Sea Genericization

Yes, yes I probably made that word up. Nevermind.

Tonight we went out for half priced lobster. It was OK, but the lobster you get in Japan just can't compare to a crayfish you can get taken pretty much straight from the sea in South Australia.

Got home and watched a TV programme about the issues involving the ballast from ships. In Tasmania they are finding species native to Japan in the local waters. In Tokyo Bay they have found species of crab native to North America and Europe.

Obviously this is a huge issue. Globalization and international commerce is having a major impact on the seas. In Tasmania a group has organized dives to try and clear the nearby ocean of the destructive starfish which breeds at an amazing rate and is taking over the habitat of more native species.

So now they are trying to implement a testing program to try and keep the species captured in the ballast of ships from being delivered into the seas of foreign countries. Fair enough I say. Of course there is a certain amount of - dare I say it irony - in the fact that this group exists in Tasmania - when the ships full of tainted ballast come into the shores to collect loads of woodchips from Tasmanian forests.

Increasingly the world is becoming a smaller place. But at what price is this convenience? When destructive pests can spread so easily across huge distances? When an incident of an epidemic such as SARS can spread so quickly from one country to a far-flung other?

Terrorism is not the issue that should be addressed at airports and seaports. The exchange of predatory species and diseases is a much bigger issue. Instead of taking fingerprints and removing our shoes perhaps we should be subjecting to a blood test?

Caveat: keep in mind I think the current security issues at airports is inane. Is taking more fingerprints, or removing shoes going to make a difference to international security? No, it's not. I remember my Mum being drawn aside at Adelaide airport for having a pair of nail scissors in her bag. She was bound on a 35 minute flight to Port Lincoln. Hardly the profile of a international terrorist. But she still had to give up her nail scissors in the interest of national security....

Naturally some of this is tongue in cheek as I prepare to climb into bed with my Japanese husband and possibly dilute a pure race...