Is It Any Wonder?

This, from an article in Salon.com--

"Researchers spent a year approaching almost 14,000 fishery experts, including marine biologists, fishery managers and university professors around the globe, asking them to take an online survey in either English, French, Spanish, German or Portuguese about local fishing practices and policies. Almost 1,200 completed the survey from 243 countries and territories, including representatives from every country that borders the ocean. The survey asked the experts about their respective nations' scientific data about fish populations and ecosystems, and how they translated those scientific findings into regulations and enforcement.

The dismal results: Only 7 percent of coastal states did rigorous scientific assessments to generate fishing policies; a pitiful 1.4 percent have a participatory and transparent process for turning that science into policy; and fewer than 1 percent had strong mechanisms to insure enforcement with fishing policies."

You have to love that only 1.4% of the world's fisheries have done a scientific approach and asked what may be sustainable before making policy. It is my guess that the other 98.6% make policy by looking at tea leaves, scratching their privates, seeing how much they can make in graft and future investments, nod their heads sagely and either exceed to expedient requests or throw darts to make policy that governs one of the largest food resources in the world. And if you were to lok at enforcement of fishing policies, I am sure that the above order is changed so that graft is above nodding sagely and scratching privates. Just a guess. If the researched and projected date of 2048 for viable marine "harvesting" (great euphamism, that--shows little of the dignity of drag nets or bottom trawling, as if there were any to begin with), is correct; then, there really is little time to change a world culture.

and many, many people will then go hungry and the world will lose species after species.

a helpful guide.

rojo