Diego is very sad to inform you that it is looking bad for the future of water friends the Amazon Pink River Dolphins that are now endanger of extinction in Brasil!
Brasilian Amazon Fishermen see the dolphins as a Rival & are now using dolphin meat as bait for the catfish
Pink dolphins in the rivers of the Amazon rain forest compete for the same fish that fishermen try to catch to feed their families. Many are illegally killed.
Ronan Benício Rego, a fisherman in Igarapé do Costa, said he had used his harpoon to kill river dolphins. But for Ronan Benício Rego, a fisherman in this tiny settlement, pink dolphins are both rival & prey.
Standing on the muddy banks of the river here recently, he said he had killed river dolphins many times before, to use as bait to catch a catfish that is sold to unknowing consumers in Brazil & Colombia.
“We want to make money,” said Mr. Rego, 43, the president of the community here. Two dead dolphins could yield about $2,400 in catfish sales in a single day of fishing, he said.
But bait is not the only objective. Though the pink dolphins are protected by law, (which in 1986 WORKING WITH PRESIDENT SARNEY, P.A.R.D. MADE INTO LAW FOR THE DOPHINS & THE MINKE WHALES) the fishermen see them as nettlesome competitors for the catches that feed their families & their frustration sometimes boils over. “I have harpooned some just to be mean,” Mr. Rego said, lifting a harpoon to demonstrate how he would spear dolphins at close range.
The illegal slaughtering of dolphins is on the rise here, threatening one of the storied symbols of the Amazon and illustrating the challenge of policing environmental law in such a vast territory, researchers & government officials say. Hundreds, if not thousands, of the estimated 30,000 river dolphins plying the Amazon region are dying every year.
Miguel Miguéis, 41, a Portuguese researcher from the Federal University of Western Pará who studies river dolphin populations around the city of Santarém, said the high rate of killings could lead to their extinction. “They are killing their culture, their folklore,” Dr. Miguéis said. “They are killing the Amazon.”
Miguel Miguéis, 41, a Portuguese researcher from the Federal University of Western Pará who studies river dolphin populations around the city of Santarém, said the high rate of killings could lead to their extinction. “They are killing their culture, their folklore,” Dr. Miguéis said. “They are killing the Amazon.”
This link to the video, if you have the stomach to watch it?
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/04/16/world/americas/100000000758700/amazon-dolphins-in-danger.html?scp=3&sq=Pink%20dolphins&st=cse
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Sincerely & in Appreciation,
Roxanne Kremer, Executive Director & Founder SEND YOUR TAX DEDUCTABLE DONATIONS TO : ISPTR, 3302 N. Burton Ave, Rosemead, Ca. 91770 (off 10 E freeway exit Walnut Grove) Tel. 626 572 0233 my Cell 310 303 9050 Website: www.isptr-pard.org & Google my name in for more information Email: pard_expeditions@yahoo.com (it has an underscore)
