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I don't think any negative judgement should be made of the fisherman back then. As far as anyone knew, fish stocks were inexhaustible and there was no science to dispute that.
I've been reading some really cool books about the history of commercial fishing, including a book called "Cod" that I highly recommend. I have alot of respect for the people who have made a living in that industry. What a tough, tough existence. Imagine if anytime that computer on your desk could blow up and kill you... or your keyboards just took a finger or two here and again. These folks had and still have steel... guts...or something that rhymes with that. I also have a great respect for the complexity of debate: to fish or not fish!
The thing is that now the science does exist. The facts are that the ocean is not the unlimited bounty that our fathers/grandfathers/and so on believed. Cod, swordfish, tuna, stripers... snook in the south... all these species and more have taken a turn being decimated by overfishing. This is not opinion, this is fact. The fish aren't there... those trawler nets find everything down there and the ain't finding much fish and what they find is smaller and smaller.
And size regulations? What a joke... is throwing back a dead juvenile cod or swordfish helping the population? The large scale ships and methods such as longlining will inherently destroy stocks... and just about everything else out there.
Man has fished with hook and line for thousands of years. It took technology in the 20th century to do the heavy damage. But being left with this damage, we have to be careful of the fragile stocks we have remaining.
Commercial fisherman don't hold rights to these resources, yet they deserve to make a living... that's what they've known and done for hundreds of years. Hence the complexity of the issue. But hey, if left unregulated, these folks will have to find new ways to make a living sooner or later anyways, 'cause when those fish are all but gone, where will they turn?
And conservationists have to keep fighting, even when things are good or improving, because the other side is always fighting just as hard for de-regulation of the industry.
We shouldn't hold a grudge against anyone because things aren't like the good ol' days, but we should understand why and take a lesson from those reasons.
Another country heard from...
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