The
Man and I had an interesting day out today.
No,
not doing touristy things.
So
where did we go?
One
of The Man’s work colleagues had recommended a particular campervan and caravan
yard that has a very good selection of the particular brand we are interested
in. It’s called Bailey. No not the yard the brand.
The Man
had some very specific questions about specs that only a face to face chat
would answer.
And
was he satisfied with the answers? Yes he was. So we are even more settled on
the type we will ultimately wind up with.
Later
this evening we watched a very sobering documentary about the South Pacific. It
made me never ever want to buy another can of tuna fish again, regardless of
how sustainably it has been caught. Not that I buy a lot anyway, but I won’t
buy anymore.
So
why.
Well
after having just about fished out the Atlantic Ocean those greedy take
everything commercial boats are now gobbling up the fish stocks in the Pacific.
The most sobering footage was shot within a purse-seine net that took an entire
school of thousands of skipjack tuna. As the net was tightened around the ever panicking
fish many were caught in the mesh of the net causing them to bleed. This
created a huge oily bloody slick that you would have though would have attracted
hungry sharks.
And
did it?
No it
did not.
Why…?
Because,
according to the programme, shark numbers have been dramatically reduced in
numbers potentially by as much as 90%!
The
Man and I were shocked speechless.
And
it seems that the Asian hunger for sharkfin soup is the culprit. Many unscrupulous
fishing boats catch the sharks, cut off the fins and throw the now helpless and
still very much alive fish back to drown.
So how
tasty is the sharkfin in the soup. Apparently all the aforesaid fin provides to
the soup is gelatinous tasteless texture the flavour comes from the other
ingredients.
I think
one of the most horrifying things about the programme was that it had been made
in 2009, so the situation can only have become worse since then.
