Is boiling Lobster alive humane?
March 31, 2009
I am a carnivore, I like to eat meat, I like to eat fish and I like to eat crustaceans. I’m not a tree-hugging hippy, I’m not a vegetarian and I’m not squeamish about killing for food. However there are three dishes that I will not eat: Veal, Shark-fin soup and Lobster.
Respectively I consider them to be: cruel, unnecessary and just down-right barbaric. At the same time I don’t judge others for doing so, with the exception of shark-fin soup which is idiotic (it won’t cure cancer), wasteful (the rest of the shark is thrown alive back into the ocean) and irresponsible (shark populations have been decimated by over 90% as a direct result of long-line fishing and fining practices).
My decision not to eat Lobster was based on an instinct that no matter what chefs might tell you, lobsters are bound to feel pain as they are boiled alive. I’m less than delighted to learn that my instinct may just have been proven correct…
Two new studies by Robin Elwood indicate that crustaceans feel both pain and stress.
From Discovery News
“In the past, some scientists reasoned that since pain and stress are associated with the neocortex in humans, all creatures must have this brain structure in order to experience such feelings. More recent studies, however, suggest that crustacean brains and nervous systems are configured differently. For example, fish, lobsters and octopi all have vision, Elwood said, despite lacking a visual cortex, which allows humans to see.
It was also thought that since many invertebrates cast off damaged appendages, it was not harmful for humans to remove legs, tails and other body parts from live crustaceans. Another study led by Patterson, however, found that when humans twisted off legs from crabs, the stress response was so profound that some individuals later died or could not regenerate the lost appendages.
Chris Sherwin, a senior research fellow in the Clinical Veterinary Science division at the University of Bristol, has also studied pain in invertebrates.
Sherwin told Discovery News, “The question of whether invertebrates experience pain is fundamental to our legislation that protects animals and our behavior, attitude and use of these highly complex organisms.”
He said that while the recent studies suggest crustaceans experience “something akin to pain, rather than fixed, reflex responses,” additional research is needed.”
Food for thought I guess, but I for one will continue to operate under the assumption that anything that must be boiled alive in order for it to taste good, is not food.
Full Discovery article HERE
BB-films stock video galleries
March 19, 2009
Collection of various stock video galleries using Flash including this underwater collection of SD video clips from around the world including the Maldives, Honduras, Egypt, Malta and Australia.
Shot in PAL with a Canon AG-DVX100 and Equinox Pro8 housing and colour corrected using FinalCut Pro and Color. These clips represent a snapshot of the last 3 years of vacation diving and the immense pleasure gained from filming some of nature’s greatest sights.
Click image above to view the gallery
Shots include dolphins, various tropical fish shoals, hard and soft corals, sealions, barracuda, lionfish, pufferfish, Napoleon wrasse, unicorn fish, oriental sweetlips, scribble fish, trigger fish, turtles and much, much more.
FOR SALE:
I will soon be upgrading my underwater filming equipment to the Sony PMW-EX1 with Gates housing so if you’re interested in buying my old equipment used to shoot the footage in this gallery, send an email to admin@bb-films.com and I’ll let you know when it goes up for sale on eBay.
| These clips & others can be downloaded in various high quality 25fps formats from my iStockvideo Lightbox “Underwater”: |  |
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Video: The Goblin Shark bite, its just plain strange…
August 19, 2008
The goblin shark is a deep-sea shark with a most unorthodox shaped head. It has a long, trowel-shaped, beak-like snout, much longer than other sharks. Some other distinguishing characteristics of the shark are the color of its body, which is mostly pink, and its long, protrusible jaws, which basically means it look like an Alien…
Goblin sharks are found in the deep ocean, far below where the sun’s light can reach at depths greater than 200 m. They can be found throughout the world, from Australia in the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico in the Atlantic Ocean.They are best known from the waters around Japan, where the species was first discovered.
Goblin sharks feed on a variety of organisms that live in deep waters. Among some of their known meals are deep-sea squid, crabs and deep-sea fishes and occassionally they’ll have a go at diver’s arm, mmmhh!
Cheers for the tip Limbic
Top tip: Dive destination, Tawali resort, Papua New Guinea PNG
June 26, 2008
“PNG is perhaps the Last Diving Frontier. It’s not the easiest of places to get to but it is a destination for divers who want undiluted adventure”.
At BB-Films.com we usually plan our diving trips at least a year in advance and recently we’ve been considering out 2009 summer trip. After considering Galapagos, Hawaii, and Papua New Guinea, we’ve settled on PNG. Our reasons are simple, its relatively undiscovered and we don’t think it will be that way for much longer.
Getting to PNG truly is a monumental undertaking involving no less than 4 flights from Europe, 2 stop-overs each way and no doubt some bone-cruncing speed boat trips for the final leg. But we learned something from a previous trip to Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras that still strikes a note of truth 2 years later:
If it takes 3 days to get to, then its going to be empty… Perfect 
)
In all likelihood we’ll be staying at the Tawali resort near Alotau:
“Tucked away, only accessible by boat, sits what may be Papua New Guinea’s best kept scuba diving secret – Tawali Resort. Welcome to the exotic culture of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and to Tawali Resort. Located on a volcanic bluff overlooking the clear protected waters of Milne Bay, Tawali offers travelers a unique location to dive, relax and enjoy the unspoiled wonders of this magnificent part of the world.”
Have you been diving in PNG? Any recommendations/comments/tips? Please post and let us know.
Red Scarlet: 2x higher quality video than HiDef for under $3,000?
June 9, 2008
There is a digital video revolution underway and RED are leading the way.
We’ve been keeping our eye on these guys from RED for some time since they launched a 4,000 pixel wide format digital video camera (that’s 9 mega-pixel video!!) for under $20,000. Although by the time you add lenses, tripods, digital storage and other accessories you can expect to get closer to $100,000 all-in.
Now RED have announced a smaller 3,000 pixel wide version (a mere 5 mega-pixel!!), called RED Scarlet which should retail at about $3,000. Taking into account lense costs, light accessories, storage and Gates housing (when they get round to producing it), this should price a complete underwater filming rig at around $20,000.
Oh, did I mention it can film at 180 frames per second?
Yeah – bring it on!!
Visit RED’s site
