Most of us have seen the pictures, some of the world's most endangered animals being sold in markets across Africa as bushmeat. Gorillas, chimps, monkeys, wild cats, no animal is safe from this destructive trade.
Logging in areas of pristine tropical forest has created a network of new roads which give hunters easy access to prey in parts of Africa that may previously have taken weeks to reach.
Suprisingly perhaps, a similar situation can be found in markets across the US, Europe and Asia. Instead of gorilla, chimp and serval you will find grouper, tuna and cod. Instead of logging companies you will find equally ruthless commercial fishing companies who's hunters are the bluewater trawlers and longliners.
How can you compare a grouper with a gorilla? Well according to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) there are three species of grouper that are critically endangered (calico, goliath and black) one level higher than the endangered mountain gorilla.
It seems that we are quite happy to tuck into an endangered marine animal whilst reeling in horror at the barbarity of the African bushmeat trade. Well, here's a warning. That monkfish you had for dinner last night is the bushmeat of the ocean, once plentiful, but now a rare and endangered wild animal.
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