Posted by Brad on August 21, 2002 at 20:27:57:
In Reply to: Re: I thought the challenge to produce some empirical data posted by Finfan on August 21, 2002 at 16:41:34:
Scientific studies are a commodity that is bought and sold...
The commercial industry has sponsored 'scientific' studies that attribute the decline of the nearshore species to the oil platforms off Ventura and Santa Barbara. If anyone believes that, there are many more 'studies' for sale!
My point is, there is a serious decline in virtually every resident shallow water species, even at the offshore islands that get NO coastal pollution in the forms that you mentioned, runoff, silt, etc. Why are there healthy populations on the backside of San Miguel, but not on the backside of Anacappa or Catalina?
Fewer PEOPLE go there.
The Cortes Bank is a hundred miles away from any non-point source of pollution, yet even that bank is void of many common shallow water species. Trappers have been working that bank over relentlessly for years!
The one common denominator to the decline of the shallow water species is commercial and recreational take--period!
There is nothing worse for fish populations than human consumption, pollution notwithstanding....
There is nothing better for fish populations than man not taking fish, pollution notwithstanding....
Blaming pollution is nothing more than feel-good rhetoric for people who want to obviscate the truth for reasons of self interest. That is not to say that coastal pollution doesn't have an impact, but it is not nearly as detrimental to fish populations as man directly killing fish.