If true, only mankind could screw things up

[deziloooooo]

as it seems we are doing here.

I use to surf fish, go for Blues in New England..and remember the schooling of these bait fish and how the Blues would gather to feed, in a frenzy and we fisherman would for these oily spots and churning of the surface as we tried to get some blues for dinner...running up and down the beach as the schoolds moved in terror..sometimes beaching them selves to get away from schools of blues..
--------------------------------------------
motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/07/menhaden-omega-protein-chesapeake
---------------------------------------------
[Click on link to read whole article]
---------------------------------------------
Annihilate an Entire Species of Fish, and Other Easy Ways to Really Mess Things Up
— By Tom Philpott
| Fri Jul. 15, 2011 3:00 AM PDT.

"First we'll take menhaden, then we'll take bluefin. Brian Gratwicke/Wikimedia Commons

So, there's this company called Omega Protein, and it seems intent on catching as much as it possibly can of an obscure, tiny, practically inedible fish called the Atlantic menhaden.

From Omega Protein's perspective, hoovering up menhaden like they're dust bunnies is a great idea. The company's entire business model hinges on transforming the oily fish into everything from livestock feed to omega-3 pills for people. In fact, it owns a monopoly on Atlantic menhaden fishing and processing—and has been doing just that for years. The stock market values Omega Protein at a cool quarter-billion dollars.

For the health of the ecosystem along the East Coast, though, declaring open season on the menhaden really, really sucks, as Alison Fairbrother and Randy Fertel say in their recent Gilt Taste piece,

"The Most Important Fish in the Sea."

All along the eastern shore, menhaden have entered a phase of calamitous decline. Stocks have plunged 88 percent in the past quarter century, the authors report. As Omega Protein sucks them out of the ocean, things are getting quite out-of-whack down below. Fairbrother and Fertel explain:"

[Mad Dawg Wiccan]

Sounds like what happened to the sardines off Monterey.

[Deleted]

Mother nature, or God, or whatever you want to call it does a much better job at screwing things up than we do.

[Virgil Showlion]

Mother nature, or God, or whatever you want to call it does a much better job at screwing things up than we do.

Because we all know things didn't just run tickety-boo for the four billion or so years before we got here?

[Deleted]

Jul 18, 2011 12:26:36 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Mother nature, or God, or whatever you want to call it does a much better job at screwing things up than we do.

Because we all know things didn't just run tickety-boo for the four billion or so years before we got here?

I'm sure the dinosaurs don't think things went well at all.

[verrip1]

The lack of reparations for dinosaurs is a low point in the history of humankind. Have we no shame?

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

The dinosaurs should have seen that asteroid coming and been prepared.

[Driftr]

We'd have cloned new dinosaurs by now if not for GWB.

[Virgil Showlion]

The dinos were one of several global extinction events (I seem to recall there have been three--or five?). Still, at close to a billion years per, Earth seems to get by all right.

[Deleted]

Jul 18, 2011 13:29:44 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

The dinos were one of several global extinction events (I seem to recall there have been three--or five?). Still, at close to a billion years per, Earth seems to get by all right.

The earth gets by just fine. It's just its inhabitants that get screwed.

[deziloooooo]

Jul 18, 2011 13:11:35 GMT -5 Driftr said:

We'd have cloned new dinosaurs by now if not for GWB.

Great one.. ;D

[Virgil Showlion]

You seem to have a hate on for Earth today my oviparous friend.

I'll grant you it isn't always the garden of Eden, but for a ball of oxygen, magnesium, and silicone hurtling through a dead vacuum at 67 thousand miles per hour, I'd say its a rather formidable home.

A tree branch crushed your Austin Mini this morning, didn't it?

[handyman2]

Hey Dino's still exist. just go to DC and visit the house and senate. The Astroids missed a few.

[fairlycrazy23]

You know this is actually a good argument for private ownership of the sea, nobody would want there product destroyed for short term gain, they would rather sell it at a controlled rate so that it could renew.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

I read that they catch and process hordes of these fish-- and they're making money. So, their interest in eliminating the species is...?

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jul 18, 2011 15:40:22 GMT -5 fairlycrazy23 said:

You know this is actually a good argument for private ownership of the sea, nobody would want there product destroyed for short term gain, they would rather sell it at a controlled rate so that it could renew.

This idea is saving Africa right now. This isn't theory, it's fact. They have opened up huge private reserves for hunters-- made up of small parcels of individual private property owner's farms and land. All of the sudden with an annual income, they have a vested interest in ensuring there are animals for the big game hunters to hunt.

[deziloooooo]

Jul 18, 2011 18:26:30 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

I read that they catch and process hordes of these fish-- and they're making money. So, their interest in eliminating the species is...?

It seems that they are interested in the now..and their concern for the other species who eat these fish , use as a food source seems to be nil..they make nothing from these other species..

To me it is a example where Government regulation is needed..some one to look at the big picture, the other actions that are happening by the diminishing of this important food source.

The government has been in this field for a long time, and with out them being involved, working with other countries, regulating the size of their catch, enforcing the laws passed , I believe we would be worse shape then we are now.

Has anyone priced the cost of fish in the markets lately. It has become a luxury product, especially the more popular types and even the less popular are very pricey and I expect it will get worse as time goes on.