Changing the world can be like watching a plant grow, one knows it is growing but the progress is imperceptible to the naked eye. With an issue like finding a path to banning industrial fishing in international waters and convincing a busy consumer public to make the effort to only buy sustainable seafood, the Global High Seas Marine Preserve knows pushing the rock uphill will take time and be back breaking.
Danny Quintana, founder of GHSMP, a non-profit dedicated to saving the oceans and marine life, and author of Space & Ocean Exploration; The Alternative to the Military-Industrial Complex, is amazed at how few people truly appreciate what industrial fishing is doing to the fish stocks and ocean ecosystems, that they have the power of the purse to demand change thru their buying habits. In mid-October the GHSMP will hold a town-hall meeting at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City as part a plan make that city the first in the country to mandate all outlets deal in seafood from sustainable sources only.
The article below establishes the case for action and prescribes common sense initiatives for change:
About the Oceans: standing on the shore we cannot see what is going on under the waves. Because we cannot see the destruction of the sea life, it is ignored by the mass media. We cannot ignore what is happening. I have always loved the ocean. One day I hope to retire next to the sea.
We are going to win this conservation battle. We are not going to kill off all of the wildlife and we can clean up the plastic. It just takes public education globally. We have to teach people to co-exist with the natural world.
- We need a global ban on industrial fishing in international waters for at least ten years so the fisheries will have time to recover. The destruction of the fisheries needs to be a media issue. When you do a search of Google News, there are no stories today about 200,000 sharks being slaughtered for their fins and millions of pounds of by-catch, (the unintended fish that are caught and then killed).
- We need to change the laws. Locally cities can pass ordinances that require restaurants and grocery stores to only sell sustainable sea food. Nationally, the United States can pass a federal law that only sustainable sea food can be sold in our markets. Internationally, we can amend the Law of the Seas Treaty and create a Global High Seas Marine Preserve that is off limits to industrial commercial fishing, long lining, drift nets, shark fining and have all nations join in cleaning up the plastic.
- We need as part of this effort to have global laws that make recycling mandatory. Then plastic will not get out into the oceans. The developed world needs to stop subsidizing the fishing industry. Endangered fish does not have to be a food choice in the developed world. We have plenty of food choices. We don't need to eat sword fish, Sea Bass, blue fin tuna, whale meat in Japan, or shrimp caught using drag net methods that permanently damage the sea floor.
Only with law can we make the long term changes required to alter behavior. Rules matter. Slavery is illegal virtually everywhere. Women can vote in civilized parts of the world. Salt Lake can set the example by passing an ordinance that only sustainable sea food can be sold in our beautiful city. Other cities can follow this lead.
Unlike global climate change, which I seriously doubt we can do anything about, saving the wild life in the oceans is doable. All we have to do is stop the killing. These industrial trawlers are not "fishing." These killing machines are new to history. All they are doing is emptying out the oceans of wildlife so a tiny handful of rich owners can make more money. Screw that! Stop buying the endangered fish and these greedy little monsters will go on to their next adventure, like selling poison to children or selling arms to criminals.
We have a responsibility to not buy products made with illegal labor and animals that are endangered. Poachers will stop killing endangered rhinos and elephants if consumers don't buy their illegal products. If you don't buy endangered fish the killing will stop.
Its unfortunate that we have to pass laws where common sense should prevail. But at times the rules just have to change to make life better for everyone. Here are some rule changes that will surprise you. Native Americans did not become US citizens until 1924. Prior to that time, less than 100 years ago, if you killed an indigenous person it was not murder. Women did not get the right to vote until 1919. Today, numerous countries have women presidents, governors, senators, even mayors. Prior to the 1950s people who loved each other but had different skin colors could not be legally married in many parts of the country. Today we see happy white and black and brown and red and yellow couples and it is "normal." Less than 200 years ago people were property, slavery was still legal in many parts of the world.
My mentor, Dr. Francis D. Wormuth once observed, "the law approximates a body of rules that are approximately enforced." In an imperfect world, we have to have a rules change. The long term solution with humans and the natural world is for international waters to be made into a giant marine preserve. That is the central idea behind the Global High Seas Marine Preserve. It is my idea that only by taking off 70 percent of the oceans to industrial fishing will we save the wild life for future generations.
For more info go to www.GHSMP.org or www.EBGOinc.com.
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