‘Where have all the cod gone?’ and the sustainability imperative – By Brian J. Rothschild

In “Where Have All the Cod Gone” (New York Times, Jan. 2) history professor W. Jeffrey Bolster claims that the “..recent ban on cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine (GOM) was an important step toward restoration.” ,,,But Bolster’s analysis is an oversimplification and a misunderstanding of this important conservation issue. And in a broader sense, it is symptomatic of how we misunderstand and oversimplify our conservation and sustainability issues, and how this limits our ability to develop efficient and cost-effective solutions. Read the rest here 18:03

4 Responses to ‘Where have all the cod gone?’ and the sustainability imperative – By Brian J. Rothschild

  1. StripedBassHole says:

    A NOAA RESEARCH VESSEL CAPTAIN SHOW-BOATS THE NEW RESEARCH VESSEL AT HIS COMMAND AND RUNS A WHALE OVER. Not an innocent mistake, He broke NOAA’S own Headway Speed Rules while knowingly in the VICINITY of WHALES.
    STATE OF THE ART SURVEY VESSELS don’t automatically CATCH FISH. Like a COMPUTER the VESSEL is only as good as the PERSON behind the WHEEL YOU COULD GRADUATE at the TOP of your CLASS at MASS. or MAINE MARITIME that doesn’t make you a FISHERMAN. It just allows you to wear the SCRAMBLED EGGS on your SHOULDERS, yet anyone is prone to end up with them on the front of their SHIRT on any given MORNING.
    BAD SURVEY BAD DATA cost MILLIONS.
    N.H. FISHERMAN fills CODEND with a short TOW. Did he just get LUCKY? DATA doesn’t fit COMPUTER MODEL, thus considered an ANOMALY. OUTCOME DATA heads to the ROUND FILE. This is far from PRICELESS. PEOPLE are being displaced do to a hidden AGENDA “T.O.O.P.” an EXECUTIVE DECISION by ONE MAN, not a CONGRESSIONAL MANDATE has unleashed a HOSTILE TAKE-OVER. WAKE UP AMERICA there is more at stake here then just FISHING RIGHTS. This is just the TIP of the PROVERBIAL ICEBERG. OUR COMMON PROPERTY has been take to be GRIDDED and PRIVATIZED. OUR LIFE sustaining WATER will be put in PERIL. I guess AMERICA will now be from SEA to SHINING SEA with some SIGNIFICANT GOUGES in between. It’s all there but because it’s not BROAD-CASTED or in a MAJOR JOURNAL or PAPER your not willing to RECOGNIZE IT. That’s exactly what they want out of Sight out of MIND…

  2. Geordie King says:

    Thank you Mr. Rothchild for yet another good article which hits the point. Another point I’d make is that the unknowing public has no idea of the size and magnitude of our closed areas; areas which encompass the historic grounds where cod (and other species) aggregate. The Cashes Closure where I fished for years is now (and has been since about 2002) closed year round. That closure alone is approx. 25nm X25nm (oblong in shape) or approx. 350 square nm is area. That closure while harboring the virgin kelp beds of Amen Rock the enviros’ so endearingly refer to is largely made up of 80 – 100 fathom mud-sand gravel bottom where Pollock, hake and monkfish habitate. Closing that entire area for the sake of cod is akin to closing the state of California in order to save the Redwood tree and totally un-necessary. It also causes the smaller vessel gillnet fleet to steam beyond it to open grounds in dicey winter weather conditions which is an obvious safety concern. I can tell you from experience that the GOM cod are currently appearing in much better shape than the scientists keep telling us as we’re seeing more cod of various sizes and water depths offshore than in recent memory. Could it be that the cod have merely shifted NE into cooler, less polluted waters? At this stage of the game what with our greatly diminished fleet I believe it’s time to open up or modify many of these closures while at the same time, creating new ones . This would let some of the over-fished areas breathe while allowing a modicum of opportunity to the humble remaining fleet which has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. Finally, it’s high time we start collaborating (industry, science and environmentalists) and use industry observer data in evaluation stock condition. This industry if being held hostage to NOAA’s inadequate if not downright manipulated trawl surveys which have succeeded in only one way – the demise and near expulsion of a 400 year old industry and its accompanying infrastructure.

    • StripedBassHole says:

      G.K. I applaud you COMMENT, They can’t argue with “FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE”‘…
      BRAVO

      • Geordie King says:

        Thanks SBH. I only wish Mr. Rothchild had more political sway on the fishcrats warped sense of reality!

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