Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The rape of the planets resources




I can`t say that I`m proud of this photo and many more like it that I have but, in the sixties my famuily was hungry and money was short. I could dive to sixty foot ( and more) all day long if required and yes I had hair :o)) Spiny lobster were easy prey and Plymouth UK was our port. The largest Lobster I collected and weighed was 12lbs but there were bigger.




One thing that we never did was take berried femail Lobster and always left them where they were ( a rigid discipline) we always collected them by hand never spearing them as some do today in other countries. However even with our so called"misguided disciplins" the Spiny Lobster stocks off the UK went deep and are rarely seen today, by todays divers. we ate all that we collected rarely funding our "sport" with any revenue that they might have brought in! we never took more than we needed!

4 comments:

Pat said...

"We never took more than we needed." What a concept!!!

IMHO - there's nothing at all wrong with feeding one's family. You would have made a good Native American, Orb, with your "work ethic"!!!

rob said...

Do you really think so! I had a friend who was the PPM manager at Disney florida, an american indian. On his visit to the UK we sat on the beach at worthing (south coast of england) and he physically napped three arrow heads out of flint in as many minutes! His son had won the all American dancing championships? the year previous!

When I think about the American Bison stocks of the 1850s compared to today, I go cold. I do also worry that we (the divers of the 70s) raped the sea of its crustaceans particularily the spiny lobster which we used to term as Crayfish, as none are seen nowadays!

Pat said...

I understand what you are saying, Orb. But if I'm not mistaken, 'twas not the Native American that was responsible for the dwindling number of American Bison, was it? I always thought it was the white man that was responsible?

rob said...

Thats as I understand it to the native American used all the by-products of the Buffalo, not just the edible meat but the hide sinew and bone. I have seen an old photograph (sepia print) of a whole field of buffalo carcasses from which only the edible meat has been taken and the rest left to rot. the meat was used to feed the railway workers and miners, also I believe that the government at that time felt that no buffalo! no indiginous specis, prpblems? I may be wrong