outdoors

What to do about our growing crocodile population?

The sensationalist tabloids had a recent field day when a fisherman on the banks of Miraflores Lake near the water weeds was surprised and grabbed by a 10-foot-long crocodile, which dragged him into the water. The search for the body has so far been inconclusive.

Miraflores Lake, Gatun Lake and Madden Lake are Panama Canal waters, artificial bodies created by damming rivers to provide the water needed to run the canal. They have traditionally had other uses, particularly recreational ones.

There was a time when Gatun Lake was the favorite Zonian swimming hole. But to make it so, the American authorities used to hire people to hunt the larger crocodiles and caymen.

With the shift to Panamanian administration, the canal is run by people from the corporate world who did not grow up with a relationship to the canal and never saw it as a recreational asset. Virtually all functions other than moving ships through the canal have been abandoned by the current management.

The canal management, whose top figures were recruited from private corporations that notoriously pay little attention to the public interest, have now gone well beyond the neglectful destruction of a valuable public recreation asset. Now their policies have created a public nuisance, a canal waters crocodile hazard that has gotten people killed.

So what is to be done? There are a lot of ways that the problem could be resolved, and mostly just egotistical bureaucratic reasons why the problem can not or should not be solved.

This reader-response poll will be conducted for several issues of The Panama News just to get a sense of how the readers think about this and related issues. Nobody's email address or specific response is going to be given to any third party, but we will publish the result of our poll.

I. Who would be the most appropriate people to resolve the problem?

1. The management of the canal waters crocodile population ought to be managed by:

a. The Panama Canal Authority (ACP)

b. The National Environmental Authority (ANAM)

c. The Panamanian Tourism Institute (IPAT)

d. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI)

e. Some other governmental entity

f. A foundation or other non-profit, non-governmental organization

g. A private company that gets a concession to exploit and control crocodiles

h. It should left to nature to balance the wildlife populations in canal waters

2. Should private individuals be allowed to hunt or trap crocodiles in and around canal waters?

a. Yes, if they pay for a license and the hunt is properly regulated

b. Yes, with few or no restrictions

c. No, because hunting and the encouragement of gun ownership create other problems

d. No, because this impractical in the canal area even if hunting makes sense elsewhere in Panama

II. Should trade in crocodile products be legal?

1. Should Panama legalize commerce in stuffed baby crocodiles, crocodile leather products, things made with crocodile teeth and so on?

a. Yes, but only with regulations and permits

b. Yes, with few or no controls

c. No, because trade in these wildlife products would lead to traffic in other species that we should protect

d. No, because we would not be able to enforce the controls we would need

2. Should the attraction of tourists by feeding crocodiles in or around canal waters be legal?

a. Yes, but only with regulations and permits

b. Yes, with few or no controls

c. No, because this creates or aggravates crocodile overpopulation and the problems it causes

d. No, because this creates an industry based upon a distortion of natural populations

III. Demographic information

1. The person answering this poll lives:

a. in Panama

b. outside of Panama

2. The person answering this poll has:

a. gone swimming in Gatun Lake

b. never gone swimming in Gatun Lake

3. The person answering this poll is:

a. a Panamanian citizen

b. not a Panamanian citizen

Also in this section:

Snakes on the brain
What should we do about the growing crocodile population?