The plight of the oceans, and the animals that live within them, is nothing short of tragic. The New Republic’s lead story last month was titled Aquacalypse Now: The End of Fish and it says "Our oceans have been the victim of a giant Ponzi scheme, waged with Bernie Madoff–like callousness by the world’s fisheries." It's hard to fault this anology when you consider that it only took 50 years to decrease the global supply of of big fish, such as bluefin tuna and cod, by 90%. In our harvesting of the ocean, we've left almost nothing behind.
The Agenda tackled this topic in April, 2009, looking at pollution, climate change and overfishing: the tragedy of the commons and the slow-motion death of our oceans.
Take a look:
The matter of fisheries and absence of responsible management under the "commons" principle would make an excellent show. Including Canada's role in depleting the Grand Banks cod stock. It was not foreign overfishing but willful Canadian blindness to reality. The foreign fleet only took something like ( under ) 20%, the rest was our doing, under Dept. of Fisheries minister Crosbie. He admits the federal government, being aware of the coming crisis, did nothing because it lacked any policy or will on the matter. Then when the s...t hit the fan we bought up fishing licenses and trawlers at great $$$ to keep votes. The usual. The West Coast fishery is going down the same path as we post. We could not manage an aquarium of guppies !!
posted by DieterH on 06 November 2009 at 5:11 PM
My first thought on seeing the title of this thread was "Professort Fish"....
posted by BorisTheYounger on 12 November 2009 at 6:10 PM
*You must have a FREE TVO account in order to comment on posts
Don't have an account?
*You must have a FREE TVO account in order to comment on posts
What's making news today? The Agenda with Steve Paikin presents previously aired debates and interviews that explore the underlying issues behind today's headlines.
Erica Balch (is a producer on The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Erica on Twitter.)
Judy Brake (is a senior producer for The Agenda with Steve Paikin.)
Mark Brosens (is an associate producer on The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Mark on Twitter.)
Stacey Dunseath (is a producer for The Agenda with Steve Paikin. )
Alan Echenberg (is The Agenda with Steve Paikin's Ottawa bureau chief. Follow Alan on Twitter.)
Sandra Gionas (is a producer for The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Sandra on Twitter.)
Daniel Kitts (is a producer for The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Daniel on Twitter.)
Melissa Martin (is a producer for The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Melissa on Twitter.)
Meredith Martin (is a producer for The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Meredith on Twitter.)
Mike Miner (is a producer on The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Mike on Twitter.)
Steve Paikin (is the anchor and senior editor of The Agenda. Follow Steve on Twitter.)
Stavros Rougas (is an associate producer on The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Stavros on Twitter.)
Yasmina Sekkat (is an associate producer for The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Yasmina on Twitter.)
Wodek Szemberg (is a senior producer on The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Wodek on Twitter.)
Navin Vaswani (is an associate producer for The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Follow Navin on Twitter.)
The Agenda with Steve Paikin Allan Gregg in Conversation Big Ideas
Think Again
Common property.
Those things that are deemed the common property of the world's people have typically been over exploited. It's referred to as "The Tragedy of the Commons". If my financial well-being is determined by the number of fish I bring to dock, then I'll bring in as many as I can and others, seeing my success, will do the same. Many of the ocean's resources are outside anyone's jurisdiction. In addition, many countries are not equipped to enforce quotas or any international law governing the fishery.
It really is a looming tragedy. I think it's a good topic for the Agenda.
posted by 2h on 06 November 2009 at 4:49 PM