Sustainable Fishing in the Developing World!

Sustainable - pole-and-line Skipjack fishery in the Maldives.

Watch this.

Yeah I know I know.

Among some quarters, the MSC is highly controversial. 

Be it as it may, as far as I know it's still the best there is - and those who continue criticizing it should maybe either a) become a part of the process and help reform/improve whatever upsets them, or else b) set up their own perfect seafood certification agency.

I say, well done.

This is precisely the kind of independent proof  I'm advocating here - and the examples appear to show that on top of leading to better management measures, the certification may even result in higher revenues via the establishment of premium markets for the products.

Talking of which!

Spiny Dogfish Fisheries - in Limbo!

Source - click for detail!

Interesting.

Who would have thought.

After all the fighting and the controversies about the MSC certification, those certified Spiny Dogfish fisheries simply aren't working - but not because they are not sustainable like some would have suspected: because in BC no ones is catching and processing them as they are apparently not even suitable for the Chinese restaurants; and because on the US West Coast, they have caught too many, swamped the market and thus ended up destroying the financial viability of those fisheries.

Long story short: when put to the practical test, it sure looks like both the Shark activists and the fishermen were dead wrong!

Story with all the relevant links here.

Next, we'll hear the usual complaint about them being pests, and the usual calls for culling and the like - damned if you do damned if you don't!

Mesopredator release anybody?