http://www.clf.org/blog/ocean-conservation/more-congressional-fisheries-misdirection/ For a thriving New England Tue, 17 Sep 2013 23:46:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 http://www.clf.org/blog/ocean-conservation/more-congressional-fisheries-misdirection/#comment-2295 Richard Morris Sun, 12 Aug 2012 11:01:43 +0000 http://www.clf.org/?p=11173#comment-2295 Is it at all surprising that congressman Runyan, a republican I migh add, is, in essance suppporting industrial fisheries where large ships, financed by the mass fisheries industry, wipe out entire stocks in tow of thier nets while they also destroy the habitat in the process. Is it any surprise that we have slaughtered the larger fish first and in so doing destroyed the reproductive welfare of the stocks and we destroy the historic memory as well. Yes, New England is a perfect example of mis management but the real issue here is politics.
Who cares if an unseen 200′ dragger catches an entire stock of herring in one tow or that the unmonitored by-catch could fill the quota of some fisheries and instead of using this harvest it is thrown back into the sea. One real aspect of this problem is the lack of fisheries observers who monitor the fishing on board the vessels. We could go on and on but the real issue is will. Do we have the will to make the hard decisions for the future and stop worrying about the immediacy of our lives. Isn’t it obvious that the money follows the politics and the people with that money are the large processing fleet owners who have the capitol to finance the lobbying efforts to relax the rules. Is there no end to the misguided intentions and bespoilment of the oceans. Where will we be when the stocks are gone? Where will we be when the water runs out and there are wars for drinking water, there already are yet we still wash the sidewalks with drinking water and poison the ground so we can play golf. Are you getting the picture here…….

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