Shark poachers hold chef Gordon Ramsay at gunpoint, douse him with petrol

[Barrett808]

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was doused in gasoline and held at gunpoint as he tried to uncover the dark world of illegal shark fin trading for a new TV show.

The Hell’s Kitchen star was shooting scenes for a British program Big Fish Fight when he confronted gangsters in Costa Rica who had slaughtered thousands of sharks to sell their sought-after fins.

But Ramsay was left terrified when the gang kept their guns trained on him and his TV crew before throwing fuel over him. He was later advised by local police to flee the country for his own safety. ...

Shark poachers hold chef Gordon Ramsay at gunpoint, douse him with petrol

[MineralMan]

1. Probably they were doing it because they had watched

"Hell's Kitchen."

[FSogol]

2. A normal reaction to "reality television"?

:shrug:

[eShirl]

3. (to quote Chris Rock) "I don't condone it, but I understand it."

Seriously though, glad they came out of it OK.

[Buddyblazon]

4. Don't condone poaching....

but there's a part of me that would've loved to see Ramsay bitched like that after the way he's treated so many people.

[Kalyke]

9. I think most of the people he's treated badly needed a wake-up call.

Caveat: I've never watched "Hell's Kitchen," I'm more of the BBC version of "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares," myself.

[ljm2002]

26. You're right about the Kitchen Nightmares show...

...but "Hell's Kitchen" is really bad!

I enjoy his Kitchen Nightmares shows... he is still obnoxious, but you get that he is trying to make things work for the restaurants and their owners, and that he really knows and loves food.

In Hell's Kitchen, on the other hand, he seems to do nothing but berate those who are competing, and the prize they will win is to work under him in one of his restaurants. The first time I saw it, I thought, "No thanks, no way I'd work for that guy!". The second time I saw it, I thought "I'm not watching this show anymore, it is no fun and has no redeeming qualities".

[Codeine]

10. He's a bit more complex than that.

"Kitchen Nightmares" is a more accurate representation of what he really does.

[ensho]

5. more power to Gordon

a brave man

[Jeffersons Ghost]

20. I agree

[Codeine]

6. This is why you just shoot fuckers like that.

Animal poachers deserve a sniper's round, nothing more.

[Buddyblazon]

8. as long as they take out Ramsay first....

absolutely. Would love to see any and all poachers get what the deserve.

[pipi_k]

12. Holy shit

no more poached eggs for breakfast in my house....

[Iggo]

7. TV show personalities should not be confronting gangsters.

Glad you came out of it okay, but that was a dumb move, Gordon my boy.

[pipi_k]

11. Knowing Ramsay....

if they had lit a match, he would have screamed at them for using gasoline instead of bourbon to cook him.

[dionysus]

21. "you don't cook with bloody petrol you donkey!11!1!"

[pipi_k]

24. bwahaha! exactly!

:7

[Dash87]

13. Is that what they call a "Kitchen Nightmare?"

[Vickers]

14. And nobody had a goddam match?

:shrug:

[Joe Fields]

28. Ramsay doesn't deserve that comment.

[Vickers]

32. Lighten up, Francis. n/t

[Downtown Hound]

15. Good for Chef Ramsay

And I'm saying that as somebody that usually thinks he's an asshole. I'm proud of him for standing up to animal poachers. They are total scum and deserve to be treated as such.

[dembotoz]

16. perhaps it will draw attention to the problem

of the "fishermen" and those who eat the fins.

[blondeatlast]

17. I've searched Google to no avail regarding another source for the story.

Pardon me if I remain skeptical.

[Catherina]

18. Found some

Gordon Ramsay threatened at gunpoint during illegal fishing investigation

By Steven Swinford 6:17PM GMT 03 Jan 2011


Ramsay, 44, travelled to Costa Rica to uncover the illicit trade in shark fins as part of Channel 4’s Big Fish Fight series.

He said: “It is a multibillion dollar industry, completely unregulated. We traced some of the biggest culprits to Costa Rica. The day before we got there, a Taiwanese crew landed a haul of hammerhead sharks – police searched the boat and found bails of cocaine.

“These gangs operate from places that are like forts, with barbed-wire perimeters and gun towers.

