Thursday, August 13, 2009

Local sport fishing company's employee figures in shark "beat down" video

The power of new media and You Tube to effect conservation change has been well known. Savvy NGO's and conservationists have been using this format to "spread the message" cheaply, organically, and effectively.

Another, often overlooked aspect of this new media is enforcement. Video's posted to You Tube and picked up by social networking groups that highlight misdeeds with shark at the hands of fishermen, commercial operations, and the general public lead to effective change as well.

No one, it seems, wants to be caught with a viral video highlighting bad things with sharks.

We live in a new and exciting media times.

This week another example of negative/positive shark conservation media from Canada. Fortunately for the company involved they pulled the offending video in time to defuse a much larger outcry, but not quickly enough to make the daily news:

Sarah Douziech, Westerly News

A local sport fishing company has disciplined an employee after an online video depicting him smacking a dogfish on a ship's deck and throwing it overboard surfaced on CTV news this week.

The video, called "Ucluelet July 25. 2009 Mud Shark Beat Down," was posted to the popular video website YouTube. Brian Clarkson, manager of the Canadian Princess Resort in Ucluelet, said he saw the news report and followed up with an investigation at work because the man in the video is on one of the resort's boats and is wearing a sweatshirt with the resort's logo.

Complete Story

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