Since many slaughtered rays are dumped at sea, no one knows how many are killed. Neither Virginia nor Maryland, where most kill contests are held, impose limits on fishing rays. Bowe’s contest saw 150 participants last year, and another contest in Virginia, Amazon Rain Chicken’s Chesapeake Bay Stingray Tournament, saw about 120 participants last year with team names like Death From Above and Bloody Decks. The kill tournaments may seem like a throwback to the bad old days before people understood the role individual species play in the ecosystem. The “smiling” Atlantic cownose rays that “fly” gracefully through the water may seem an odd focus for such bloodletting. But shellfish farmers blame the rays for decimating their harvests. It’s an idea supported by the state of Virginia, which for several years has been trying to jump-start a seafood market for the cownose ray. Its campaign “Save the Bay, Eat a Ray” conveys the idea that the native rays are harming the ecosystem. That supposition, however, is not supported by science, and it could be devastating for the rays—and possibly other creatures in the ecosystem. When the Atlantic ray’s close cousin, the Brazilian cownose ray, became popular for export, it was quickly overfished and is now listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. takepart/article/2014/12/16/east-coast-killing-contests-threaten-wipe-out-cownose-stingray?cmpid=organic-share-facebook
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 18:01:00 +0000
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