fishy

surprise surprise surprise

we are overfishing, destroying habitat, and decreasing biodiversity in the sea.
in less than fifty years, if we keep at it, there won't be any fish left.

that's what new research published in Science is forcasting from all the data they've gathered and crunched.

with so many deep trawlers scooping everything up, and a complete lack of regulation, enforcement, and conservation in many parts of the world, it's no wonder.

Canada restricted fishing on the eastcoast a longtime ago because of severe overfishing. but boats from Europe paid no mind and just cozied up to the invisible line that marks off Canadian waters and fished everything out. many fishing boats wouldn't even abide by that formality and would just fish in Canadian waters even when the fishery was at the brink of collapse.

we've even had to use warships to seize and board ships that were fishing illegally from Portugal and Spain. at one point in 1995 warships from Canada and Spain were ready to fire on eachother. and there are still ships from Spain that fish illegally in Canadian waters.

if all you do is take take take and don't allow for any conservation, there won't be any fish left to fish.

here on the westcoast the problem is the salmon fishery, which keeps going from bad to worse.

when i go out to eat, before i consider the salmon i will often ask if it's wild or farmed.
the servers always smiles broadly and states with pride that they use fresh wild salmon.
and then they are confused when i say that i won't eat it.

i don't think the wild salmon fishery is sustainable they way it's going...

of course i'd rather not eat farmed salmon that spread disease to the wild salmon population either.

i wonder how prevalent closed tank fish farms are?

because i like fish,

i don't want them to go away.

Replies
D
7 November 06

I found the most interesting aspect of this particular string of research (since we knew that the ocean environment is completely screwed before) to be related to the impact of bio-diversity on eco-system recovery. The more species driven to the brink, the faster the remaining ones get there and the slower the recovery is.

And yes, it's a joke. But government and corporate interests are short term, because that's what the public demands. Long-term deprivation or annoyance isn't something that most people are willing to subject themselves to. We demand immediate gratification. Now.

v
7 November 06

We demand immediate gratification. Now.

Dood, why are you always so redundant? ;)

Not really related, but something I just wandered across that may be of interest to you journalist types:

=> Programmer as journalist

Hunter
12 November 06

Look on the bright side....
The sooner the fish are gone, the sooner we can all eat steak.
ahhh, steak.....

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