NOT TASMANIA: But what do these images tell us?

This is not going on Tasmania but wherever it is they are doing what Tasmania knows how to do  very well – well it seems that they do. The exemplar extinction that belongs to Tasmania is the Thylacine  – the Tasmanian Tiger – but it does not and has not stopped there. When things go extinct it is a little bit like the "canary down the coal mine" story – watch out we are next! Unsustainability is so so obvious when you stop and really look at it yet we have little to no idea what say 'Climate Change' is telling us in Tasmania via our reptiles. Actually these sea turtles are in Costa Rica and a lesson is being learnt.

Please click on the image to enlarge it

What these pictures are telling us we need to heed no matter where we live – Tasmania , Costa Rica or elsewhere. Humans have been into unsustainability for eons but increasingly it is obvious that we are approaching the end of the line and that we need to look a future where sustainability is more than an idea and it is something that we actively practice.

There is not a lot of difference between the unsustainability of this 'turtle egg harvest' and the unsustainability of much of Tasmania's resource management and if you live in Tasmania you will know about a great many of them. Field naturalist, and herpetologists, can tell us quite a bit about what is going on and what is being lost. But who is listening?

NOW FOR A DIFFERENT SPIN ON THE IMAGES: The photographs are indeed genuine, but they do not depict the illegal poaching of turtle eggs. In fact, the egg harvest shown in the photographs is a perfectly legal and strictly controlled event that is managed by the Costa Rican government and been in operation since the 1980's.

Far from being an "attack against nature", the egg harvest is an integral part of a long term conservation program that has resulted in a significant increase in the successful hatchings of Olive Ridley Turtles • [1] • [2] • [3]

Wouldn't it be really nice if we could put an alternative spin like this on some of the unsustainabile harvesting that goes on in Tasmania?

Pictures speak volumes and avoid long essays and deliver their messages at lightning speed. Send us your images and but be careful about the way you tell your stories.