By Peter Hannaford on 12.4.06 @ 12:06AM
Crustacean liberation scores a major victory along California's north coast.
Douglas Tabler is the president and only member of the Lobster
Rights Watch. He has just won a major victory on behalf of his mute
crustacean friends -- or so he thinks.
Several weeks ago when California's North Coast Co-op opened its
big, snazzy new supermarket it had a tank to hold live lobsters.
The fresh water burbled through day and night. The lobsters' claws
were clamped shut, lest they eat one another before the customers
got them..
Mr. Tabler happened upon this tableau and looked the lobsters in
the eye. Like George Bush seeing Vladimir Putin's soul, Doug saw
their fright and loneliness. He reasoned that he'd be frightened
and lonely, too, if he were about to be boiled in someone's cooking
pot. Not one to shun a fight, he set up a one-man picket line in
front of the Co-op. When the tank's occupancy dwindled to four
lobsters, he decided to take more direct action. He bought the four
lobsters, after first making contact with a chap in Maine who
agreed to release them back into the Atlantic, from whence they
came.
Resourceful Doug plunked down $200 to send his lobsters to Maine
by FedEx. The man at the other end dutifully released them into the
ocean. Doug and his numerous sympathizers cheered the lobsters'
freedom. Apparently, no one was cruel enough to point out that the
lobsters would soon end up in another lobsterman's pot (trap) on
the ocean floor and go right back to market.
Blithely ignorant of the realities of lobster harvests or not,
Mr. Tabler wasn't finished. He said would continue picketing until
the Co-op shut down its lobster tank for good. Many letters to the
editor appeared in local newspapers, praising him for his humani --
err -- lobsterstarian deed. Some were cynical. A few even suggested
that his $200 would have been better spent on food and medical
supplies for the children of Darfur. Never mind, the doughty Doug
continued picketing.
That brings us to the regular board meeting of the Co-op, held
last week. The board is elected by the Co-op's 10,000 or so
members. Everything is very democratic. Friends of Mr. Tabler
lobbied board members. The board voted to remove the lobster tank.
The store manager was unflappable. He said it had been placed there
because customers wanted it and they bought about 43 pounds of
lobster a week. Perhaps he can make up the lost lobster sales in
mung beans and organic brussels sprouts.
Doug was elated at the outcome of the Co-op board meeting's
vote. But wait. There is a much bigger challenge ahead. Dungeness
crab season is about to begin. It is one of the mainstays of the
north coast economy. Several million pounds of the succulent ocean
crawlers is caught and sold every year. They are boiled, just as
lobsters are, but in commercial markets, not on the home stove. The
lobsters' champion has a big job on his hand. How can he picket all
the fishing boats and fish markets between, say, Monterey and
Portland, Oregon? If he hadn't sent his four lobsters back to
Maine, he might have kept them around to picket with him. Alas,
they probably ended up in drawn butter. He'll have to find some new
friends to march with him this time.
topics:
Vladimir Putin, Law, Oil
