They Don’t Get It
Local fishermen have gone to Washington, to complain about the restrictions on fishing, especially red snapper in the Gulf.
The fish population is down, and everyone knows it, but won’t admit it. In addition to years of over-fishing, you have the expanding dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi caused by agricultural run-off in the Midwest, and well as a lack of water in the rivers during the last couple of years of drought in the Southeast. The drought conditions have eased, but the bays haven’t been scoured clean.
We have ever more frequent incidents of red tide, and other problems that affect the population of the Gulf.
The reality is that if we don’t give the fish time to recover, the fishing industry is dead, and not just for a year, but forever. It is happening around the world, and the global climate change isn’t going to improve the situation. We have to clean up our act and our oceans. Nobody wanted to back off when this would have been relatively painless, so the pain is going to come. The only reason the industry hasn’t already collapsed is because of the net bans put into the Florida constitution in the 1990s. Many of the same fishermen who are complaining in Washington, fought those bans, too.
5 comments
Well, I’ve known a few Mississippians who tended to “run-off at the mouth,” but when their big river does it, they have a problem.
This would not be the first species driven to extinction by overfishing or overhunting. How many times does it take for the fishermen to learn that their entire future livelihood, along with the food supply of great numbers of people, is at stake?
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We are having quite the battle between fisherman, farmers and environmentalists here in the land of Crappyfornia. No one recognizes each other’s problems revolve around the major issue (the 800lb gorilla in the political arena)….the lack of water.
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Everyone on the Gulf Coast has a problem because of the Mississippi run-off, Steve, because catches are way down for individuals, in spite of the fishing fleet be seriously reduced due to Katrina, Rita, et al. In addition the long cold spells are killing fish in the bayous and bays, hell, even the manatees are dying from the cooler water. If the jet stream doesn’t kick back North to where it belongs, there will be ski resorts opening in Texas.
Water is a huge problem down here, Jill. I’ve written before about the tri-state water war over the Chattahoochee River. Atlanta has been pulling so much water out of the river that during the drought the tupelo honey industry has almost disappeared as the swamps have dried up from the low river level, and you can’t eat oysters from the Apalachicola Bay because of the pollution build up without the river water to flush it.
Now they are talking about building nuclear plants in Georgia, and they have no guarantees on the water to cool them.
No one wants to sacrifice for the sake of future generations any more. No one, especially Republicans and their voters, gives a damn about the future of their children.
Remember, the Republicans don’t think there is going to be a future. They generally are all in the the death cult of “End Times-ers.”
.-= last blog ..Go Suomi! =-.
They are just greedy, and have found a convenient excuse. Their comfort is all they think of, not what happens to anyone else, including their own children.