George Monbiot: Trawlermen cling on as oceans empty - and the ecosystem is gasping | Comment is free | The Guardian

George Monbiot: Trawlermen cling on as oceans empty - and the ecosystem is gasping | Comment is free | The Guardian: "ust as the oil price now seems to be all that stands between us and runaway climate change, it is also the only factor which offers a glimmer of hope to the world's marine ecosystems. No east Asian government was prepared to conserve the stocks of tuna; now one-third of the tuna boats in Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea will stay in dock for the next few months because they can't afford to sail. The unsustainable quotas set on the US Pacific seaboard won't be met this year, because the price of oil is rising faster than the price of fish. The indefinite strike called by Spanish fishermen is the best news European fisheries have had for years. Beam trawlermen - who trash the seafloor and scoop up a massive bycatch of unwanted species - warn that their industry could collapse within a year. Hurray to that too."

This is indeed excellent news. I come from an old fishing family and my father told me how the British fish stocks in the North Sea and English channel were on the verge of collapse in 1939. When WWII broke out, these sea areas were heavily mined and un-fish-able for nearly 8 years. This gave the stock time to recover and my mother tells me the size of fish caught in the late 1940s to the 1960s was amazing -- one filet of Plaice was like an entire fish now.

The best thing for the ecosystem would be a total ban on fishing. As that will never happen -- its not politically expedient -- the high price of oil is the next best thing.