> the continuing reminder of how powerless we are as a civilization when it comes to the oceans.
That is symptomatic of our child like relationship with the environment. We are deeply dependant but have little understanding or agency.
It is obvious that high fish stocks will allow more catches than near extinction levels. Catching 1% of 1 billion is better than 40% of 1 million. Yet we continue to treat fish as a short term commodity to be exploited.
We may lack mastery of the planet, but that is no excuse for burying our head in the sand. We have a huge impact and we cannot just opt-out of that.
We can and we do to some extent. The problem is that on the high seas it is the country of registration that you need permission from to board. It wouldn't cost much to offer the poor countries that register the worst offenders to either stop registrations or be more permissive with boarding rights.
It doesn't even have to be governments, Sea Shepherd do some good work and show what can be achieved.
The other problem is poor countries not able to secure their own territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zones. For instance in West Africa many navies and coastguards have ships with endurance measured in days. If you're up to no good you just wait for them to come alongside. RUSI are currently floating the idea of giving them proper offshore patrol vessels paid for from the aid budget to enable them to actually patrol and secure their waters.
That is symptomatic of our child like relationship with the environment. We are deeply dependant but have little understanding or agency.
It is obvious that high fish stocks will allow more catches than near extinction levels. Catching 1% of 1 billion is better than 40% of 1 million. Yet we continue to treat fish as a short term commodity to be exploited.
We may lack mastery of the planet, but that is no excuse for burying our head in the sand. We have a huge impact and we cannot just opt-out of that.