MTV Trashes Leatherback Turtle Nesting Beach

I have seen a leatherback sea turtle before in my life, and I have to ask: CAN'T WE GIVE THEM A FRIGGIN BREAK?! Just watching these amazing creatures returning to their beaches to lay eggs, you realize just how hard they have to work JUST TO MAKE THE NESTS!! Now they have to GUARD them too?!

Angrily,
Gabe
 
Well, Gabe, frankly there ought to be armed guards protecting their nesting areas anyway - preferably non-bribable types. Even without the horror of yet another reality TV show coming in and trashing their nesting beaches, there is a constant danger of people poaching sea turtles to feed the fetish for "wild caught" animals, just as in Africa and other parts of the developing world the exploding urban populations seem to have an insatiable demand for "bush meat".
 
That's an excellent point you've made there, Eric. And one I'm not going to debate because it will get me into vast heaps of trouble from all directions!
 
Thats an easy point to debate though. One perspective might be that yes, they are feeding their families (natural instinct, i suppose), but is the premanent loss of species and biodiversity worth a few families? Its not like humans are in any dire need of food. Now clearly no one in the history of the Earth will ever pass a law to such a degree because we will never think of ourselves as equals to the rest of our planet-mates (and who'd vote for such a quack anyways). I don't hate people, I just love playing the devil's advocate and find that I can often see things from many prespectives. I have simply choosen this moment to bless you all with my graces. Feel better about your day now? Thought so.

Cheers!
 
If those families could be fed by giving people employment guarding those eggs, and in other aspects of ecotourism they wouldn't need to harvest the eggs. We need to re-examine priorities, not just in the US but everywhere.
 
Hear hear! You could make the same argument about rhino poachers or scientific whalers. The fact that there is a commercial demand for the rare animals they are destroying is a very sad reflection on humanity in general, and we should certainly be assisting them in finding a less destructive likelihood. But we should not be allowing them to continue the destruction indefinitely just because they've always done it.
 
Funny you should mention Rhinos...I have a good friend (ex mil sniper) who makes a pretty penny shooting...poachers. I wonder if there is enough money for him to go after MTV crews???
I'll chip in.

:biggrin2:
 
Ah, you see that's exactly where I wasn't going to take this, but since you bring up the cheapest, most obvious solution, we can blame YOU, Greg. Where does he operate? Is he one of Leakey's anti-poachers, or part of a different group?

It must be noted that Amnesty International, among other human rights groups, are extremely against shoot-to-kill anti-poaching measures.

I should hope they would back-off in the case of reality TV producers, however, as their humanity is quite open to question.
 
Yeah, yeah, yeah...go ahead, shoot the messenger. LOL...

I will have to ask him if producers qualify as human life...he may have a bulk/bargain discount ???

g

Oh, and to answer your question : worldwide, but specializing in Botswana and the former Rhodesia. A few forays into Kenya now and again, from what I can gather.
 
Gee, just thinking about a pretty good friend who works on "Survivor"... luckily not responsible for the program. Hope he doesn't find Tonmo.com all the same - I'm using him as a job reference!
 
Think i should stand up for my industry a bit and say not everyone who works in telly is evil. For every TV person (at least here in the UK) who doesn't care about sea turtles or the environment there are probably 100 who think exactly the same as everyone here, me included. I'm in this industry partly because i'm so fascinated with natural history i want to show viewers how incredible this planet is and how important it is to treat it with respect. We have a powerful position to educate for good, and much of the time I think we do that. I can't speak for reality producers, i've never done that sort of thing (sounds like i'm talking about drugs) but most of us are not greedy and uncaring, we're exactly the opposite.

Sorry if i come off a bit narky, i'm not really. Just don't think i deserve a bullet just yet. Some producers, however, are not so undeserving...

just my :twocents:

cheers
Nik
 
Is this not breaking the law? They should have either been given special permission, or not been allowed at all. Interfering with the survival of Red-List animals is in fact a criminal offence, as far as I'm aware, whether it be on purpose or not. I reckon there should be an investigation into this. I bet the show sucks as well! Something has to be done about it.
Dude, it's just wrong

Graeme
 
International laws, no matter how specific, can be very hard to enforce...in this case, the government accepted the $$$ from MTV to look the other way. You have to remember, as a society, they have been eating the turtles for generations, so a few more dead ones doesn't mean all of that much to them. Short sighted? Yes. But, I can understand their point of view. The point of view I can not stand is that of MTV...they KNEW that they were doing something morally, ethically, and legally out of bounds, and yet did it anyway.
MTV should be nuked.

greg
 

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