Artificial Grey Nurse Shark breeding program - a foolish plan ?

As a scientist I have been following the current plan of the NSW government to support a completely unproven project to raise grey nurse shark embryos captured from pregnant grey nurses in the wild in what is called an artificial uterus to avoid intra uterine canibalism.

$600,000 has already been approved for this idea which I believe should have better been spent in the creation of more grey nurse shark sanctuaries, education of fishermen and maybe the buyout of some - to protect the existing population.

The full article appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald today.

See http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sibling-sharks-turn-predator-in-the-grey-nursery/2006/08/23/1156012614360.html


Contributed by Tim Hochgrebe added 2006-08-23

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Nick Lo added 2006-08-23

I joked with Tim...

"...once they've sorted GNS they can move onto the next species and pretty soon we will be able to grow any threatened species we need. Meanwhile everyone can go about their business without concern or worry about the affect they are having, sleeping soundly knowing that science and technology is there to allow them to do so. We can make iPods so why not help make GNS...?"

But really I'd like to hear a bit more, bearing in mind this is a report in a newspaper rather than the direct information from those involved. We heard of this idea initially during the establishment of the Byron Marine Park Sanctuary and the concern then was that it seemed to being presented as an antidote to the problems of human impingement on their habitat. It then becomes a question of whether $600 000 is being redirected from preventing the problem to attempting to treat the symptoms.

Nick


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