"Planet in Peril" - CNN - Cocos Island
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OP
John B
They kept flashing up a little box that said available on itunes and amazon.com. Not sure if that is a podcast or not, but you may want to try itunes. It was a very good show and they covered everything from bush meat in Africa and how that is leading to the transmission of animal to human disease to lead poisioning in Peru from a chemical plant. Regarding Cocos, the saddest thing was that one of the sharks that died on a long line in Cocos was pregnant with 7 pups - very sad.
James
Prior to about a year ago, Costa Rica was "funded" by Taiwan. They gave CR money for road projects, bridges, infrastructure and CR would turn a blind eye to what was going on in at the private docks in Punteranas. I'm not sure how they transported the dried fins to their final desitination, but it is a fact that the Asian culture is the highest "user" of shark fins for shark fin soup. Last year the laws were finally changed in CR that the fins need to be attached to the sharks when they arrive at the docks. If you have not seen the movie Sharkwater, I would urge you to watch that and you will learn that the Asians are the prime user of shark fins. BTW, China is now CR's cash cow.
They kept flashing up a little box that said available on itunes and amazon.com. Not sure if that is a podcast or not, but you may want to try itunes. It was a very good show and they covered everything from bush meat in Africa and how that is leading to the transmission of animal to human disease to lead poisioning in Peru from a chemical plant. Regarding Cocos, the saddest thing was that one of the sharks that died on a long line in Cocos was pregnant with 7 pups - very sad.
James
Prior to about a year ago, Costa Rica was "funded" by Taiwan. They gave CR money for road projects, bridges, infrastructure and CR would turn a blind eye to what was going on in at the private docks in Punteranas. I'm not sure how they transported the dried fins to their final desitination, but it is a fact that the Asian culture is the highest "user" of shark fins for shark fin soup. Last year the laws were finally changed in CR that the fins need to be attached to the sharks when they arrive at the docks. If you have not seen the movie Sharkwater, I would urge you to watch that and you will learn that the Asians are the prime user of shark fins. BTW, China is now CR's cash cow.
Please everyone, watch Sharkwater. This movie will answere any finning related questions
John_B
Grasshopper
As I said earlier, I missed this particular special but I'm pretty well researched on the topic (Cocos Island is #1 on my "must dive" to-do list).
The fishing fleets that are finning sharks just outside (and I'm being generous here) of the Cocos Island National Park are Asian boats. Those shark fins are literally being shipped all the way back to Hong Kong, Taiwan, the PRC, etc. (For the same reasons most of the Pacific Salmon catch in the US goes all the way across an ocean to Asian ports, supply and demand.)
Its worth the watching the PBS Nature episode "Shark Mountain", the very end of the episode does a good job of documenting the fact that shark finning is being done from Taiwanese boats near Cocos Island.
BTW, Cocos Island is a territory of Costa Rica which is in Central America, that technically makes it part of the North American continent. You are probably thinking of the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador.
OP
John
They are rebroadcasting both Sat and Sun at 9pm ET
They are rebroadcasting both Sat and Sun at 9pm ET
Jon Nellis
Contributor
The movie "Sharkwater" that was referred to earlier is really a MUST SEE. Besides the great cinematography and real life suspense, it highlights the corruption of governments and types of widespread absurdity that Asian cultures subscribes to.
You can get it from Netflix or better yet, buy a copy (less than $10) watch it and pass it along to others who are unaware of the situation.
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You can get it from Netflix or better yet, buy a copy (less than $10) watch it and pass it along to others who are unaware of the situation.
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John_B
Grasshopper
OP
Yes! It's funny, the Planet In Peril web page says watch Anderson Cooper "free dive" with great whites. I want to send them an email and tell them he didn't free dive! It was pretty clear that Anderson is probably not a certified scuba diver. 
ccredifo
Contributor
matt215
Contributor
the asian fleets make the trip because there is so much money to be made from shark fins, and since they've killed all the sharks in their part of the world, they're going to the only places in the world that have any sharks left so they can kill all of them too. same thing with the whales in antartica. they use up everything in their neck of the woods, then they just come over to your neighborhood and destroy it too.
this is sad. it's the eleventh hour with these animals. they have no respect for anything in the sea. plus, the mob is paying off the governments to not enforce fishing restrictions.
the locals probably don't care much either because there is so much money involved, and it puts food on the table.
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