A graduate from University of Warwick, I graduated in International Economic Law, International Trade and human rights and gender studies. I am pursuing my doctorate in sociology and law as well as working as a consultant for trade promotion and market intelligence. My first major is in English Language and Literature and the other certified courses that I have completed include Managing International Business and Market Intelligence.  My areas of specialisation are innovative management including IT, business and commerce, international economic law and trade, environmental studies, multinational enterprises, child labour, gender studies vis-a-vis globalisation, Islamic Shari’a Law and English Literature.

An avid reader, I write freelance as a political analyst in my spare time. Before my current position, I worked for 9 years with trade promotion and business support organisations, spearheading the EU desk.

Sample

Marine Conservation- A Case Study For River Dolphins

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Introduction
Rapid industrialisation and commercial practices have considerably marred our environment. Marine degradation and fresh water pollution are issues faced by many countries. Livelihoods of a huge number of people the world over depend on fishing. To meet his economic needs, man has inadvertently and sometimes deliberately polluted and endangered the marine life. The focus of this essay is to increase awareness regarding the threats posed to one of the world’s smartest but ‘critically endangered’¹ marine mammals, dolphins, particularly the Indus River Dolphin found in Pakistan. Many human activities and careless fishing habits are to be blamed for this situation. The silver lining here is that the wild life conservation organisations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), UK, and other marine life protection groups are not oblivious to the fact.

Many environment protection agencies are working on research-based developmental projects to make and execute action plans to save the dolphins. In this endeavour the year 2007 was declared the International ‘Year of the Dolphin’ by the United Nations and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

This essay offers a critique bringing to light the issues, regulations of the United Nations and the legal framework to deal with them. It then discusses United Nations and DEFRA’s Cetacean Conservation Project in Pakistan under the Darwin Initiative, being run in collaboration with the Lahore Zoo, Sindh University and the government of Pakistan. Evaluating the efficacy of these efforts in the foreseeable future by making comparisons with other projects being run in South Asia, the essay concludes with suggestions for a way forward.

To understand the full blown impact of the situation, preliminary information about the dolphins is being given below.

Facts
Dolphins are generally considered one of the Earth’s most intelligent animals. Many studies show that they are excellent imitators. They are cetacean marine mammals, and NOT fish,² closely related to whales and live in shallow waters. Due to their friendly and social nature, dolphins are quite popular in human culture. Dolphins have been widely used for entertainment purposes such as in movies, are an integral part of children and adult literature³ and also have mythological symbolic value. They have often appeared in Greek mythology, invariably as helpers of humankind. In Hindu mythology, the River Ganges dolphin is associated with Ganga, the river diety⁴. There are amusement water parks in fifty-one countries all over the world, including the famous SEA WORLD, USA, where dolphin/ whale shows are conducted.
 
In countries like Japan and the USA, they are a profitable business, but the controversy attached to the dolphinariums is gaining momentum. Wildlife protection organisations and marine conservation and captive animals’ safety agencies are trying to sensitise the public to boycott the dolphinariums⁵. According to the Director of the Captive Animal Conservation Society, UK, Diane West, “animal welfare groups agree that whales suffer physically and psychologically in captivity....”

Dolphins are loving animals and contrary to the common belief in South Asia, they do NOT harm humans. This issue will be discussed later in the essay.

Therapy Aides (DAT)
Dolphins are linked to animal assisted therapy, and DAT, (dolphin assisted therapy) is used to treat depression, disinterest and loneliness in human-beings. Some of the experts are sceptical of their role in the animal assisted therapy , maintaining that there is no scientific evidence or ‘good quality research’ to gauge its effectiveness. It is widely accepted, though, that the friendly, playful animal does have a positive effect on human beings.

An Overview of World Wide Threats Posed to Dolphins
Dolphins do not have many natural enemies.  Except for very small species to whom the larger sharks can be a potential risk, there is no other predator⁶. Dolphins are prone to a wide variety of diseases, most of which are caused by bacteria from water pollution⁷.

Sadly enough, human activities pose one of the biggest threats to dolphins, especially to the critically endangered River Dolphins. A six-week visual and acoustic survey conducted in November and December 2006 concluded that the Yangtze River Dolphins, China, are now likely to be extinct, as the researchers failed to find any dolphin in the mammals’ habitat⁸. Biology Letter journal links their demise to unregulated fishing and human environmental pollution, not active persecution. Many dolphins/whales get injured or die after collisions with boats and ships in the sea/river.

The common practice of leaving the fishing nets in water at night to catch the fish off-guard is a danger to dolphins as they get entangled in them and are either suffocated or badly injured. Once on a boating trip along the Balouchistan Coastal line,⁹ this writer was shown many fishing nets left in the water to catch fish after sunset.

As mentioned earlier, dolphins are prone to diseases, mostly due to polluted water. Oil spillage, dumping garbage in the sea/rivers, pesticides, plastics all contribute to water pollution. This polluted water affects the marine and human life. Studies have shown that dolphins are very sensitive animals.

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¹IUCN’s Red list of Threatened Species has classified the four species of the River dolphins as such: The Indus River and Ganges River Dolphins (Pakistan and India) as Critically Endangered because of the rapid deterioration in numbers, the Yangtze River Dolphin (China) as Extinct and the Amazon River Dolphin (US) as Vulnerable.
²Dolphins/Whales give birth to babies after a gestation period like humans. Unlike fish, they do not lay eggs.
³The famous novel Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, first published in 1851 immortalizes a whale.
⁴Wikipedia, (2007). Dolphins in Mythology.
⁵Captive Animal Conservation Society, Director, Diane West.
⁶Wikipedia, (2008) ‘Natural Thre0ats to Dolphins’.
⁷Mystic Aquarium, (2005)
⁷If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate over 50 years. In Dr. Sam Turvey’s words, the findings are a ‘shocking tragedy’ and show that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardian of the planet’. Dr. Sam Turvey is from the Zoological Society of London and a co- author of the paper referred to in the text.
⁸Balouchistan is one of the four provinces in Pakistan and is the least developed but largest one. During the training period as a probationer for the Civil Services of Pakistan, this writer was attached with the Naval Forces on a Country Study Tour.