Posted by JRM on January 11, 2001 at 09:22:35:
In Reply to: Re: who is raping the bugs? posted by Eins on January 10, 2001 at 20:57:27:
Here was/is my point: FAG likes to "show the flag" and demonstrate to politicians and the public that they are doing something to combat the rapid decline of ocean stocks. So they put limits on sport fishing and divers. Very rarely do they ever impact the commercial fishing industry. FAG seems to take a "head in the sand" approach to the impact the commercial permits they issue. I'm not implying that all commercial fisherman are heartless. Hopefully they are acting within the law, based on the permits they receive from the government to harvest. It's the amount and methods allowed by our government. Commercial fishing is a business. In order to maximize profits you try to cut costs and maximize yield. Therefore you do whatever is neccessary to harvest the most fish the most economically. Thus we have methods like seinne nets, gill nets, long lines, etc. And, in a good capitalistic way, they mortgage future returns to maximize present profits. These are among the reasons I have such disdain for commercial fishing. Because most (not all) practice little (if any) husbandry of the ocean.
An even bigger problem is money. Their harvest of the sea makes money. Ours costs us. Therefore it is unrealistic to expect sport anglers and divers to be able to match the economic power of the commercial fishing industry. And you have to buy your influence in our form of government. You can either buy your politicians with money (like large corporations) or with votes (this is why unions still exist). We hold large amounts of neither. So when FAG needs to reduce the number of landed fish, they immediately go for the sportos. I read somewhere that for every 3000 fish landed in CA, 4600 are landed by commercial permits, 399 are landed by sport fisherman, and less than one is speared. So if you whack the sportos take by 10%, that like 1% overall impact. Limit the commercials by 10%, and you've done something. But they pay a lot of money to avoid such a motion.
Guess I'm just bitter because I have a non-capitalist view of "right and wrong".
JRM
-- Anyone remember who said "A young man who isn't a liberal has no heart, and an older man who isn't a conservative has no brain" ???