Nine Chinese fishermen were convicted by a Palawan Regional Trial Court of poaching. They were arrested in May of this year off the waters of Palawan, where their vessel yielded more than two hundred endangered sea turtles, most of them lifeless. The Green Sea and Hawksbill sea turtles are covered by the endangered species act. Aside from the various fines that they have to pay, they face imprisonment of not less than twelve and no more than twenty years in prison.
The speed by which this case was tried, along with the resulting sentence and punishment underlines the seriousness of the fight against poaching. There are so many species whose numbers are dwindling at an alarming rate, all for decorative and non-proven medicinal qualities. There are currently many agencies taking up the cudgels of fighting poaching, and more importantly, informing people about the dangers of wiping out species from the planet.
According to WildAid, around twenty thousand elephants were killed for their ivory tusks in 2013. If that number continues, then elephants may be wiped out by the year 2020. That's less than six years from now. Which is why WildAid has asked for the help of Yao Ming, the famous Chinese basketball player who played for the Houston Rockets in the NBA. China remains the number one buyer of illegally poached products such as elephant ivory, shark's fins, Black Rhino horns, and tiger bones along with sea turtles as the nine Chinese fishermen have shown. Poaching has exponentially increased with the economic success of China. Most of these items are poached simply for decorative products, while others for their supposed medicinal qualities. WildAid is hoping to send a strong message across to China with Yao Ming as its spokesperson, joined by other celebrities like Prince William, David Beckham, and Jackie Chan. We all know the catch phrase, "When the buying stops, the killing can, too." It shows that this is really a market driven illegal trade. I seriously cannot imagine a world without elephants, tigers, rhinos, sea turtles, and even sharks. To kill them simply for decorative purpose is downright senseless and idiotic, not to mention out rightly criminal. Why can't we get rid of croaches, flies, and mosquitoes instead?
It is good that justice was swiftly dispensed on the arrested Chinese poachers. They have to realize that they just cannot enter Philippine waters with impunity and start catching anything they want, with increasing frequency. We can only hope that with cases like this, along with the celebrity spokespersons' delivering the message against poaching, will not fall on deaf, uncaring, selfish ears. Not everything on God's earth should be converted to money.