So
Long, and Thanks, Fish.
 In
fifth grade I remember seeing educational
films showing handsome, lusty seamen hauling
away at fishing nets bulging with glittering
catch,
while the narrator proudly extolled the
apparantly bottomless ocean larder with words
like "limitless" and "inexhaustible".
Things have certainly changed over the past
fifty years.
Fleets of trawlers and their massive nets
are currently stripping bare the oceans and
the
sea-beds. The
situation is so grim that scientists predict
a complete
collapse of ocean fish by mid-century.
You might say "So what? We've got sustainable
farmed fish."
Funny thing about that. Farmed fish, especially
salmon, which are carnivores, need to be fed
other fish in order to thrive. And where are
those
other fish
coming
from? Oh, yes. The same big trawlers currently
wrecking the oceans. So
when all the little sardines and mackerals
and codlings have
been
fished
out
you can say goodbye to your salmon steak.
Yes,
we might still have plenty of tilapia, catfish,
and other bottomfeeders to go around...
but
that's no bargain, either.
=Lefty=
|
