Originally posted by M_Man
I'd be skeptical about the NRDC's plans and motives.
A few years ago, I attended a California Fish and Game Commission meeting where the commission was taking public testimony on "Near Shore" Rockfish
regulations.
There were several other issues on the agenda for this meeting, including a petition by a San Diego area aquaculturist to reintroduce Red Abalone to
the Point Loma area. (At his expence, with no expectation to ever harvest the abalone, just to reestablish a separate population for bio-diversity's
sake.)
NRDC was against it and the Commission nixed it.
As each item came up, a commissioner would ask the State Council (State's lawyer) "Would NRDC sue", given a certain action, and the answer was always
yes.
Seemed to me that NRDC held sway over CDF&G policymaking, period.
When the Near Shore issue came up, Kate Wing-NRDC's point person on all things marine-related, testified to NRDC's position which boiled down to this:
NRDC wanted DFG to close all the near shore (under 20 fathoms) to sport fishing period, whether from PCFV (Passenger Carrying Fishing Vessels -party
boats), private boat, kayaks, or SCUBA and free divers.
Upon cross examination, NRDC said that commercial bottom trawlers and commercial live-trap fishing should be allowed to continue.
I was shocked needless to say!
Bottom trawling is as bad if not worse than long-line fishing, in that it destroys the bottom habitat and takes many times the target species as
bycatch, which is just thrown back into the ocean dead.
The live trap fishery targets juvenile fish that will be sold live, from crowded aquariums in Asian Resturants and markets to make whole fish dinners
that fit a dinner plate. Alas, these fish are taken before they've reached sexual maturity, and they have never spawned or contributed their DNA to
the gene pool.
This seems to be a funny way for protecting the resource.
NRDC clearly had an agenda different than protecting the resource, though for the life of me I couldn't figure their angle.
Why would NRDC support Factory Fishing, the bane of the Oceans?
You decide.
I'd save my money, mabye take a whale watching trip, and keep the cash in Baja. |