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I talked to someone who was an agricultural scientist, working for a fishing company in Seattle. When I brought up how I heard the oceans would be unfishable in

I talked to someone who was an agricultural scientist, working for a fishing company in Seattle. When I brought up how I heard the oceans would be unfishable in 50 years, he said, "That's not true." He want to to say the fishery industry is concerned with sustainability, after all these fisheries have been around for generations and want to stay that way. He claimed they carefully monitored fish populations to maintain stability in fishing. I don't know enough about the subject. He could have been touting the official line fed to him, but he could have also been telling us the honest truth based on his team/company's research.

jes5199 7y ago
acidification is out of their control, though - it's directly linked to global carbon emissions
40four 7y ago
>The ocean is acidifying because it's absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which lowers pH levels in the water. Doesn't matter how sustainable the fishing practices are, or how well they manage the populations, if the water quality won't support a population to begin with.
grouseway 7y ago
The Canadian government was carefully monitoring Atlantic cod too. Until they completely collapsed. These systems are apparently too complex for us to make good predictions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_Atlantic_northwest_cod_fishery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_Atlantic_north...
- philipkglass 7y ago
  Scientists correctly predicted that catch quotas needed to be set much lower. The government discounted the lower-end predictions of sustainable catch rates or even ignored them outright, choosing instead to "balance" the scientists' advice against "socio-economic considerations." But nature cannot be fooled, so socio-economic conditions deteriorated abruptly and catastrophically in the 1990s as the ecological conditions did likewise.
- ska 7y ago
  These systems are apparently too complex for us to make good predictions. I don't know if that is true so much that good predictions are rejected for political reasons. See also climate change.
- jonnydubowsky 7y ago
  At the precipice of collapse, it becomes a game of Jenga.

jes5199 7y ago

acidification is out of their control, though - it's directly linked to global carbon emissions

40four 7y ago

>The ocean is acidifying because it's absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which lowers pH levels in the water. Doesn't matter how sustainable the fishing practices are, or how well they manage the populations, if the water quality won't support a population to begin with.

grouseway 7y ago

The Canadian government was carefully monitoring Atlantic cod too. Until they completely collapsed. These systems are apparently too complex for us to make good predictions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_Atlantic_northwest_cod_fishery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_Atlantic_north...

philipkglass 7y ago
Scientists correctly predicted that catch quotas needed to be set much lower. The government discounted the lower-end predictions of sustainable catch rates or even ignored them outright, choosing instead to "balance" the scientists' advice against "socio-economic considerations." But nature cannot be fooled, so socio-economic conditions deteriorated abruptly and catastrophically in the 1990s as the ecological conditions did likewise.
ska 7y ago
These systems are apparently too complex for us to make good predictions. I don't know if that is true so much that good predictions are rejected for political reasons. See also climate change.
jonnydubowsky 7y ago
At the precipice of collapse, it becomes a game of Jenga.