

Think what you want. Just recognize that there may be little reason for others to agree. Some folks don't believe we should eat beef.

 

[RTBDiver]

Uhm

 

[Midge907]

I started this same subject a couple years ago, right before heading to Coco View. You can do a search if you want, it got somewhat heated in debate. The Cozumel thread above is worth the read also. I think the thing i've learned over the last several years, is that it doesn't matter what you think is "right or wrong" because all it takes is a little bride and everything is Legal The import-export laws of all countries involved don't seem to matter much.

 

[Doc]

Decry the "black coral by-catch"....
Then you go face down in the Shrimp.

One begets the other, you can't have it both ways.

[Trawling for shrimp destroys Coral and brings it up... this is "by-catch"]

Me? I don't eat sea food. None.

Et tu, Tursiops?

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

For me the issue of bottom trawling has never been a difficult choice, right or wrong. Bottom trawling is one of the most destructive things we do to this planet, but out of sight, out of mind. I have spent time on a shrimp boat on the Sea of Cortez and I have seen nets full of marine creatures called "by catch" laid waste on the ship deck, all for a handful of shrimp. There are a number of marine conservation groups working against trawling. If you imagine bottom trawling for shrimp a bit like plowing down the city of New York to catch a few mice, it's hard to find anything right about trawling. The issue is not so much about is using "by catch" black coral OK, but more about the trawl methods that trash the seas resulting in swaths of barren sea bed with no coral remaining, black or otherwise. I wonder how the folks at Coco View would feel about the jewelry if the trawlers plowed the reefs in front of the resort and left little remaining....? Somehow I don't think the Coconuts would be so "who cares" if the destructing was in their back yard.

 

[Doc]

Now Greg, that's a way you could twist it.

.... Somehow I don't think the Coconuts would be so "who cares" if the destructing was in their back yard.

Or if they were in the other resort you do rep for on Roatan.

Good Causes = Politics = Money

 

[laurenceh]

last week they were selling dried seahorses as souvenirs outside the cruise port, apparently another "bi-product" of shrimp trawlers.

 

[drbill]

it doesn't matter what you think is "right or wrong" because all it takes is a little bride and everything is Legal

Wow... I've been looking for a little "bride" all my life (although I actually prefer a taller one.

I would find this reason enough not to dive there. I was sadly "amused" when one of our rabid local "animal rights" people was selling dried starfish and other sea creatures out of her store.

 

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last week they were selling dried seahorses as souvenirs outside the cruise port, apparently another "bi-product" of shrimp trawlers.

I used to catch and dry starfish and seahorses all the time when I was a kid in NJ. They apparently got caught up in the gulf stream and ended up in the wash in the Jersey shore. It was nothing to find dozens in less than an hour.

Now I enjoy walking the beaches in Cozumel and picking up pieces of black coral.