WE NEED TO ACT NOW! Florida's goliath grouper still need our help.

[drdiver1952]

Thats a negative. Modern nations such as the United States, Japan, etc, are expected to have stabilized and even declining populations by 2050. Its only the developing and industrializing nations that are growing rapidly.

Maybe Japan, but not the U.S. We're projected to grow from 310,000,000 to 439,000,000 by 2050. And that's not just from immigration, immigrant groups have higher birthrates. Pressure on fishing populations is going to increase, not decrease in the U.S. This makes creative and progressive management a must.

 

[Epinephelus]

... Pressure on fishing populations is going to increase, not decrease in the U.S. This makes creative and progressive management a must...

Wrong approach... "creative and progressive" are code words for "less fish to eat."
The solution is not in government, but rather in finding ways to increase the availability of tasty and inexpensive fish flesh for the table, making wild harvesting neither necessary nor profitable... Entrepreneurial opportunities abound! Farming comes to mind... all we need to do is get government out of the way. And keep 'em there.

E

 

[OneRestlessNative]

With all this debate.... Groupers are coming in on one of the highest in the list of mercury contamination. Leading me back to my original post. Our negligence of the ecosystem and our way of life in neither acceptable or respectable as a whole. In a time where it seems most are only concerned with their rights to exploit the environment as they see fit, the health of the oceans and its creatures continues its decline.

I agree 100% with you Epinephelus on the farming issue, the potential is there. Until we separate money from politics and continue to allow special interests to drive our economy and government, nothing will ever change for the better.

 

[drdiver1952]

Wrong approach... "creative and progressive" are code words for "less fish to eat."
The solution is not in government, but rather in finding ways to increase the availability of tasty and inexpensive fish flesh for the table, making wild harvesting neither necessary nor profitable... Entrepreneurial opportunities abound! Farming comes to mind... all we need to do is get government out of the way. And keep 'em there.

E

Don't think those are "code words". Fish farming is part of a progressive management system. One of the reason we have overfishing is because governments are "out of the way". There is no regulation in international waters at all. Entrepreneurial opportunities abound every time a new fishery is discovered--they are exploited until the fishery is depleted or totally destroyed.

 

[Epinephelus]

...they are exploited until the fishery is depleted or totally destroyed.

Nope. They are exploited until it's no longer profitable to exploit them. And in most cases that's pretty much regardless of government regulation, which only puts the honest fishermen out of business. The key is to remove the incentive before the population is depleted or the species extinct; regulations are notoriously ineffective except in very limited areas. (the Jewfish in the Gulf is an example of regs that worked/are working -it isn't back up to 70's levels yet, but I now see Jewfish on nearly every dive- but they mainly work because the area is strictly in the U.S. and the rest of the world's rapacious fishermen can't get to 'em). No, if you really want to save a food fish, figure out how to farm it, or find a farmed replacement.
E
P.S. There has been a dramatic increase in Jewfish populations in the Northern Gulf since my "spotty" report two years earlier in this thread...

 

[elmer fudd]

Until we separate money from politics and continue to allow special interests to drive our economy and government, nothing will ever change for the better.

The only way to separate money and special interests from politics is to take the money and power out of government. So long as the government can make or break businesses, restrict our freedoms at will and has trillions of dollars to spend, businesses and organizations will spare no expense to influence it. A large business or organization without lobbyists is committing suicide.