Gulf of Mexico red snapper mess

Can the impossible become real, and will people read about fishery management? We'll see...

Today's question: why is red snapper in the crapper?

Answer: because nobody's responsible.

To explain: too many people have been killing too many fish, for a long time.

Federal law puts an odd group in charge, the so-called "Fishery Management Councils." These people are mostly fishermen and seafood processors, and they can't decide who has to stop killing fish, so they let everyone keep doing it; this is called "mangement." Red snapper go downhill and fishing economies decline; this is called "a problem" and "troubling." Someone says we don't really know there's a problem and we should wait for a while before we do anything; this is called "dumb." Finally, politcs happen and we limp through to the same crisis next year, and we call it "bad boogie." Some people get grouchy and sign this petition, which is considered rather "cool."

Oh well, now you know why no one is happy, at least among red snapper afishianados. Fishermen can't make a living, fish can't survive long enough to spawn, somebody sells you Northern Pikeminnow for $18 per pound and calls it red snapper even though it tastes like polarfleece, and next year is just a little bit worse. Ouch. It's enough to make a respectable red snapper go into hiding.

If you made it this far, please click out to here and see what life would be like without red snapper, then I'll know you don't have anything better to do. ;) You can tell I don't.

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Atlantic salmon fishing in Maine

To fish or not to fish, that is the question.

Today's atlantic salmon fishing is good, even though the fish are endangered. How very different from yesterday's story on summer flounder overfishermen.

The difference is reverence for the fish. This year's atlantic salmon fishery, the first catch in 7 years, is all about keeping people engaged and connected. It's designed carefully to avoid harming the fish.

The beautiful words from the salmon fishermen reveal all, they're so happy just to be there. Blogfish can support any fishing where the needs of the fish come first. That's what sustainability is all about. Think about no fishing if the water temperature is too high, to make sure that the fish have the best chance of surviving. Too bad if someone made a long drive to fish that day, sorry. Try again another day. How common is that type of thinking?

If summer flounder overfishermen could show just a fraction of this deference, they'd rebuild summer flounder in no time and have a dream fishery. It worked for striped bass, because the needs of the fish came first.

I dream of the day I can say proudly "I ate a wild Atlantic Salmon today..."

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Overfishing and rebuilding summer flounder

It's fishermen vs. environmentalists again for summer flounder off the US East coast. How did we get into this mess, when we should be allies?

Right now, too many fishermen are focused on their "need" to catch fish.

At stake is the rebuilding of fish that are in trouble. Are we willing to lay off fishing so that fish can recover? It worked for striped bass. Alas, too often it seems like we're focused on keeping the fishing experience satisfying as a primary factor, and the fish just have to rebuild with "reasonable" fishing allowed.

Unfortunately, it turned out that "reasonable" fishing for summer flounder still resulted in overfishing. Uh-oh. We all know that overfishing is a bad idea, and overfishing during a rebuilding plan is a really, really bad idea.

Summer flounder overfishing dug a deep hole, and it's hard to get out. It's really hard to get out when you keep overfishing.

So who's the villian? The environmentalists who say let's stick to the rebuilding deadline? Or the people who overfished and now want to get out of the rebuilding deadline? And who really believes that we'll EVER rebuild summer flounder if we get rid of the deadline?

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When London freezes over

Buried in the details of a dry "news release" is some worrisome news on ocean currents. Nobody is paying attention now, but they just might when London freezes over some winter.

Seems the North Atlantic Ocean is getting less salty, due to more rain. Why is this important? Because it just might slow down or stop the world famous "Atlantic Deep Water formation."

The sinking currents in the North Atlantic bring warm water north, and help keep Europe greener and warmer than other places that far north. Look at a globe, and see how far north Europe really is.

OK, not exactly front page news, but it's one of those rare moments when real oceanography has something important to tell us. Ocean currents, like sewage systems, only get noticed when they quit working.

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Fishermen vs. fish for Klamath salmon

Fishermen cheer talk of bigger catches!

Great news, fish populations are going up somewhere, right? Well, not exactly. It's just a story of managers bowing to pressure and allowing more Klamath salmon to be caught, even though too few fish are returning to spawn.

The Klamath salmon debacle goes on and on. Managers will undo fish protections, because fishermen "need" more fish. Never mind that the science doesn't show more fish are coming.

Excuse me, but isn't this a wee bit hypocritical?

Fishermen were among the loudest complainers when this thinking was applied to irrigation water. Farmers "needed" more water, so managers gave it to them. Never mind that there wasn't more water to give them.

Why is it ok for fishermen to bust fishing limits (and get managers to look the other way), but it's not ok for irrigators to bust irrigation limits (and get managers to look the other way)?

It's litmus test time on Klamath salmon. And the response of fishermen will make it harder to argue against other things that kill fish. Once again, the fish are the losers.

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