Several factors are implicated in their demise. Over-fishing, pollution, habitat degradation, diseases and bad weather can all affect the highly vulnerable 2-year scallop life cycle. My brother Gary, who has shell-fished the Cape all his life, connects their disappearance with the loss of our eel-grass beds. [email protected]
NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?
While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here
Its so easy for blame to be laid on overfishing, but whens the last time eel grass was overfished?
Nitrogen pollution.