It was a mixed bag at docks lining local bayous as the first skiffs returned to deliver the first brown shrimp of the spring season. Inshore waters between Freshwater Bayou and the Mississippi River opened at 6 a.m. Monday, but local fishermen said it’s too early to tell whether an already shortened season is going to be bountiful. Read more here 06:36
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
