Saturday, June 18, 2016

Safina vs Hilborn - must read!


Awesome - and I cite.
Ray often makes tautological arguments about how well-managed fisheries can work. 
Of course “well-managed” fisheries work. But only a handful of countries have the capacity to have well-managed fisheries. Most are too poor for the monitoring, science, and enforcement required by the modern Western-style fisheries management that is Hilborn’s stock in trade. And in the tropics, such data-intensive management does not transfer well to fisheries targeting coral reef fishes, in which poor people from thousands of small villages (Indonesia alone has around 17,000 islands) exert heavy cumulative pressures to feed millions of people.

That’s part of why we have overfishing and depletion. 
And that is why we need new approaches, approaches that Ray Hilborn seems to think are unnecessary.
Totally true.
And the same also applies to the relentless underhanded clamoring of those professional Shark conservation folks that continue to snipe against the Shark sanctuaries!
Like I stated a million times, e.g. here, good management is the preferred solution as it allows for sustainable fishing = food security and income - but as long as those developing countries don't have the means, or the political will to implement good fisheries management, those Sanctuaries are an excellent stop-gap solution.

Talking of which, congrats for this new crop of Sanctuaries.
Like always, all will hinge on proper implementation, monitoring, enforcement and prosecution where the track record shows huge differences between the different existing Sanctuaries, from excellent in French Polynesia to probably rather lousy in, say, Honduras. But having the legislation on the books is a huge step in the right direction, so fingers crossed!

And bravo Rick as this is undoubtedly the result of his tireless efforts over the past several years!

PS - and no it's not at least 100m Sharks that are being killed!
It's at least 63 but probably around 100 - before making pronouncements, you got to at least bloody read the paper you have commissioned! :)

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