Can anyone explain to me about fish ?

[venta]

I'm a little confused by the current business about the fishing quotas.

According to the news bulletins I've heard today:

(a) fish populations are falling like mad, thus there must be limits on the number of fish caught to prevent extinction
(b) fisherman are up in arms about the quota cuts, saying it will destroy their livelihood

Now, I can see their point in (b). However, (a) suggests to me that if the fishing isn't limited now, their livelihood is going to be pretty stuffed anyway.

But:

None of the interviewers I heard today asked any kind of questions about this of the fisherman they were interviewing.

Now, I'm assuming that the people who work trawlers can draw this kind of logical conclusion for themselves, and, if it were this simple, would be able to see past the cuts this year. Am I missing something ?

Comments

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

I think the fishermen are taking an extremely short-termist viewpoint on such matters. Many of them are quite old and don't care about the future of fishing in the UK beyond the rest of their working life. Reports on local news suggested there was considerable inflexibility of skills (and attitudes theretowards) among the fisherman community, even though the fishermen have tended to be making an extremely low hourly rate for dangerous work.

That's the free market for you. Could well be that Britain has no fishing industry in the future and just imports the vast majority of its fish. I'd cry no tears over this.