《月球》杂志:贵机构 TerraMar Research 近期发起了一项名为POD( Protect Our Dolphins,意为“保护我们的海豚”)的新倡议,旨在保护圣巴巴拉海岸附近的宽吻海豚。贵机构网站上写道:
这些海豚如今正面临着前所未有的诸多环境挑战,其中许多挑战与我们沿海社区的人们息息相关。它们的数量极其稀少(整个加州海岸线可能仅有350只),群体规模不断缩小(这是压力和生存挑战的迹象),皮肤上出现与污染物相关的损伤,体内污染物含量极高,并且还面临着来自其他沿海环境威胁的极高风险。这些动物理应得到我们的支持,也需要我们的支持。
近年来发生了哪些变化,导致海豚种群面临如此巨大的压力?海豚以及其他鲸类动物在全球范围内面临的主要威胁是什么?
弗罗霍夫:科学家们一致认为,世界许多地区的宽吻海豚都出现了环境压力和痛苦的迹象,从皮肤损伤到死亡不等。最严重的威胁因地而异。例如,圣劳伦斯河的白鲸可能最受水中毒素的威胁。在日本太地町,最严重的威胁是每年一度的海豚屠杀——海豚被猎杀用作肥料,这种残忍行径令人难以置信。在全球范围内,海豚都受到捕鱼的威胁——一些研究人员,例如《国家地理》的西尔维娅·厄尔博士,建议我们完全停止食用鱼类,因为捕鱼方法对兼捕物种的危害极大,更不用说对目标物种的危害了。 “对海豚安全的金枪鱼”是个不错的想法,但请访问地球岛屿研究所的网站,了解他们为确保这一标签的真实性所做的努力。地球岛组织警告说,美国商务部的“海豚安全”标签实际上是“海豚的死亡证明”。他们敦促消费者不要购买贴有此标签的金枪鱼。
在全球范围内,海豚以及大多数海洋生物面临的其他威胁包括全球气候变化、塑料垃圾、珊瑚礁破坏、石油泄漏以及其他有毒排放物,如放射性废水。
因为我们与海豚共享沿海社区,任何对沿海环境的破坏都会对当地海豚造成伤害。在像加州中部沿海这样的社区,我们施用于草坪或花园的任何东西,倒入下水道的污水,或从污水处理厂排放的废水,都会直接影响海洋健康。尽管我们制定了一系列旨在保护环境的法律,但这些法律并未得到充分执行。我们从对人类健康的影响中也能看出这一点。冲浪者在水中待上一两个小时后,就会反复出现眼部、耳部或喉咙感染,那么想想那些长期生活在水中、皮肤非常敏感的海豚会受到怎样的影响。什么时候开始,人们竟然认为接触海洋会对健康造成危害,这种观念变得可以接受?
正如POD网站所说,“保护海豚,就是在帮助我们自己以及我们共同的沿海栖息地社区,造福子孙后代,包括海豚和人类。” 这进一步证明了全球环境的岌岌可危——所有物种的命运都取决于一个物种——智人的行为。虽然坏消息影响深远,但好消息是,我们所做的改进也会产生深远的影响。这凸显了我们必须意识到所有生命相互依存的重要性。
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by calling your project as The Dolphin Personhood Project it seems you are ascribi g human characteristics to another species and by doing so are acknowledging humans' dominion. Is this the very behaviour you say your work is trying to counterract?
I feel a resurgent inspiration by this article to support marine biology, and the ocean, in general. With human population on the planet growing exponentially, which in turn casts off all its by-products into the oceans' environs, we are quickly usurping that very limited blue frontier. Efforts to learn from our aquatic cousins in the wild need to be more widespread, as time is drawing nigh. One day the great plastic blob we have created will slow the ocean current; the aquatic creatures will float on the surface; and rescuers will no longer be able to scrub their toxic-filled bodies back to life. Many of us will be living on, and destroying, another planet by then. And all the money that was made by countries and corporations oblivious to our responsibility to take care of the oceans and the Earth, will long be useless.
Orcas and dolphins have indeed exhibited protective behaviors of their pod members when aggressive, rogue dolphins showed up and in fact escorted them out of the area, firmly. After working with Lilly's project myself I learned that we humans are not one of many higher minds, we are in fact one of the lesser minds. All animals have a great deal of intelligence and "higher mind". We simply don't have ways to measure that other than against our way of thinking in our own environment. We are the only animals that are continually aggressive toward all species, especially our own, will destroy ourselves in order to bring down another, attack and kill for the pleasure of it and soil our own "beds" (i.e.: the Earth) continually-virtually destroying our selves with so much self hatred that we aim to take everyone on this planet with us. We do indeed have a great deal to learn from whales, dolphins and in fact all species around the planet.
I loved ALL of this article. All animals are the human's evolutionary KIN. We must learn to show true hospitality to the other cousins of our species. I wish all killing and capturing or breeding of every cetaceans species would be at least put on a temporary hold until we learn how to communicate with them and can ask them about their stories and their community-based ethics. Then it is my belief, hunting, killing, and capturing aand breeding all animals shoul come to an end. Who do we think we are?