Dear Marmamers,
with great pleasure I want to make you aware of a current article
reflecting on marine mammal conservation in a more holistic manner. This
article is based on my talk at this year's Annual Conference of the
European Cetacean Society (ECS), which many of you have encouraged me to
publish "poperly". Luckily, /Advances in Marine Biology/ accepted the
article to be included as an editorial to its latest volume:
Ritter, F. - _Marine mammal conservation in the 21st century: A plea
for a paradigm shift towards mindful conservation. /Advances in Marine
Biology/, ISSN 0065-2881, https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.amb.2022.09.001
_
_Abstract:_ Marine mammals are regarded in high esteem by the general
public, and are recognized as flagship species for conservation, while
at the same time they suffer from anthropogenic impacts on a global
scale, and often in extreme ways. It seems there is a huge discrepancy
between how we humans think about our fellow creatures in the sea, and
how we behave to impact and/or conserve them. Here, I examine why the
purely scientific and thus intellectual approach to marine mammal
conservation has had limited success over the past decades. While there
are some obvious success stories in cetacean conservation, the situation
today is, for many species and populations, more dire than it has ever
been. The idea of ‘we need to know more’—a credo of the scientific
community—often is politically misrepresented to postpone necessary
conservation decisions. To adapt our path towards more profound and,
importantly, more effective marine conservation, as conservationists we
need to go deeper and change the narrative of separation, i.e., the
concept of humans being set apart from the rest of nature. Instead,
there is a need to create a narrative of connectedness, i.e., the
consciousness of humans being an integral part of the planetary system.
Rather than telling horror stories about the plight of marine mammals,
conservationists also need to trigger positive emotions about them in
ourselves. More holistic aspects of conservation need to be incorporated
in our future efforts, including the fuller integration of traditional
knowledge and indigenous wisdom, recognizing ecosystem functions of
marine life and protecting the processes they sustain, respecting
‘holiness’ of nature while focusing on the animals’ individuality,
personhood and the cultural identity of distinct cetacean communities.
Effective marine mammal conservation will be possible only on the basis
of a profound change of our own values and a fundamental change of the
societal system(s) we are living in.
This link will bring you to the website where the article can be _viewed
and downloaded freely until 06 December 2022_. No sign up, registration
or fees are required.
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1fx38Es4JKUCb
Best wishes to all,
Fabian
--
_____________
Fabian Ritter
President
M.E.E.R. e.V.
Bundesallee 123
D-12161 Berlin
T +49-(0)30-644 97 230
rit...@m-e-e-r.de
www.m-e-e-r.org
"The dolphins were having a great relaxed
time and there were no major answers
they wished to have the questions to."
-after Douglas Adams-
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