Chart of the day: Fish-stock sustainability index
Tuesday, June 5, 2012 at 11:17AM 
From the Economist.
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin) reports that a record six fed fisheries are re-certified as healthy last year.
After a decade of similar progress, 86% of America's roughly 250 federally monitored commercial fish stocks were not subject to overfishing; 79% were considered healthy.
The lesson: don't let fishermen run things and - even more importantly - keep the idiot politicians out of the mix. Instead, the ones who do the best management are . . . the scientists.
More evidence of the sheer stupidity of US politics - and the GOP in particular:
And the politicians are still interfering. On May 9th the House passed legislation forbidding NOAA from developing an innovative means of apportioning fishing quotas, known as catch shares. These are long-term, aiming to give fishermen a stake in the future of their fisheries; market-based, since they can be traded; and, in practice, good for fish. Sadly, the two Republican congressmen behind the ban consider they have been designed “to destroy every aspect of American freedom under the guise of conservation”.
This borders on Know-Nothing stupid, which tells you that history can roughly repeat itself under similar circumstances. But it's dumb stuff like this that has kept us from ratifying the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which is really starting to hurt us as the Antarctic opens up.
Really stupid. It's like banging your head against a brick wall with these people.
Reader Comments (1)
The Saving Seafood commentary on this article raises some interesting points. It also chides the Economist because the issue isn't partisan politics. Previous rounds of this long fought issue have had bipartisan votes opposed to shares. Barney Frank was the Dem leader on the 2011 effort according to this source.
plenty more fish in the sea commentary