I am really excited to announce that I will be using the most powerful tool that will be available to us for the first time. The technology behind fisheries technology and the tools that we use to process and study them (e.g., drones, smart traps, and the like) are amazing and transformative. They are making it possible for us to live in a sustainable, non-lethal, and more effective way.
There are many things we could do with this tech. We could improve the efficacy of fishing techniques by reducing the number of big, heavy fishing vessels and instead deploy smaller, lighter, and more cost-effective vessels. We could use smart traps to control the size of our fishing community by creating a self-regulating system. We could use the technology to make fishing safer by allowing people to safely catch small fish in less time and by reducing the number of harmful pollutants in our oceans.
But the technology is actually already here. Fishing gear is a complex, difficult to use, and very expensive tool that is far more effective in catching smaller, more elusive fish than traditional methods. And that is precisely why we need to get rid of it.
The technology exists to make the fishing industry safer, but it also has the potential to eliminate thousands of jobs by decreasing the number of fish caught each year. And, as we’ve seen from recent cases such as the ongoing tuna fishing moratorium in Japan, the fishing industry is so competitive that it’s willing to do anything to get a bite, from cutting back on fishing effort to shutting down fishing ports.
Like anything, fish should not be treated as commodities, but in fact should be viewed as a product of the industry. Fish shouldn’t be treated as something to be traded, but should be used to create a sustainable fishing industry that allows for the same fishing methods to be used for the same species in the future. This would reduce the number of fish caught and thus the number of fish that die and rot in coastal waters.
Fish are an incredible resource for fishermen, and a great way to conserve fish stocks. For this reason, the United Nations estimates that global fishing stocks are now at a 20 year low as a result of global conservation efforts. But that doesn’t mean fishing should stop entirely.
Fisheries are incredibly inefficient. A single fisherman catches only a fraction of a pound of fish. Every time a fisherman catches a fish, another fisherman has to find another fish to replace it. The same goes for fish that have been caught and are now rotting in the water. To conserve the world’s fish stocks, we need to turn fishermen and fishing into a resource that’s equally shared by everyone.
I see a number of problems with this idea. First off, why would anyone want to turn a resource into a resource that is shared equally? The world is already filled with fishing vessels, and these vessels are all privately owned. All we need to do is take back a portion of the fishing vessels and turn fishing into a resource that can not only be shared by everyone, but is also free.
If you are going to give people fishing rights, why not let them fish in public? You can always fish in the ocean where you fish, or on a private lake where you fish.