Philippine Reefs Threatened

[Babydamulag]

Are we going to sit back and let this happen??? Go to:
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=56445
We have to get this under control. Write every politician you know to enforce the law.

 

[gangrel441]

It looks to me like these people from Reef Check are on the right track already. Having studied Game Theory, a really good approach to changing people's behavior in a situation like this is to make it lucrative for them. If fishermen discover they stand more to gain from the tourist trade than the aquarium or food trade, they will modify their behavior.

I believe this also happened, more on its own than from outside intervention, in Belize a number of years ago. I recall reading about that in the Sapadillo Tom stories.

 

[Babydamulag]

It looks like the PPD might have a trick up the ole sleeve!!!

 

[Tom Winters]

They were fishing with dynamite and cyaniding tropicals in the Phillipines when I was there in the '80's. There was all sorts of protest about this, but it continued under Marcos, then Aquino, and so on right into today. Same story, different day.
In the '70's, the reefs in Cozumel were on the brink of destruciton from fishery abuse, and the local government things around until the Yucatan area of Mexico is a supremely popular tourist destination pouring in many multiples more of revenue than subsistence fishing did.
The fishermen will realize that it is in their interest not to continue this about the time a patrol gunboat fires the first salvos across the bows. After a few times, even the densest fishermen realize that it's maybe time to hang up the dynamite and delete cyanide from the weekly shopping list.
Common sense, indignation, and international outrage does not prevail here.