A large amount of fish taken are used to feed farmed fish. Crazy.

Overfishing is a serious problem. I hope we can figure something out. The total annual consumption of sperm whales by tonnage is a bit of a red herring (sry).

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1984 300TD

That is whacked. I've read plenty of horror stories about farmed salmon. What's worse, the stuff tastes like crap. I've read about taste-test demonstrations in Seattle to try to raise awareness of the fish farm debacle.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
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Monterey Bay Aquarium spent a lot of time with their seafood watch program in selecting what is sustainable and what isn't. They constantly evaluate and update them since it's an ongoing fishing dynamic throughout the world. It includes farmed fish since farming doesn't necessarily make it sustainable, bad tasting or not.

Additionally the dollars spent are redirected into the US economy as opposed to Malaysia, Phillippines, Vietnam etc.

Seafood Watch Program (All Regions USA)

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1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

So what pray tell do any of you suggest we feed the billions of people on the Earth with? If not fish then what? Every solution has a nasty side effect. Beef is great until you realize that to produce it has nasty environmental effects as well. And lets not talk vegetarian, I'd rather put a gun to my head. The reality, the elephant in the room, is population control and the lack of it. I refuse to get excited about any solution until that is confronted. End of story. All the US law doesn't stop foreign countries from fishing until there is nothing left so whats the point. You will never get an international consensus on the topic except possibly worldwide "no fish" zones to allow the marine populations to recover. Enforcing that alone will be very, very difficult. RT

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When all else fails, vote from the rooftops!
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You can believe in ulterrior motives, and hypocracy, when it comes to what you consider a "liberal" idea.

Can you give the same motives to other ideas like, corporate, or conservative ones ??

I imagine the people making lots of money off of fishing are working on their rebuttle to this movie right now.

While I agree that one source of information will not give you all of the information to create an intelligent opinion.

I would not be able to get to the second source of information if I do not start with the first.

You would never be able to gather any information that way, and would end up stickig your head in the sand every time.

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

I dont understand what your getting at with this comment.

Surly its deeper than thinking that the sperm whale eats more than we do so its OK to take their food away..

Do we have more of a right to eat than the sperm whales ???

Or are you saying that we need to take into account that a lot of marine wildlife will
starve to death if we over fish the oceans ??

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

That's part of the point. If we continue to overfish, soon there will be a shortage of fish to feed that burgeoning population.

I like eating meat and fish but I can get by doing it only once or twice a week. Plenty of people get by on that sort of regimen and it's probably better for you than eating meat every day.

Methods for producing beef, chicken, eggs, etc. that are less taxing on the environment than mega factory farms are in existance, we just need to find the will to make them more widespread and to pay a little extra for our food.

Increasing profit and/or reducing price by any and every means possible does not necessarily bode well for the viability of the resources that produce that profit.

We're liable to kill the goose that lays the golden egg if we chase that profit too hard.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Yes, population control is the ultimate answer. It is silly, however, to just throw up our hands and say that until we get the population under control nothing can be done. I eat some fish, eggs, and a bit of cheese. No meat, no fowl. A largely vegetarian diet can be truly delicious. I think you'd eat a vegetarian diet within one day if meat was unavailable to you. Far short of holding a gun to your head. Think of all the people on this earth who would be grateful for half a handful of rice and a drink of clean water every day. IMO, the western world, driven by it's corporations quest for profit, have embraced consumption all out of proportion to what is required for it's (oversized) population. Need a fast lunch? Let's get a 1000 calorie "big meal" or whatever based on cheap south american beef that caused the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest. How about a nice salad with some beans and a hard boiled egg instead? Or just a slice of pizza. The McDonald's etc. of the world are pushing this crappy beef down everyone's throat. Totally unnecessary.

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1987 W201 190D

I think the gluttony of the few has as a lot to do with this problem.

We are seeing the results of our over consumption of many things now, not just fish.

We are being forced to accept that we have not been good stewards of this planet.

The people making gross profits from exploiting natural resuorces have hypnotized
some into believing all of this global concern is just foolishness.

Ya gotta wake up sometime.

Hopefully before we start running out of food.

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When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
Jimi Hendrix

First I would say that not having a solution that is absolutely perfect does not mean that we should have no answer at all. This is a common response to change, also illustrated in the trash thread. I don't know what the solution is, or even if there is one, bit that doesn't mean I can't recognize we have a problem. For pme thing. I don't think it is too much to ask that whatever we fish out of the oceans and lakes, we eat - as opposed to feeding farms, or mixing into cow feed or whatever the heck else we put it in.

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1984 300TD

Who is being forced to eat big macs? I ate one of those grease ball burgers the other day by choice nobody forced me to do it. What is neccasary for us to eat and keep you happy because that is what this is all about.

Nobody's forcing anyone, but the relentless marketing and ubiquitous presence of McDonald's et.al. makes for increased consumption of environmentally unsound beef IMO, just as relentless marketing makes for increased and imprudent overconsumption in general.

It's not all about keeping me happy... I wasn't the one who brought up "And lets not talk vegetarian, I'd rather put a gun to my head." The poster who brought that up rightly identified overpopulation as the root of many of our environmental problems. My point isn't about what will "keep me happy," it's about how do we manage our rapidly disappearing resources in the face of a worldwide population that is not going to shrink any time soon. I don't know why dealing with the problems of disappearing resources and environmental degradation has become a liberal vs. conservative issue. One would think that this is the one thing on which everyone could find some common ground if not total agreement.

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1987 W201 190D

I didnt say liberal but your right thats what I was thinking. Here is where that thought came from.

IMO, the western world, driven by it's corporations quest for profit, have embraced consumption all out of proportion to what is required for it's (oversized) population. Need a fast lunch? Let's get a 1000 calorie "big meal" or whatever based on cheap south american beef that caused the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest.

I have a question. At what point does a corporation become evil enough to strip the amazon rain forest.

I'm just glad they have gotten rid of the bunker boats in LIS, the bunker have come back in large numbers and the sportfishing is better than it has been in years.

Commercial fishing has to walk a fine line, and most commercial guys I know understand this. They don't want to be out of a job either. They work closely with scientists to better understand the stock and preserve it.

Actualy most fishermen I know, commercial or sportsmen are environmentalists to some degree. Either for practical business reasons or simply because they don't want to destroy what they love.

Orvis does a lot of stream reconstruction and clean up work.

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2006 CL500
1969 280SE
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Anyone with a internet connection and a few hours can become a expert on anything. I spent the last 20 years working on/in the ocean.

International long range commercial fishing vessels have and continue to apply unsustainable pressure on nearly all fish stocks worldwide to the detriment of the everyone on the planet.

Local recreational fishing areas across the board have suffered in both public opinion and catch amounts allowed due to reduced stocks primarily caused by commercial fishing.

The whole nature of commercial fishing has to be changed before collapse of the pacific stocks takes place as we have seen in many atlantic stocks.

Shark finning must be banned world wide immediately.