Toby Sullivan wrote a great piece on the early Kodiak crab fishery. A kick in the mouth with a reminder that the community of Kodiak was built on crab. This city, the state and federal government have spent up to one billion dollars in often unbelievable financial indebtedness and flat-out government largesse, all taxpayer drains. Read the rest here 16:00
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
So true. Kodiak’s home ported crab fleet has shrunk away to a handful of boats, yet the town is now home to so many large “fisheries” buildings – with State Fish & Game, NOAA, the Fish Tech Center, and God knows how many fishery related government jobs. I’d be curious to know what the payroll and building costs and upkeep are. I’m sure the amount allocated to crab research is a pittance in comparison. What bothers me most is the sense of entitlement so many of those government workers have. Wouldn’t we ALL like to be able to smoke and process our subsistence fish in a state of the art building? Or do you have to have a PhD for that?