Nemo & the Plight of The Ocean

This time of year affords most of us some quality family time, time which often includes a few classic family movies. A guaranteed hit for all ages is most definitely - FINDING NEMO (altogether now "Fish are friends, not food") the animated feature film about the little clown fish with only one good fin. All sorts of adventures occur when Nemo disobeys his over-protective dad and is caught in the net of a diver.

Of course this story has a happy ending but a recent article HERE points out that in reality, 1 out of 6 species that appear in Finding Nemo are threatened with extinction. Bruce, Chum and Anchor may play baddies in this escapade, but sadly, Sharks are under constant threat due to over harvesting, we've talked about diminishing shark numbers before, and why this is BAD but "dude, it's like, totally not cool" because so are the sea turtles like Squirt and Crush. Over 1500 species that appear in Finding Nemo were documented and assessed for a study published in Conservation Letters, and the results are grim.

The study’s lead author and NSF International Postdoctoral Fellow at Simon Fraser University Loren McClenachan said “Putting Nemo in office aquariums, making soup out of Anchor the shark’s fins and selling Sheldon the seahorse as curios has taken a toll,”  

“Our research highlights how very little we know about many of these animals. It’s unthinkable that the characters in Finding Nemo could become extinct, but this is the reality unless we pay more attention to the diversity of marine life.”

So what can we do about it? More importantly, what can we teach our children to do? Right now, you can visit Project Aware and learn more about shark conservation, but be sure to read next weeks article where will give you some practical tips that will make a positive, long-term difference.