A fellow blogger who dives regularly, recently recounted a story in which he helped two hermit crabs find new homes. Another fellow blogger/diver wasn't too happy with the first blogger/diver, and posted the previous blog post about not taking the shells of hermit crabs if a hermit crab was living in it.
That really pissed off the first blogger/diver.
Now.
I fish (not very well) and I eat fish. I eat crab and I've eaten hermit crabs off of the beach.
With that understanding, I pose the following question:
Is it ethical for a SCUBA diver to take the shell from a live crab?
Is taking a shell from a live crab similar to taking the horn from a Rhino (or Saipanda) or the fins from a shark? Or is it more like sheering the wool off of a sheep? Would it have been ethical to take the crabs if the diver had eaten the crabs? Since fishing with SCUBA is illegal, did the diver break the law?
Second, I pose an ethics in blogging question:
Is it ethical to use pictures from another site without permission?
Is it enough to just link back to the original site? Do you have to get permission first?
5 comments:
yes i should have asked permisssion, but i at least credited where the pics came from and on my own blog linked to his post for people to see. i left his name out to keep things on the up and up. if you caught someone poaching a turtle and had pictures, you'd probably post it. I can remove the pictures but the bottom line is what he did is unethical. I eat fish too, and I've caught and killed the fish that I eat. But I don't do it for sport, trophies or when I think it would be breaking the law.
A Rhino will grow its horn back (its hair) the problem is people kill the Rhino just for the horn. Shark fins are removed from the live shark and then the shark is usually sent back into the ocean to drown or die from the increasing pressure as it sinks. Sheep get sheered and their hair grows back. I shaved my dog so she'd be cooler in the heat. I cut my hair to keep me cooler. It doesn't harm the sheep. Hermit crabs can't grow a shell. They have to find one and giant tritons are as rare as the giant hermit crabs. Was he harvesting the shell for food? Would that make it right if he ate the shell?
Perhaps it would have been best to chat with him PRIVATELY.
Ethical Questions have such far-reaching answers. A common goal and courtesy would be for Bloggers to give credit where credit is due. And that divers dive passively until such time as they understand the ramifications of their actions to the critters involved. Sustenance use and sustainable resource vs trophy case display and tasty delicacy (in the absence of sustainability) are not comparable. For more on the Tritan issue visit my blog.
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