Zip Malley
Mr. Ippolito
Core Bio H / Current Event 4
6 March 2017
Malkin, Elisabeth. "Before Vaquitas Vanish, a Desperate Bid to Save Them." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2017. Web.
I read the New York Times article titled “Before Vaquitas Vanish, a Desperate Bid to Save Them” by Elisabeth Malkin for this week’s current event. This article covers a incredibly upsetting situation that humans have created. It is a story of greed and crime, with defenseless victims.
Scientists, government officials, and marine biologists are working to reverse the situation ultimately saving the vaquitas from extinction. Vaquitas are a rare species of porpoise native to the northern part of the Gulf of California. The totoaba, another endangered fish, is being hunted illegally as a delicacy for wealthy Chinese with the Vaquita ending up in the nets. Since 2011, poachers involved in the illegal wildlife trade have killed 90 percent of the vaquita population leaving only 30 vaquitas in the wild. Researchers have a plan. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is working to keep this species of porpoise alive. To do so, the vaquitas will have to be located, captured, then taken to a temporary pool while the researchers build a sea pen in their habitat. Finally, the vaquitas would be transported back to their safe home. As with all science, there are lots of unknowns. Will the researchers be able to find and catch the vaquitas? How will the porpoises react? Keeping these small dolphins captive may be a last resort to save this far beyond endangered species.
This article shows how fragile our planet is and how everything we do is connected. Food choices in China has an impact on the biodiversity in Gulf of California halfway around the world. Greed is driving this extinction. If there wasn’t a demand for the totoaba, the vaquitas would be alright, they would not be harmed. This article also brings to light the collaboration and commitment of conservation organizations needed to understand and successfully save a species.
This article gave an amazing overview and put a conservation situation we know nothing about into context. Now we know the entire story. The extensive plans thought up by the researchers seem as though they may not work, putting a sad filter onto this human-forced tragedy.
Scientists, government officials, and marine biologists are working to reverse the situation ultimately saving the vaquitas from extinction. Vaquitas are a rare species of porpoise native to the northern part of the Gulf of California. The totoaba, another endangered fish, is being hunted illegally as a delicacy for wealthy Chinese with the Vaquita ending up in the nets. Since 2011, poachers involved in the illegal wildlife trade have killed 90 percent of the vaquita population leaving only 30 vaquitas in the wild. Researchers have a plan. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is working to keep this species of porpoise alive. To do so, the vaquitas will have to be located, captured, then taken to a temporary pool while the researchers build a sea pen in their habitat. Finally, the vaquitas would be transported back to their safe home. As with all science, there are lots of unknowns. Will the researchers be able to find and catch the vaquitas? How will the porpoises react? Keeping these small dolphins captive may be a last resort to save this far beyond endangered species.
This article shows how fragile our planet is and how everything we do is connected. Food choices in China has an impact on the biodiversity in Gulf of California halfway around the world. Greed is driving this extinction. If there wasn’t a demand for the totoaba, the vaquitas would be alright, they would not be harmed. This article also brings to light the collaboration and commitment of conservation organizations needed to understand and successfully save a species.
This article gave an amazing overview and put a conservation situation we know nothing about into context. Now we know the entire story. The extensive plans thought up by the researchers seem as though they may not work, putting a sad filter onto this human-forced tragedy.
Julian Thomet
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Bio IH D135
14 March, 2017
Current Events 5
Malkin, Elisabeth. "Before Vaquitas Vanish, a Desperate Bid to Save Them." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2017. Web.
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My classmate, Zip Malley, wrote a great review of the article “Before Vaquitas Vanish, a Desperate Bid to Save Them”. The article was about one of the most endangered animals in the world, the vaquita. There are a great many things that Zip did well in this article- indeed it is one of the best current events yet. For one thing, Zip opened up the article in a way that gave the reader a clear emotional connection with the issue. By making us feel for these creatures that are going extinct, we care more about the issue being discussed. The review was also incredibly well written. This made it very easy to understand and process the information that Zip presented us with. There were almost no grammatical issues. Furthermore, Zip’s review provided a lot of factual information. For some people, that may not be a good thing, but I found it very useful to understand the data, not just what the scientists had inferred from that data.
There were also one or two things that Zip could have done to improve his review. One thing that Zip could have done to give himself a bit more credibility, he could have been a little harsher about the article. He does not seem to have any problem with the article, which makes it a bit difficult to trust the article. The obvious way to solve this is to add a bit about how issues with the article. Zip could also have added a bit of information regarding the unknowns that he discussed. A sentence about what research is being done, or could be done, to help these creatures would be sufficient.
The one thing that really struck me about Zip’s review is the extent of damage that various groups of people can have on the natural world. Zip’s point about how eating habits of people in China can have serious impacts on ecosystems halfway around the world. This is very relevant because we have to realize that human actions are not just causing climate change, humans are also damaging ecosystems in other ways that often get overlooked because of the one big way in which we are damaging the world.
Sarah Goodell
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
Core Bio: Current Event #5
12 March, 2017
Malkin, Elisabeth. "Before Vaquitas Vanish, a Desperate Bid to Save Them." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2017. Web.
My classmate, Zip Malley, wrote a review on an article from the New York Times titled “Before Vaquitas Vanish, a Desperate Bid to Save Them” by Elisabeth Malkin. One thing Zip did well was giving us good background information. For example, he writes about how “poachers involved in the illegal wildlife trade have killed 90 percent of the vaquita population, [since 2011], leaving only 30 vaquitas in the wild.” Although he did provide us with sufficient details, he could have written about this earlier in the article, as described in the paragraph below. Background serves as the set-up for the argument explored in the rest of his review. Zip also provided us with a good description on how researchers and scientists are currently acting to solve this issue. He says that they have recently realized that their only option now is to relocate the Vaquitas, “then take [them] to a temporary pool while the researchers build a sea pen in their habitat. Finally, the Vaquitas would be transported back to their safe home.” It is essential for Zip to discuss how this problem will be, and already is being solved. Finally, Zip also describes how this issue relates to us in the United States. He writes about how “food choices in China have an impact on the biodiversity in the Gulf of California halfway around the world” and how “Vaquitas are a rare species of porpoise native to the northern part of the Gulf of California.” This is important for him to connect this topic to us, making us care about the low population of Vaquitas, so that we can then do something about it.
On the other hand, Zip also had a few flaws in his review of the article. The first thing that I noticed was how he could have started his article with the background information on Vaquitas and the issue that surrounds their survival. He began his review with a brief description on what researchers and scientists were doing to solve the issue before he ever told us what the actual issue was. It would have been more beneficial for his readers to understand the problem beforehand. The second thing I noticed was his lack of quotes. If Zip had included quotes from marine experts, such as Barbara Taylor, who is quoted in the original New York Times article, his review would have been much more credible, informative, and his points would have been supported by scientific experts and doctors.
After reading Zip’s review, I have learned about the Vaquita porpoises and how the totoaba fish species affects this, regarding the porpoises’ capture in China. I also learned about what we can do, as Americans to protect the Vaquitas and how few of them are left in the world. This is an issue that is developing right off of our western coast, so it very much affects us. I chose Zip’s review because I had never heard of Vaquitas and I love to learn about endangered species, especially when there is still something we can do to change their nearly inevitable extinction. This review will change my understanding of endangered species and how anyone can help these species to recover and reevolve. I hope that we, as the human race, can learn to care about and appreciate these animals, while also protecting them. No animal should have to suffer this way and each should be able to prosper in their own natural habitat.