In his book, “The Founding Fish,” John McPhee makes the argument that the American shad, given its role in our nation’s history is indeed “America’s fish” (the little fish makes Forrest Gump-like cameos alongside George Washington, George Pickett and John Wilkes Booth). [email protected] 12:26
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
The story of Pinocchio is more believable then this tall tale. The stock is neither over fished and over fishing is not occurring. The mortality target and threshold has been reset downward, and of course that may lead to a reduction in harvest in this fishery in the coming years….the ultimate goal by these self serving groups who have been pushing for this for years.