A Responsible Approach to Sustainability

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discussion of sustainable fisheries cannot only be about the environment but most also consider community, culture, and jobs. It's fine for those with little involvement and no personal stake in fisheries to say cod stocks have been over fished, so boycott all cod. Cod was over fished by huge internationally owned factory trawlers that had tremendous impact on essential fisheries habitat as well as by catch. It is unfair to destroy the community, culture and livelyhood of the family hook and line cod fishermen who for generations has fished sustainably because trawlers were allowed to devastate cod stocks.

Many of our West coast salmon stocks have been listed as endangered predominately due to land issue mismanagement by cattle, agriculture, timber, power and municipal water interests. Again, it is unfair to punish the fishermen who for the most part have worked long and hard to save our salmon runs. The great success we have had with salmon in the Sacramento River basin is because of the restoration work done by fishermen and citizens groups such as Salmon Unlimited and the California Advisory Committee On Salmon. Let me assure you if we all never ate another piece of wild salmon, and concern for the viability of the salmon were allowed to slip from public awareness the demise of our wild salmon runs would be greatly accelerated.

Government ineptitude, and dishonesty has allowed our natural resources to be abused and sold off at a miniscule fraction of their worth. Corporate greed under more than one guise has been allowed to run roughshod over the American environment in a shortsighted search for profit. The conscientious individuals who have worked long and hard towards sustainability of our fisheries should not be punished for the sins of others

I am a firm believer in the stewardship of our natural resources and am a dues paying member and contributor to more than one environmental group. The only way to counteract the self interest of powerful business lobbies and government is by backing citizens environmental groups. But I do have some issues with the way the issues surrounding sustainability are being handled. Bad news sells papers, so to speak, it seems as if only the bad news gets any press, good news doesn't seem to attract attention. Until the recent endorsement by Monterey Aquariums' Seafood Watch program not a single environmental site mentioned the tremendous success we have had here in California with the fall run Sacramento River Chinook.

Method and area of capture need to be taken into account when searching for sustainability. All to often the well managed stocks of a worldwide species are lumped into the same category as the poorly managed stocks; for example the swordfish boycott of 1998 made no distinction between the healthy Pacific and the decimated Atlantic stocks. Seldom is method of capture differentiated, why should Hook and Line Atlantic cod fishermen be put out of business for what the trawlers did?

At times, a target may be chosen for its ease. An example is the recent closing of thousands of square miles of the Pacific to Sword fishing because of fear that Leatherback turtles were being taken on long lines. A federal judge closed thousands of square miles of area to fishing. The sword fishermen of Hawaii are a small, disorganized group of fishermen with little political clout or money. On the other hand there are industrial size factory trawlers fishing for Pollock off Alaska backed by money and lobbyists. Many environmental websites say that the Pollock fishery is a well managed fishery, yet we see irrefutable evidence of overfishing with the crash of Stellar Sea lion populations in Alaska.
A little nepotism as well, The Earth Island Institute has certified two companies which buy from six or seven boats as the only Turtle safe shrimp fishery in the country. As an aside; neither company believes the other should be certified as Turtle Safe. All the environmental websites recommend buying only certified Turtle safe shrimp; first off, all U.S. fishing boats must use Turtle excluder devices by Federal Law, all U.S. caught shrimp is suppose to be Turtle free. Now I agree we need to applaud anyones attempt to ameliorate our impact on turtle populations but the real problem with all shrimp fishing is it's unbelievable impact on juvenile fish and habitat. These are the problems that need to be addressed, not the political correctness of who is and who isn't certified "Turtle free" by The Earth Island Institute.

Sustainable fisheries are a very complicated issue constantly in flux, blame cannot be laid at the doorstep of one group or reason. When trying to make responsible decisions about what we eat we must be aware of the many mitigating factors that effect our fisheries; International and domestic politics, trade, population growth, economics, personal property rights and climatological change all have an effect. It is self-delusion to believe we can make things right with one swoop of the fairy's wand. Nothing about this issue is simple or static and many of the things we do which seem to have nothing to do with sustainable fisheries have a great impact. If you want to support our wild pacific salmon runs turn off the lights, quit eating hamburgers and boycott California cotton and Pacific lumber products.

The most important factor in this debate is that we stay well enough informed to judge each individual situation on it's own merits. There can be no blanket condemnations or recommendations of any sort. There will be times when it makes sense to take a stand and there may be other times when the popular road is abandoned. Everyone has to make their own decisions, some will be correct and some won't, but that is the best one can do. Personally, I believe that doing everything we can to promote sustainable fisheries is the only responsible way to pass the future onto our children.