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Monday, November 17, 2008

A suggestion to replace whale sharks at the IR

Singaporeans like to get up in arms about things and often we're accused of not coming up with solutions and instead just compounding on the problem. Well here's a solution to the whale sharks in captivity that sounds good to me!

unpublished letter to the media from WildSingapore.
Sea Shepherds on the Whale Sharks at Sentosa IR
Letter from Grant W. Pereira Asian Education Advisor Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

I read with concern your article entitled "Activist against having a whale of a time" by Krist Boo in the Straits Times (October 26th, Home page) that Krezner International plans to have an aquarium at the Integrated Resort to keep the endangered whaleshark and beluga whales.

How ironic on the same day, the "TODAY" newspaper had an article entitled "WHALE SHARK RESEARCHER, BRAD NORMAN WINS ROLEX AWARD" by Ashraf Safdar.

Mr Norman received this prestigious award from our President Mr. S. R. Nathan, by monitoring the movements of the endangered shark.

The whale shark has a migratory range of 13,000 km and can dive to 980 metres, can Kerzner build an aquarium to suit their requirements?

Perhaps the A.V.A. would like to comment about the legal implication of keeping an endangered species in a captive environment?

Perhaps also Kerzner would like to make their scientific research on the whale shark public so that marine experts can make comments on these findings.

The Singapore Government has always worked towards being a caring and sophisticated society and keeping a magnificent fish that needs both space and depth hardly augurs well with the international worldwide image we want to project.

Instead of a whaleshark in captivity, how about a sunken ship as an artificial reef so that our young can learn first hand about corals etc and how they support marine life. I am sure this would be a first worldwide as only divers have seen how these structures support marine biodiversity.

Let's abandon this high risk (and perhaps illegal) project and teach something positive to our youngsters instead of the negative lesson that money can buy everything even endangered mammals, fish and animals.
Does anybody else agree with this guy? I'd pick a ship wreck with a healthy coral reef ecosystem and many different species over a whale shark languishing in a glass prison anyday!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

they should put a plastic replica of the whale shark instead.
AS a reminder that animals should be set free not to be kept to view & sharks are near extinction!
they deserve a space as big as we live in !!

Anonymous said...

singapore is like that. as long as it brings in money and makes us look all huge and high class, lets just throw morals away!

damn gold diggers

Anonymous said...

here here! I agree with the suggestion. unfortunately, no one in RWS is listening and their being stubborn. i just wish that a body would step in a completely halt this from happening.

personally, i would rather see a shipwreck supporting a coral reef and also would rather see largescale images of whalesharks swimming in an "artificial aquarium" made up of large LED screens. *sigh*

Anonymous said...

whale shark in captivity?horrible.

Anonymous said...

definitely agree with Jau.
artificial aquarium with largescale images of the whalesharks is totally awesome. it creates even more awe and respect for the endangered animal, rather than seeing a castrated version of the live animal swimming within a glass tank

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