This idea has been around for 5-6 years I believe.
Chesapeake Bay Journal: Whether a fish has a hot spawning season may depend on weather - October 2004
Whether it has held up over the last several years is unclear to me.
Eben, I think you miss Pew's focus. They understand that environmental degradation has impacted world fisheries. They, however, also understand that industrial ( and sometimes recreational) fishing is putting a toll on the remaining fish that is not sustainable. Their priority is to stop that in order to buy time to improve the environment. Makes pretty good sense if you don't have a stake in the fishing.
Another good example is the CLF. The towns on the south shore of the cape have severely polluted the salt ponds that feed Vineyard Sound. This has been known for years, and nobody has done anything because of the cost. Instead towns keep announcing "studies" and delaying the expensive fix. This fall the CLF came through and made it clear that if the fix does not start VERY soon, they will file suit. Pissed everyone off, and all kinds of moaning about how that would "not help anything", but in fact it has helped and towns are now starting to move.
There is a lesson in that for us fisherman. Clean up our act now, or have a judge do it for us. I suspect the latter is where we are headed.
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