Editorial - Failure of the law

More than a thousand rare and endangered deep sea shells, with a market value estimated at more than a million pesos, were seized from a shellcraft exporter in Mandaue City in a raid last Thursday.

The authorities who conducted the raid ought to be congratulated for their initiative in conducting the raid. But more needs to be done by the authorities other than just conducting raids and seizing shells.

Strictly speaking, a raid such as the one last Thursday in Mandaue only served to enforce environmental laws that were violated after the fact. In no way did it serve the purpose for which the environmental laws were enacted in the first place.

The items that were seized were essentially just the shells of their old selves, devoid of the marine life that used to live in them, living creatures the protection of which was the very purpose and essence of enacting environmental laws.

The authorities must learn to distinguish the difference between living marine creatures and just their empty shells. They must learn to tell the difference between protecting endangered marine life and just seizing what is left of these creatures long after they have gone.

In other words, the emphasis on enforcing the law in cases such as this should be on preventing the catching and gathering of protected and endangered living marine species. Catching violators in the act of catching and gathering should be the operative theme of enforcement.

For of what use is seizing thousands, even millions, of shells of protected marine life when all that it means is the sad and glaring fact that the seizure is thousands, even millions, of protected marine life too late.

A single shell is equivalent to one dead marine life, an endangered life that was supposed to be protected by law. Replicate that more than a thousand times, which is what the seizure last Thursday in Mandaue involved, and you will see the gravity of the law’s failure.