5 ms·

> What nastiness are we subjecting ourselves to today? I'm gonna go with overfishing. Anyone who has been shopping since the 1990's has seen fish diversity dec

> What nastiness are we subjecting ourselves to today? I'm gonna go with overfishing. Anyone who has been shopping since the 1990's has seen fish diversity decline and prices skyrocket beyond inflation (not to mention a sharp increase in farmed and faux-colored fish like salmon). Illegal fishing is impossible to combat. See China's illegal fleets: [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27412691 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27412691 [2] https://twitter.com/epineyro_ok/status/1378112721628114947 https://twitter.com/epineyro_ok/status/1378112721628114947

MisterBastahrd 5y ago
My dad used to tell me stories about how when he was a kid, during the drive down to Grand Isle, you would see cars lined up on both sides of the highway for as far as the eye could see because families would park on the curb, set out some outdoor chairs, and fish for speckled trout, flounder, and redfish in the marsh. It was common when they were biting to bring home an ice chest of fish to eat. Commercial fishing also had no hard limits back then, and so we eradicated the redfish population and most of the specks. We now have pretty substantial limits on how many of each we can keep when we go fishing, to the point where you're doing it just for the experience because you won't catch enough to recoup the gas money.
- SavantIdiot 5y ago
  I had a laugh back in ~2000 when VP Cheney said humans weren't having an impact on the environment. I grew up on long island and we used to pull bivalves (steamers, mussels, perriwinkels (not a bivalve)) in the 60's and 70's. Then in the 90's everything was banned due to pollution. O.G. immigrants still harvested despite the bans, but it was sad to see the consequence of pollution.
  - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
    Most people who are under 50 years old in the New Orleans area have NO idea whatsoever that there used to be an entire amusement park and beach on Lake Ponchartrain where people would go, enjoy the day, and enjoy the beach. This is because the water became so polluted that families no longer thought that it was safe to be in. It's been decades now and the water quality is just starting to be clean enough to swim in again.
hansvm 5y ago
Hypothetically, what would happen if we (USA) banned all fish imports and greatly restricted domestic catches for a few years? For the sake of argument assume there's no economic impact on local fishermen (e.g., through grants), but would that be enough of a catalyst to make China's illegal fleets economically inviable and allow the oceans to recuperate a bit, or are more drastic measures necessary?
- cwp 5y ago
  That's basically what Canada did with the Grand Banks in 1992. They didn't ban fish imports, but they did deploy the navy to prevent other countries (eg, Spain) from continuing to fish there. This absolutely devastated Newfoundland's economy, and even with unemployment insurance, the population dropped because people left to find work. I don't think a few years would cut it, the Grand Banks are juuuust starting to come back after almost 30 years of nearly no fishing.

MisterBastahrd 5y ago

My dad used to tell me stories about how when he was a kid, during the drive down to Grand Isle, you would see cars lined up on both sides of the highway for as far as the eye could see because families would park on the curb, set out some outdoor chairs, and fish for speckled trout, flounder, and redfish in the marsh. It was common when they were biting to bring home an ice chest of fish to eat. Commercial fishing also had no hard limits back then, and so we eradicated the redfish population and most of the specks. We now have pretty substantial limits on how many of each we can keep when we go fishing, to the point where you're doing it just for the experience because you won't catch enough to recoup the gas money.

SavantIdiot 5y ago
I had a laugh back in ~2000 when VP Cheney said humans weren't having an impact on the environment. I grew up on long island and we used to pull bivalves (steamers, mussels, perriwinkels (not a bivalve)) in the 60's and 70's. Then in the 90's everything was banned due to pollution. O.G. immigrants still harvested despite the bans, but it was sad to see the consequence of pollution.
- MisterBastahrd 5y ago
  Most people who are under 50 years old in the New Orleans area have NO idea whatsoever that there used to be an entire amusement park and beach on Lake Ponchartrain where people would go, enjoy the day, and enjoy the beach. This is because the water became so polluted that families no longer thought that it was safe to be in. It's been decades now and the water quality is just starting to be clean enough to swim in again.

hansvm 5y ago

Hypothetically, what would happen if we (USA) banned all fish imports and greatly restricted domestic catches for a few years? For the sake of argument assume there's no economic impact on local fishermen (e.g., through grants), but would that be enough of a catalyst to make China's illegal fleets economically inviable and allow the oceans to recuperate a bit, or are more drastic measures necessary?

cwp 5y ago
That's basically what Canada did with the Grand Banks in 1992. They didn't ban fish imports, but they did deploy the navy to prevent other countries (eg, Spain) from continuing to fish there. This absolutely devastated Newfoundland's economy, and even with unemployment insurance, the population dropped because people left to find work. I don't think a few years would cut it, the Grand Banks are juuuust starting to come back after almost 30 years of nearly no fishing.