5 ms·

I didn’t say it couldn’t, I said it wouldn’t. Why would everyone voluntarily stop eating seafood?

Nursie 5y ago
They won't, but perhaps they should, because we are decimating sea life and destroying undersea ecosystems. You're right though, people won't. People won't even stop hunting and eating known-endangered animals.
- kuhewa 5y ago
  We are destroying ecosystems on land as well. Everything is connected and there is no free lunch — the answer isn't to completely stop doing one or the other only to greatly increase impacts on the other parts of the biosphere, it is to produce food with sustainable, science based management, which is absolutely possible in the ocean.
  - Nursie 5y ago
    But that might not include anything recognisable as "fishing" or harvesting wild populations. As was said to you eleswhere - much of the world does have a choice of where to get their calories. Taking from the sea until it has nothing left to give is a profit-driven exercise in the main, not one of caloric necessity.
    - kuhewa 5y ago
      > But that might not include anything recognisable as "fishing" or harvesting wild populations That's just not true. About half of scientifically assessed fish stocks at or above target levels, thus sustainably harvested, or they are successfully rebuilding from previous overexploitation i.e. fisheries management is working. One can easily consume seafood without engaging in "Taking from the sea until it has nothing left to give". Doing so reduces the land footprint of your diet, and for some seafood like whitefish, small pelagics or cultured bivalves, you will probably decrease your carbon footprint, even relative to a vegan diet.
bigDinosaur 5y ago
Why would everyone voluntarily stop hunting? People don't go out and run ocean trawlers every day for their meals, they buy it at the supermarket, and for most the source is irrelevant.
- labster 5y ago
  Trawling to trolling is only a Levenshtein distance of two.
  - bigDinosaur 5y ago
    Not sure what your point is. Are you saying I'm trolling because I'm saying that consumers will mostly be fine with farmed (and possibly 'lab grown') alternatives in the future? The sources used for our food have changed dramatically over time, no reason for that to not happen again.
    - kuhewa 5y ago
      But there are highly abundant stocks of wild fish that can be harvested sustainably en masse, like pollock, it's really hard for scalefish aquaculture to entirely outcompete the simplicity of that — allowing nature to feed your fish and control all the necessary variables. I don't think we'll see capture fisheries totally disappear.
  - jacobolus 5y ago
    Trolling is a fishing term. The sense of 'internet troll' is based on a fishing metaphor. Trawling and trolling are slightly different fishing techniques. Both are ways to catch fish from a moving boat, but trawling involves dragging a net, while trolling means trailing a baited line.
    - bigDinosaur 5y ago
      Huh, the more one learns.
- dustymcp 5y ago

They won't, but perhaps they should, because we are decimating sea life and destroying undersea ecosystems. You're right though, people won't. People won't even stop hunting and eating known-endangered animals.

kuhewa 5y ago
We are destroying ecosystems on land as well. Everything is connected and there is no free lunch — the answer isn't to completely stop doing one or the other only to greatly increase impacts on the other parts of the biosphere, it is to produce food with sustainable, science based management, which is absolutely possible in the ocean.
- Nursie 5y ago
  But that might not include anything recognisable as "fishing" or harvesting wild populations. As was said to you eleswhere - much of the world does have a choice of where to get their calories. Taking from the sea until it has nothing left to give is a profit-driven exercise in the main, not one of caloric necessity.
  - kuhewa 5y ago
    > But that might not include anything recognisable as "fishing" or harvesting wild populations That's just not true. About half of scientifically assessed fish stocks at or above target levels, thus sustainably harvested, or they are successfully rebuilding from previous overexploitation i.e. fisheries management is working. One can easily consume seafood without engaging in "Taking from the sea until it has nothing left to give". Doing so reduces the land footprint of your diet, and for some seafood like whitefish, small pelagics or cultured bivalves, you will probably decrease your carbon footprint, even relative to a vegan diet.

bigDinosaur 5y ago

Why would everyone voluntarily stop hunting? People don't go out and run ocean trawlers every day for their meals, they buy it at the supermarket, and for most the source is irrelevant.

labster 5y ago
Trawling to trolling is only a Levenshtein distance of two.
- bigDinosaur 5y ago
  Not sure what your point is. Are you saying I'm trolling because I'm saying that consumers will mostly be fine with farmed (and possibly 'lab grown') alternatives in the future? The sources used for our food have changed dramatically over time, no reason for that to not happen again.
  - kuhewa 5y ago
    But there are highly abundant stocks of wild fish that can be harvested sustainably en masse, like pollock, it's really hard for scalefish aquaculture to entirely outcompete the simplicity of that — allowing nature to feed your fish and control all the necessary variables. I don't think we'll see capture fisheries totally disappear.
- jacobolus 5y ago
  Trolling is a fishing term. The sense of 'internet troll' is based on a fishing metaphor. Trawling and trolling are slightly different fishing techniques. Both are ways to catch fish from a moving boat, but trawling involves dragging a net, while trolling means trailing a baited line.
  - bigDinosaur 5y ago
    Huh, the more one learns.
dustymcp 5y ago