In November, wildlife conservationist and author, Richard Pierce visited in order to give a talk on two topical issues both of which related to human interactions with animals.
The orcas of Dyer Island
The first part of the talk consisted of a quick synopsis of the book ‘Orca: the day the great white shark disappeared’ that was written by Richard Pierce about his work on Dyer Island.
During this section it is revealed that in the waters surrounding Dyer Island the appearance of two orcas called ‘Port’ and ‘Starboard’ had caused great white sharks to disappear. On the island cage diving was one of the main sources of income for the locals which caused many members of the local community to want the orcas to be killed. It was later discovered that the orcas were predating on the great white sharks and eating their livers, this is still an ongoing issue for tourism on the island.
Canned hunting
The second issue that was brought up during this talk was the highly controversial method of canned hunting, in particular the cases where lions are farmed in a way that gains the most profit.
The first step in this process is when cubs are bottle fed by volunteers that believe that they are orphaned, many of these volunteers are also under the belief that these lions will later be released into the wild. Once the cubs become too old for this, they become part of the wider tourism industry where the public can take photos with them and once the lions are mature enough the public can pay to walk them. Eventually the lions are fully mature and no longer useful for this industry, at this point many of the lions are sold to a hunter who pays to shoot and kill the lion.
My Thoughts and My Career
This particular talk did a very good job at highlighting some of the issues surrounding animals in the tourism industry. It did become apparent however throughout the talk that the main focus of this presentation was to sell the book ‘Orca: the day the great white shark disappeared’ and promote the upcoming film ‘Lions, Bones and Bullets’ that will be released in 2020. With this in mind I think the talk by Richard Pierce made me realise the importance of being able to relay information to the general public so that they can make informed decisions.
In addition to this I thought that the way that the information was relayed through story form was good as it enabled it to be more accessible to both people with a zoological background and without. This made me think about the different ways that the same information can be worded and portrayed and how this can change how many people it can reach.
Even though the talk was not on an area of interest for me I did find it interesting and insightful. I do not believe that this talk will impact my career choice but it has made me more aware of misinformation and issues that are happening around the world.
If you want more information about the work of Richard Pierce click here.
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