Megamouth shark in Donsol

[chip104]

It's not easy to react in time to accidental captures like this to be able to take viable samples before decay sets in. Especially for organisations like this who aren't specifically science oriented and don't necessarily have the conservation material on hand? Or the know how... I mean even small genetic samples need the right preservation materials (often a cryo-vial and ethanol) taken with a clean (not contaminated) instrument or they are worthless. So if you don't have what it takes on hand, and somebody who knows what he/she is doing, you can easily miss the boat...

It would have been really interesting to be able to preserve the stomach for examination and determine what it's recent diet was. Or to take some structure samples for aging...

Her Dr.Bill, what structure is used for aging sharks? I can't even remember if they have Otoliths...

Cheers!

Good points, Codman. I don't think the WWF has a protocol in place for surprise findings with regards to sample collection. Having worked with sample collections and safaris, I would say that it would be easy and cheap for them to set up. They just need to hire the right people...


@ jigs: ha trumped, you are correct, good sir. Ginataan is too broad a category.

 

[Gilligan]

I won't criticize or make excuses for what happened to this rare shark because I was not there to witness the event.

I agree with Chip that if it was dead or dying it did not get wasted.

I agree with jigo in that the local people likely did not have the ice or means to preserve the animal.

I am a part-time resident/guest in the Philippines and as such will not publicly criticize its people or its government.

However I will say that my diving in several parts of the country has shown me most of the "big" fish are gone. They have been eaten by the people. Fishermen are present on almost all the dive sites. Diving and fishing don't mix. There are about 90 million people in the Philippines and they like to eat fish. If you see how little a peso can buy and how hard money is to come by then you can understand their desire to eat any fish they come across. Unless some alternatives are found I believe the scuba diving industry in this country will virtually die off along with the fish population.

 

[AquaExplorer]

This may get people VERY upset with me...but it is my believe that things like this, and Gilligan's statement, show that we simply have too many humans inhabiting this planet.

 

[fishb0y]

This may get people VERY upset with me...but it is my believe that things like this, and Gilligan's statement, show that we simply have too many humans inhabiting this planet.

I agree with your first statement

 

[pakman]

what did they do with the fins?....

 

[Mike Veitch]

mmmmmmmmm curry..

 

[sonar]

Always hard to judge based on a single article.

If the fish was found death or dying it's a good thing they ate it. I assume that they don't have the tools to catch such a big fella if he is healthy. And they probably would have loved to see the WWF show up since they would probbably donate some money for the efforts of preserving it... which they probably couldnt due a lack of ice indeed

still awesome that such a big fish is still so unkown; we find cockroach tracks from 5million years ago on other planets but still have to discover the seas

 

[stvbrit]

What a shame to see this beautifull creature slaughtered for food, guess we will never know (caught dead or alive)???? Bad press boys n girls.......

 

[World Wide Diver]

Was the WWF ready to act quickly on this and get the material they felt was necessary? While I applaud the WWF's efforts in general, did they miss the boat by not acting quickly here? I'm simply asking this question, not really criticizing them...

Was the shark found around a public holiday, fiesta, WWF office party, etc?? In our experience (and here I go again) WWF react to situations like this very slowly here (if at all).

We reported 48 baby black tip reef shark dying in a shallow concrete 'pond' in their own excrement just before Christmas the year before last. WWF was closed for 3 weeks 'holidays' and we are still waiting for a reply to our email (they asked for) 15 months later. They are all dead now - so no rush.

Also-the ice thing..... There is plenty of ice wherever Tanduay is found. Likelihood is that the locals used all the available ice to drink lashings of Tanduay with megamouth curry

 

[Jim Lapenta]

What a shame to see this beautifull creature slaughtered for food, guess we will never know (caught dead or alive)???? Bad press boys n girls.......

It appears it was an accidental catch. If so and it was dead or dying it was not "slaughtered". It was consumed by the people who did catch it and used to feed them and their families. It is not bad press unless one considers it bad press for hungry people to eat what they catch and not waste the animal like so-called civilized societies do. And even if it had been slaughtered for food so what. Better for food out of the whole thing than just to take the fins. I am really sick of people saying eating meat, fish, poultry, etc is bad. If you don't fine. But just like choosing a religion there is no right to tell others that what they are doing is wrong or "bad". Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna have a bacon, roast beef, and tomato on rye. Then I'll go wring a chickens neck to make soup.