Global Fish Crisis - orig. 10/02/05 #2

I recently saw a show on PBS from the Gutted series called, Fishing For Answers: Making Sense of the Global Fish Crisis. It was hosted by Leon Panetta who was a congressman, a member of President Clinton’s cabinet, and is now the Chairman of the Pew Oceans Commission.

The show started with a documentary of the plight of families affected by fishing regulation in England. They were pretty unhappy that the fishing tradition of their area was changing, but had little awareness of the larger issues and in the end it didn’t seem to be much of a problem for those who lost their jobs to find work in other sectors.

It reminded me of a discussion I had with a friend who felt that if we all quit driving it would destroy the economy. First it is very unlikely that I am going to be able to convince all of America to quit driving. Second people are adaptable and it would encourage growth in other sectors. Third even if it were to cause a depression our nation knows how to overcome a depression and if handled properly it could actually be restorative in nature.

Imagine massive public works programs devoted to replanting the nation’s forests or something along those lines.

In any event Leon went on to talk about how 90% of the large fish in the ocean are gone i.e. mean tuna, swordfish, marlin, shark etc. He talked about how two thirds of the American coastline are degraded by pollution and that there are huge dead spots in the ocean. One of which is in the Gulf of Mexico that curiously enough was mentioned in some report during the news coverage of hurricane Katrina.

Leon talked about how we are fishing our way down the food chain. That in Monterey they fished out the primary fish and in turn the squid that had previously been bait fish ended up becoming a delicacy. He talks about overfishing to the point where all we will be left with is plankton.

He also talks about how deep net fishing destroys the ocean floor. The nets destroy everything as they drag along the bottom.

A quick quote:

LEON PANETTA: Well, you do have a job in this, and that's part of the education process that has to take place. I serve on the board of the Monterey Aquarium. One of the things they're implementing is a little card that basically is being distributed that says, "These are the fish you ought to avoid when you go into a restaurant. These are the fish that you ought to be able to order, because they're plentiful and they're not in any way endangered." And we need to educate people.

There are chefs now that, in restaurants, who are actually saying to their customers, "I am someone who is abiding by these standards. I'm not going to serve you a fish, whether it's swordfish or whether it's other fish, that are endangered. I'm not going to serve that." And what you have to do is essentially develop a culture, very much the way when we used to throw our garbage all in one can, I mean, that's something we were used to doing. But we've now learned to divide paper from bottles and other things. And we've learned that and we're doing a better job at that. I think you've got to educate people that they have a role to play in this as well.

CAROL MARIN: Tell me what fish I'm not buying this weekend.

LEON PANETTA: Well, there are a lot of endangered species that are out there. And swordfish from some areas is at the top of that list. There are some halibut species that are also on that list. And there are obviously some shrimp species that are also on that list.

So you really need to look at that kind of information, as does the rest of the public, and then make their decisions accordingly. We've all got a role to play in this. This isn't just the policy makers, it's also every family [that], in their own way, has to help in dealing with this crisis.

CAROL MARIN: And so since you've been doing this, and passionately doing this, are there a lot of species of fish you're not eating?

LEON PANETTA: There are, absolutely. There are species that I wish I could order when I go to a restaurant or go to a fish market. And I know that I've got to stay away from it, because I've got to play my own role in terms of ensuring that it's done. And you know what? It has an impact. It's amazing, when one restaurant does it, and they advertise it, other restaurants understand that they've got to do the same thing. When one fish market starts to do it, and labels that they don't carry those kinds of endangered species, then others have to do it as well. It becomes the economic club to doing the right thing.

You should go to the site. It has transcripts and a copy of the video and Leon does a much better job explaining all of this than I do.

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If I saw a friend about to inadvertently hurt a child I would be compelled to try and stop him. I see a lot of people involved in a way of life that is much worse than injury to a single child.