Wednesday, 2 June 2010

Fishing for dollars


How to protect the world's endangered fishing grounds? Introduce the profit motive. I know first hand that it works for lobstermen and it seems that it works for halibut, too.

It's a pretty good report, though I don't agree about the whales. Most of what we believe about giant cetacea is largely the result of sentiment and unwarranted extrapolation from some species of dolphin (A bit like looking at human beings and then putting baboons in charge of the world economy. Hang on, that already happened!). I highly doubt that baleen whales are very intelligent and I see no objective obstacle against using them except over-exploitation. Not only do I think they could be fished sustainably with the right incentives, I believe that one of the big breakthroughs in aquaculture in the 21st century will be domesticating those giant sea cows.

Blue whale cheese, anyone?

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