Maybe some food left for thought?.......

[MrGrumpFish]

Hey guys,

Some food for thought.......

I have been thinking a lot about this lately and I am honestly disgusted and I feel like it is my duty as a responsible human being to bring this topic up. What Im talking about is the gross overfishing of ALL species fished for commercially on this beautiful planet. There are a lot of forces at play here. Local economies, governments on the local, federal, and global scale, banks, and executives who are sealing our fate as a planet. Please don't get me wrong. This is not a political, or environmental rant. I am not one of them. I drive fossil fuel buring V8 powered trucks and as a whole feel like if I hear anything more about being green, I will start burning tires in my back yard to stay warm in the winter. Kidding on that, but I do have a deep concern for what is going on in our fisheries. Many great things could happen by reducing what we are taking from the oceans. We would force those who want fish for dinner to get out and catch it for them selves and stock their freezers like I have for years. The parents that want to do the right thing, could get their children off the internet, their smart (dumb) phones once in a while, and best of all get them outside getting physically active participating in the procurement of their food stock that in the end, would be far better than any food they are going to purchase a the local market. Who knows, maybe they would end up taking a liking to hunting or other outdoor activities. I think the world could benefit a great deal by getting back to a more simple way of life and looking into what really matters most. I'm not saying do away with all the technology but everything should be enjoyed in moderation right? Okay, rant out of the way, and here is the point.

What can I, or better yet anyone interested, do to save countless species from eventual extinction from overfishing and fishing waste. By that I mean the 75 plus percent of the total catch for most commercial fishing efforts is other species that "get in the way" even though the regulations only allow nets of certain size to be fished with, and make a beyond poor attempts to help preserve and maintain the numbers with techniques, rules, and procedures that only the insane could make sense of. 75 percent may include and is far from limited to, halibut, perch, flounder, sharks, grouper, star fish, and so many other unmentioned casualties of this sick practice. The problem is a huge one. I want to do something, and I am looking for information. I am not wanting to protest and interfere but I want to bring awareness to a planet of people who while preoccupied with their devices, TV, and internet, are asleep at the wheel while the world is crashing down around them. This information needs to be made public and let people know that the driver behind this is flat out greed, and the complete disregard for the planet we live on.

I invite anyone who cares to express their views on this matter to please post here. Please spread the word to everyone you know that they can make a difference if we try to collectively make the needed changes and it all starts with voting smarter and getting the right representatives in government to get the job done. I would hate to see a reactive approach to this versus a proactive one. I feel strongly that we are in the 11th hour and we need to act.

Comments and suggestions please. Please no references to Enviro-Nazi web sites or groups. Hopefully something could be accomplished by level headed individuals like the people I know here. Extremists need not apply, that has not and never will solve anything.

Watch at your convenience.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQoVQRqQhlI

Cheers,

Chris :thumb:

 

[Snopro]

I'm pessimistic. We have 7 billion people living on a planet that might be able to support 1 billion. It's only going to get worse.

Now is the "good old days".

 

[MrGrumpFish]

Well, thats certainly one way to look at it I guess.

 

[Snopro]

Sorry, that might have been a bit abrupt. I do agree bycatch in many commercial fisheries should be improved.

Two things to think about.

If everyone in our country did as you suggested and harvested their own fish and game how long would that last?

Worldwide many people don't own devices, tv or internet. How do you make them aware? If you were able to, do you think they would care. They are only thinking about where there next meal is comming from not the longterm health of the oceans.

It's admirable that you want to do something about ocean fisheries and I think slowing the inevitable is possible, but I think we're past the tipping point.

 

[MrGrumpFish]

Im not referring to "everyone" or saying that everyone owns a device. 1st world countries are the majority of the ones responsible for over consumption of resources in general. The people with devices are the ones that can spread the word. I think it is a pretty sad state of affairs when the majority of people out there would rather spend their energy trying to string someone up, for something they said on Facebook to be the latest internet tough guy when if that much energy was spent elsewhere, good things could come of it instead. The masses would rather tear someone down. Destroy them before they can be destroyed themselves. The police society mentality.

I know there is no way to completely fix the issue, but we could certainly slow the downward spiral we seem to be in these days.

Here's to hope!ositive:

Cheers,

Chris

 

[pinstriper]

I dunno. Isn't the fact that we have to produce hatchery fish to give the non-commercial fisherman driven by the fact that sportfishing is itself unsustainable without artificial measures ? And if the only fish we ate was fish we caught ourselves, nobody would know what a fish was, much less how it tastes. Farmed fish is an attempt to produce fish as a sustainable food source, but apparently it has its own pitfalls. The same is true of meat, by the way. That's what we have cattle ranches.

We have just too many people on the planet and its accelerating. Part of that comes from having knocked out so many diseases, and lengthening the life span. Part of THAT comes from being so good at producing excess, cheap food.

The next solution to feeding everyone is soylent green.

Ah, to hell with it. Let's go fishing while we can.

 

[MrGrumpFish]

I dunno. Isn't the fact that we have to produce hatchery fish to give the non-commercial fisherman driven by the fact that sportfishing is itself unsustainable without artificial measures ? And if the only fish we ate was fish we caught ourselves, nobody would know what a fish was, much less how it tastes. Farmed fish is an attempt to produce fish as a sustainable food source, but apparently it has its own pitfalls. The same is true of meat, by the way. That's what we have cattle ranches.

We have just too many people on the planet and its accelerating. Part of that comes from having knocked out so many diseases, and lengthening the life span. Part of THAT comes from being so good at producing excess, cheap food.

The next solution to feeding everyone is soylent green.

Ah, to hell with it. Let's go fishing while we can.

:thumb:

 

[pinstriper]

Been thinking about this more, and yeah. We're not sustainable. Human activity, I mean. Our ability to live long lives and reproduce with no real exposure to predators pretty much kills the planet. In 200, 300, 500, maybe 1,000 years, we overpopulate our ability to take food from the planet.

Everything we're doing to extend our lives is killing the planet. Healthcare, clean water, curing cancer, even peace itself. Unsustainable. Big mistake. Oh, we turned the clock back about 30 years in the first half of the 20th century, with WWI, WWII, genocides by Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, et. al. But we can't keep that up.

Chart average life expectancy against population growth (which correlates nicely with atmospheric carbon, btw) and you see it all going up like a hockey stick. We need to reproduce less and die younger. It's the only way the numbers will work.

Logan's Run had it right. Cut everyone off at 30, move into cities, reserve the open spaces. Give war a chance. Thank you for smoking. Supersize me. Don't click it. Fight for your right to party. Every day I'm shufflin'. (Not sure about that last, but I think it stands on it's own merits)

Once you accept the inconvenient truth that no matter what humans do, it is eventually unsustainable, you can pretty much justify anything in the name of Saving The Planet.

Just my opinion, of course.

 

[Hooked Up]

Ok Mark, I'm going to go stick my head in the oven now. ☺
Lots of valid points. Someone smarter than me will need to figure this out.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[CastingCall]

What's that syndrome called" the closer you are to the fear the more you tend ignore the cause, the farther away you are from the fear the more concerned you are, between the two you follow the histeria" Tony