An Eden for Sharks

Holland, J. 2007. Blue waters of the Bahamas: An eden for sharks. National Geographic Magazine 211:116-137.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/03/bahamian-sharks/holland-text/1

The Article “Blue waters of the Bahamas, is about the very valuable, diverse habitat that the Caribbean provides for numerous species to thrive in. With its combination of reefs, sandy beaches, mangroves, lagoons, grass beds and sheer drops amid shallow waters, this heterogeneous environment is a nursery for several species of sharks to reside in. Because sharks continue to carry a bad reputation due to the images media portrays, research dollars and public support is hard to come by. With the Bahamas still being a young country, they too need to learn their own mistakes and successes regarding the very fine line between development and ecological protection.

To expand on the description of the fine line, the Bahamians depend on tourists to bring in half of the gross national product. In order to keep enticing fishing and diving visitors, development must be present as well as a beautifully diverse ecosystem, but there needs to be a balance involving gentle development that attracts manageable amounts of tourists and preservation of sharks in their ecosystem.  What people don’t realize is that sharks are valuable in that they individually bring in $200,000 each in tourism revenue over a lifetime, in addition they are a keystone species that if depleted would not keep other carnivores in check that in turn would reduce the abundance of algae-eating fish that keep coral reefs healthy. Sharks also weed out weak and sick fish only to provide the most fit and healthy fish to the locals.

On top of habitat loss to numerous species of sharks, 73 million die annually to worldwide shark finning which is illegal, cruel and very wasteful. Commercial fishing also contributes to unintended as well as targeted captures of millions of sharks. This is very unsettling and to add to all this sharks have slow reproductive rates. With the development of more marine sanctuaries and complementary strict enforcement, sharks and their most bountiful ecosystems can be preserved to feed local people and keep visitors coming to support what they love to experience.

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A world without mosquitoes

Fang, J. 2010. A world without mosquitoes. Nature 466: 432-434. doi:10.1038/466432a
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html

In summary, the article “A world without mosquitoes” essentially explains the one major downfall of having mosquitoes around as well as the many consequences that would arise if they were not around. Of course the world would be a much healthier place if the major disease vectors were eliminated, but in contrast mosquitoes are prey to many predators, are predators to various organisms, pollinate numerous plants, and form important symbiotic relationships with several organisms.

The ecology article is naïve, extremely biased, and goes against well understood guidelines of conservation biology.  The article is extremely biased not only because we overestimate the abundance of mosquitoes due to their selective attraction to us but we can’t help but view the negative effects of their existence because of what they are doing to the human race.  According to years of experimental study, to alter one organism’s abundance is to alter many other organisms’ chance of persistence, and only when populations are severely endangered and extensive research has been carried out are these measures ever taken. It is out of our ignorance to say that mosquitoes are useless in this world. As Aldo Leopold once said, “if the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not”. So, why sacrifice many species’ persistence for the security of one species when that one species population size is far from being threatened? In addition, aren’t enough species going extinct because of our influence, and are we the culprit for their ever growing population size? Why eradicate more species for an insufficient reason? The biggest consequence of not eliminating mosquitoes is simply that there would be too many humans to exploit the already depleted natural resources of this world. The costs of an increased population would far outweigh the benefits of a healthy population. So, we can now look at mosquitoes as organisms that keep the human population in check.