Keeping our ocean wonderland wonderful
A common idea to deal with the various resource crisis hitting the planet is not to reduce our consumption, but just find technical fixes. We don't need to adjust, we just need to have brighter ideas!
This principle has been used and reused in fisheries. Industrial trawlers have been encouraged by governments; more modern fleets are a staple of speeches. How has that been working so far? Not so well. Stocks of bluefin tuna are on the brink of collapse. Some fisheries have been wiped out. What are we doing with the stocks that haven't collapsed yet? This:
OK, some of this may be an exaggeration. Vaccuships and aerial-trawlers do not exist. However, the idea that we can just fish intensely forever without causing damage - despite the evidence to the contrary - is what drives decision making in fisheries these days.
Don't take my word on this - read the news. Just last week, the European council of ministers essentially dismissed a proposal by the commission to support the listing of bluefin tuna under appendix I of CITES. This would essentially have prevented most trade of bluefin tuna around the world and would be the first effective protection that we've seen. In what name was this proposal killed? The Mediterranean countries - those who fish for bluefin tuna - blocked it, saying it was best to "wait and listen to scientific advice". Never mind that this advice, calling for the closure of the Mediterranean bluefin fishery, has been shouted on rooftops for years.
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