TAKEN FROM THE SEA, TAKEN FROM THE SKY
The Mediterranean is one of the richest seas on Earth. Yet many of its protected species are still being taken from the wild, traded, collected, caged, mounted, eaten and displayed.
Taken From the Sea, Taken From the Sky investigates a conservation problem that often remains hidden in plain sight: the continuing exploitation of protected Mediterranean wildlife despite decades of legislation intended to prevent it.
From red coral harvested for jewellery and sea cucumbers processed for export, to butterflies pinned for collections, tortoises sold as pets, birds of prey trapped for falconry and sea turtles turned into tourist curios, this book follows the many routes by which wild species continue to enter commercial and private collections.
But this is more than a catalogue of wildlife crime. It explains why removing even relatively small numbers of animals can have consequences lasting decades. Many of the species targeted by collectors and traders grow slowly, mature late and reproduce infrequently. Red coral may take years to reach reproductive maturity, tortoises more than a decade, and Mediterranean sea turtles two or three decades before they begin nesting.
The book also examines the laws designed to protect them, including CITES, the Bern Convention, the EU Habitats and Birds Directives and the Barcelona Convention, and asks why significant gaps remain between protection on paper and protection in practice.
