"Cruel" may seem a harsh indictment of the age-old profession of fishing—and certainly does not apply to all who practice the trade—but how else to portray the world's shark fishermen, who kill tens of millions of sharks a year, large numbers finned alive for shark-fin soup and allowed to sink to the bottom to die? How else to characterize the incalculable number of fish and other sea creatures scooped up in nets, allowed to suffocate, and dumped overboard as useless bycatch? Or the longline fisheries, whose miles and miles of baited hooks attract—and drown—creatures such as the loggerhead turtle and wandering albatross?

Do we countenance such loss because fish live in a world we cannot see? Would it be different if, as one conservationist fantasized, the fish wailed as we lifted them out of the water in nets? If the giant bluefin lived on land, its size, speed, and epic migrations would ensure its legendary status, with tourists flocking to photograph it in national parks. But because it lives in the sea, its majesty—comparable to that of a lion—lies largely beyond comprehension.

Waste of Sea Life (Photograph by Brian Skerry)

Everything surrounding a Mexican trawlerman's hands will go to waste; he will sell only the shrimp.

　　題外話，總覺得地球像是得了癌症一樣，癌細胞迅速地在各處擴張中。今天才看到一則新聞說，未來不久之後，因為全球暖化造成海平面上升，好像升高個六公尺吧，整個紐約南部就會被淹沒；然後澳洲也遭受百年來的大旱災；之前又有新聞說日本東京今年沒有下雪？

　　當然，各地都傳出各種不同的天災，以前課本上學的聖嬰現象，好像是說幾年會來一次，怎麼最近好像每年都聽到。

　　怎麼不來個政府贊助的電視台，擺上一個新聞頻道，然後蒐集各地跟環保、愛地球有關的節目，把台灣創造成一個以愛護地球為主的國家，相信這比什麼政治活動還要更具有國際震撼力吧。（其實我想比對的是韓國政府大力贊助他們一些產業的現象；聽說最近泰國幣值已經超越台幣了）

　　愛台灣，怎麼不來個愛地球？但這種東西也不是說說就會實現的，所以，就慢慢看看著Gaia繼續的惡化下去吧。台灣這兩、三年突然好像平靜許多，我也不是想要烏鴉嘴，不過......

NGM - Still Water: The Global Fishing Crisis