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Thursday, September 20, 2007

'Plunder or Protect'

Over on Caspar Henderson's Coral Bones blog, I found this:
WWF Australia is calling for the entire Coral Sea region to be declared a marine protected area. The campaigners are using economics-based arguments:
The resident population of sharks at Osprey Reef, the main dive site in the Coral Sea, is 40 animals, making each shark worth over $250,000 per year. When you compare this figure to $62.50 - the asking price for shark catch by local fisheries, it is more than evident Australian reef sharks are more valuable alive than dead.
News reports include this, this and this.
Sounds like a potential contribution to our socioeconomics panel in Alotau, no?
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