Thursday, August 17, 2006

More overfishing for red snapper

No relief for red snapper. Fishery managers in the Gulf of Mexico refuse to rein in unsustainable overfishing.

This is the 9th year in a row that managers have perpetuated overfishing, and red snapper are now down to 3% of historic abundance.

In a classic example of declining expectations (shifting baselines), charter boat operator Ron Woodruff seems satisfied with 3%. He said "there's more fish out in this Gulf of Mexico than there were back in the 1980s." What, was it 2% in the 1980s?

Fishermen need to stand up for the future in the Gulf of Mexico, and demand an end to overfishing. Who else will do it?

1 comment:

Da Weaz said...

Hello,

I am very interested in these issues, but have not been for a long time. I am increasingly concerned about the health of our oceans and the relation to the larger ecosystem. Can you please point me in the direction of the most authoritiative person on the subject of the health and state of our oceans. I am not a specialist in the field, by any stretch of the imagination, but am quite intelligent and can read fairly technical stuff if it is probative.

Please give me an assist. I think what you're doing is incredibly important would like to share this threat with others who may listen (assuming I'm able to get up to speed.) Thanks. I'll check back here, but you're free to stop by my blog (though it is highly political). But the issues that you work on, to me, transcend politics and affect the entire state of our planet.