Mega Mouth Shark

[ct_vol]

So........ Not sure if you guys heard, but there a MegaMouth shark was found off the coast of the Philippines... There are only 41 known in existence, well 40 now... This one of course being tagged #41... The fisherman that caught the shark immediately brought it to shore and ate it of course... :rolleye1:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090407..._rare_shark;_ylt=AkFgfoqL3ApYAYyO0kbk6sMEtbAF

 

[EvilMel]

That picture sucks.

I did not know that the whale shark was an endangered species. That kinda makes that whole *Georgia Aquarium whale shark deaths* thing a bit of a bigger issue than I previously thought.

 

[macclellan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14789142#post14789142 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EvilMel
I did not know that the whale shark was an endangered species. That kinda makes that whole *Georgia Aquarium whale shark deaths* thing a bit of a bigger issue than I previously thought.

Yeah, well, AZA-affiliated institutions like the Georgia Aquarium are supposed to operate consistent with the AZA mission statement, which, as eclectic as it is, includes 'conservation' in its mission. It's extremely counterintuitive to think that incarcerating animals that don't breed in captivity (especially threatened/endanged/etc. 'species') conserves them in any significant sense... but that's a huge can of worms...

 

[Wildman]

I might be mistaken but, I believe the whale shark and the mega mouth shark are different.


I looked it up, they are diff. I have seen a whale shark in the wild. I knew I wasn't lucky enough to see one of forty of a species.

 

[knoxtnreef]

well I'd have to say that sucks but if I were hungry I'd eat an endangered animal if I meant I lived or died. Humans are the problem.

 

[macclellan]

They are different. I believe whale sharks are merely vulnerable/threatened. Nobody knows how many megamouths there are. 41 confirmed sightings doesn't mean there are 41 specimens...there could be many more, or some of the sightings could be of the same fish.

 

[jim.l]

It died in their net. Can't release a dead fish, so better to use it for food than fertilizer.

 

[EvilMel]

I didn't think the megamouths were the same thing as the whale sharks. Whale sharks have spots.

But yeah...I mistook the endangered comment about the megamouth shark for the whale shark, which isn't technically endangered.

 

[ct_vol]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14791431#post14791431 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by macclellan
They are different. I believe whale sharks are merely vulnerable/threatened. Nobody knows how many megamouths there are. 41 confirmed sightings doesn't mean there are 41 specimens...there could be many more, or some of the sightings could be of the same fish.

I was under the impression from the newscast I heard yesterday that there were 41 tagged... I know this one was tagged already...

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14791903#post14791903 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jim.l
It died in their net. Can't release a dead fish, so better to use it for food than fertilizer.

They ate it because their culture leads them to believe that they will be stronger/more vital from eating shark not because they were starving... You can't tell me they didn't have other things to eat caught in that net... I am far from a vegetarian or animal rights activist, but I do think it would have been better suited to use for scientific purposes than being hacked on the shoreline...

 

[macclellan]

Here's a table of known catches: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/Megamouth/tablemega.htm It doesn't seem that all were tagged, and many of these known sitings resulted in dead animals. I wonder how many there really are.

There's a neat page including their phylogenetics...weird creatures, and we don't quite have their evolutionary history figured out: http://yourplanetweb.com/search.php?q=megamouth shark

 

[Wildman]

I went back and reread the article and all the posts. So basically the media sux. They said whale sharks were endangered and lead you to believe there was 41 tagged.

We screw up way too many animals before we figure out we are screwing them up.

I go back and forth on the eating them thing. I believe it is one thing for the Aleutians to kill a whale or two a year and eat them to survive and another for Japan to kill fifty or a hundred for "research" every year and eat them.