[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this Midwest outdoors and rural issues list, please FRmail me.

Robert, you live in Wisconsin. There are plenty of fish. Splurge, go out this Friday night.

[blueminnesota]

Time to switch to dolphin.

[VOA]

Well, the Japanese are doing their part to save the fish...
by making fewer Japanese.

[Bubba]

Farm raised works for me.

[Paloma_55]

See... we are ready for a pandemic or thermonuclear war. When it is over, there will be more fish than we need.

[patton]

siolent geen...is PEOPLE!

[Left2Right]

"We are now faced with incontrovertible evidence that the lions and tigers of the sea the ones we feed our children for lunch are disappearing fast."

Lions & tigers & bears! Why are some people feeding their children to these sea creatures? Is this some kind of cult?

[nothingnew]

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization considers about 75 percent of all fish fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted.

I guess eating fish is "exploiting" them....Oh...wait, this is The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

'Nuff said........

FMCDH(BITS)

[RightWhale]

The way out of this crisis is to catch less and pay more

World population continues to rise. GM crops have met much of the increased demand for food, but the tuna crisis will not go away; fishing will continue and pick up the pace. Farm fish may be the only solution, and GM fish at that.

[bushbotbasher]

Because it makes sense to me:

World Population, 1950: 2,556,517,137

World Population, 2005: 6,451,058,790

(US Census Bureau)

2.5x the population. Has the population of Tuna, Swordfish, etc increased at the same rate?

Can't we assume that populations of fish (and other food sources) are being depleted just because of the sheer size of humanity?

I think another posted somewhat sarcastically, that we're due for a pandemic or a nuclear war. He's got a point. In terms of evolution, species that grow faster than their food supply are often decimated by disease, cannibalism, and out and out starvation, to bring things back into harmony.

Why should we expect man, an animal in its own right, to be any different?

[Gabz]

The U.S. has taken the right step by restricting longline fishing for tuna in the Eastern Pacific and banning it on the West Coast. Now it's time to put the pressure on other countries to do the same.

Now it's time to force major chain restaurants like Red Lobster (actually RL in particular) to start buying locally and not from the non-US longliners.

Otherwise we may start having to add these fish to the endangered species list.

Small business commercial fishermen (AKA watermen) are already on the endangered species list, especially in the mid-atlantic region.

I wonder how many of the anti-WalMart FReepeers are frequenters of such places as Red Lobster, LoneStar and other such chain venues - who all get their seafood from the rapers of the water, as opposed to getting it locally from people that respect what they are doing?

[KarinG1]

It's that dern Mike Leavitt's fault. After he pointed out that keeping tuna under my bed would protect against bird flu I rushed out and bought two cases of it. There's probably a shortage of powdered milk by now as well, which I'm sure is putting a strain on powdered cows.

[TigersEye]

Then why is tuna cheaper than ever?

For some of these nations, these meager licensing fees contribute as much as 70 percent of their GDP. When greed and waste finally lead to the collapse of these fish, millions of people throughout the Pacific will sink even further into poverty.

Which is whose fault? Would they have been better off if no one had paid licensing fees to them and their GDP had been 30% of what it is now all along?