“At one, I managed to shake off the people who were keeping us away, ran up some stairs to a rooftop and looked down to see thousands and thousands of fins, drying on rooftops as far as the eye could see.

“When I got back downstairs they tipped a barrel of petrol over me. Then these cars with blacked out windows suddenly appeared from nowhere, trying to block us in. We dived into the car and peeled off.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8237505/Gordon-Ramsay-threatened-at-gunpoint-during-illegal-fishing-investigation.html

Who's the reel deal? Heston Blumenthal, Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver take on the villains of the fishing world
By Simon Lewis


Last updated at 12:00 AM on 2nd January 2011Three big fish, one mission. Guess who ended up swimming with sharks...

'Chefs are part of the problem. We're responsible for making people want certain fish,' said Gordon Ramsay, who has teamed up with Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver in Channel 4's Big Fish Fight series

...

Intending to set you alight?

‘Yes. Then these cars with blacked-out windows suddenly appeared from nowhere, trying to block us in. We dived into the car and peeled off. Later in the trip I got hold of a guy called Enrique who manages 350 boats and is the third-largest supplier of shark fins globally. We talked our way onto one of his fishing boats.

'In a quiet moment I dived from the boat to swim with marlin. I swam under the keel and saw this sack tied to it. I opened it and it was full of shark fins, huge ones from 20-year-olds. How they do it is quite upsetting. They shock them with an electric prod, but the shark’s still moving while they cut it up and throw it back dying into the water. No wonder they wanted to hide the evidence. The minute I threw this bag on deck, everyone started screaming and shouting.

...

the subject of their new season of programmes, the third on which they’ve co-operated, is particularly close to their hearts, and should weigh heavily on ours. The way we catch and consume fish, they say, is all wrong. Species we think of as plentiful are being driven to extinction. Something needs to change, and fast.

‘The seas have been pillaged,’ says Blumenthal, removing red-snapper remains from his shirt front and apologising to the dry-cleaner.

‘We’re fighting against greed and overindulgence,’ Ramsay agrees. ‘Chefs are part of the problem. We’re responsible for making people want certain fish.’

'People have no idea of the costs of running a restaurant like the Fat Duck,' said Heston
‘The situation is getting worse,’ says Oliver, naming salmon, cod and tuna as the three species exploited to the brink of extinction by the EU’s hugely wasteful Common Fisheries Policy. ‘Fish need time to get back to the right levels. In the meantime, there are all these other fish that end up getting thrown back into the sea.’

Oliver’s solution is to get us to buy and cook those less popular fish – things like pouting, coley and dab – which he shows us how to prepare in a series of short four-minute programmes. He’s sure it’ll work.

...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1343055/Jamie-Oliver-Gordon-Ramsay-Heston-Blumenthal-villains-fishing-world.html

:hi:

[blondeatlast]

22. Thanks. I'm battling a bad head cold; maybe my "mad" Google skillz

are up in the mess that is my sinuses at the moment!

:hi:

[Catherina]

23. Sorry to hear that :(

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NjdBzKI5nYs/SUfCOgEexDI/AAAAAAAABOo/dpe9b_lBLEw/s400/get+well+soon+flowers+greeting+card+image+pic+photo.jpg

[MilesColtrane]

19. Yes, a PR release disguised as a news story.

Those "poachers" probably made a good paycheck. I wonder if they're SAG members.

There's nothing real about reality TV.

[Union Scribe]

33. PR releases rarely describe their client as "left terrified"

[Darth_Kitten]

25. Kind of makes overfried scallops seem like a minor issue.

:(

Hell's Kitchen will never be the same. :(

[AngryAmish]

27. I call shenanigans

[Barrett808]

29. For more on shark poaching:

http://www.sharkwater.com/

[Recovered Repug]

30. Is it overly cynical of me

to question whether this really happened?

[delightfulstar]

31. It seemed like he was trying to bring awareness...

Which is always good when it comes to someone doing something completely wrong like poaching. And I wouldn't doubt if he had thrown a few F-bombs their way when they tried to do that to him. Glad to hear he's okay.

[JVS]

34. This is nearly as funny as Hitchens getting waterboarded.