More at http://www.sanctuaryasia.com | Species Focus
PARADIGM SHIFT
What is it that creates and changes our
relationships with species? Personal
connections are when we vivisect
and discard the bodies, others when
we clean and eat them. Then there is
the knowledge that goes beyond the
physical limits of a body, knowledge
of a life and a history. How do we
reconcile these diff erent aspects of
knowledge and life?
During the marine conservation
and education programmes that I
conduct in schools and colleges, I make
a point of mentioning the amazing
evolutionary history of the spadenose
shark, which has developed a placenta
and is the closest fi sh to mammals in
the way its foetuses develop. These
sharks are known to live for at least
fi ve years, with females larger than
males. Some students soak in this
information, others respond saying,
“Don’t tell me all that, I won’t be able
to eat that shark again!” It appears that
some people need to compartmentalise
LEFT AND RIGHT A fi sherwoman displays a spadenose shark. Seer fi sh occupy pride of place in the hierarchy of this fi shmarket, having been cleaned
and laid on top of the bucket away from the dirt, while spadenose sharks are caked with mud and scattered loosely on the gunny sack in the sand.
It was only in 2014, as I embarked on a study of sharks in Malvan, Maharashtra, that I realised the implications
of the demand created by dozens of zoology students across multiple institutions on a species that was already
being hit hard by indiscriminate fi shing. The spadenose shark is known to be a commercially-valuable species in
India, with its fl esh being consumed directly or being processed into fi shmeal.knowledge, with no overlaps. Some
things constitute food, and people
know only certain aspects of the
lives of those things. Other things
constitute what is wildlife, or what
is sacred and these people
know diff erent aspects about the
lives of those things. Gaining a little
knowledge about the life of a species
might mean shifting that species from
one mental compartment to another,
redefi ning the relationship forged
with the species. It is diffi cult for
such people to conceive of a species
that is both food and threatened
wildlife. Any attempt at blurring
these socially-constructed boundaries
strikes at the very core of a person’s
belief system.
How then can we encounter
threatened species, like the spadenose
shark, which force us to rethink our
conceptions of wildlife and food?
Perhaps, like the fi sherfolk, we can
begin to retrain ourselves to accept
knowledge about diff erent aspects of
a species’ life, and see the spadenoseshark, simultaneously as a food item,
commodity, participant in the marine
food web and threatened species. This
might alter our attitudes somewhat,
causing us to not buy the shark by
prioritising its threatened nature
even as we understand its existence
in the market as a commodity. It is
this perspective that enables me
to study the threatened spadenose
shark, without condemning fi shermen
for making their livelihood by catching
the species.
Optionally, we might choose
to retain our compartmentalised
knowledge, shifting the spadenose
shark from the food compartment
to the wildlife compartment. As we
wrestle with thoughts about species
that do not neatly fi t the categories
we create, we open ourselves to
new ways of thinking about species
survival. In my view, these subtle
shifts in the way we perceive wild
species will defi ne the direction in
which wildlife conservation moves in
the years ahead. w