To: Seafood HACCP Mailing List
Fr: Pamela Tom, List Owner
Yesterday Barry Cohan sent an attached file. Many folks were unable to
read the attachment.
This is a gentle reminder to all subscribers...please do not send file
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From: BARRY COHAN (COHAN@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Feb 14 2002 - 09:22:01 PST
Oh, for the life of an environmental organization spokesperson. Their
every utterance is accepted by the crowd with child-like credulity. They
stand in front of audiences and make claims without any doubts clouding
anyones' mind.. A solo "ecologist", as long as the message is one of doom,
can claim just about anything he damn well pleases without encountering
contention.
It would never occur to anyone that he might be misinformed, let alone
that he might be intentionally disinformative. That an ulterior motive,
such as organizational aggrandizement, might be the cynical basis for
constructing the mosaic of exaggeration, distortion, and sheer nonsense
that constitutes the "take a pass" campaign will be inconceivable to our
audience. Sadly, furnished with information to the contrary, i.e., the
truth, most of them will find it difficult, if not impossible to admit to
themselves or others that they have been. suckered.
Here's how this comes down.
It started with the north Atlantic swordfish. Nearly 3 years before the
swordfish boycott, an international treaty organization called ICCAT
established a quota system, cutting the harvest of Atlantic sword by 50%,
an amount they determined would be sufficient to reverse the collapse of
the stock - and the fishery. Results were already readable when SEAWEB and
the NRDC chimed in with their mean-spirited and entirely superfluous
boycott. Why "mean-spirited"? Because the American longline fleet, having
borne the cutback without whining, suddenly found themselves being
vilified, and their catch, already deeply diminished in quantity now
reduced in value as well - the only result of the boycott. In the
vernacular, kickin' 'em when they're down. Two years further on, with the
turnaround obviously succeeding, to the stupefaction of all of us
following the National Marine Fisheries' (NMFS) reports, we find SEAWEB et
al taking credit for the matter. Let there be no confusion: they had
absolutely nothing to do with the result obtained by NMFS and ICCAT.
They had, however, obtained a nearly fool proof template. Find a
charismatic fishery with problems. Wait for the solution to the problems
to be set in motion by the NMFS and the appropriate treaty organization,
give it a couple of years for the fix to be well on its way and then make
their grand entrance; trash the livelihood of the legal fishermen
involved, collect mucho dinero from the deeply concerned and spellbound
marks in the audience, setting the stage to take credit for the manifestly
improved situation 2 or 3 years later.
During this period, CCAMLR will be busy chasing down pirates, tightening
up catch documentation schemes, continuing efforts to decrease the
collateral damage to bird populations and so on. NET (National
Environmental Trust) activities in the meantime will be concentrated on
more effectively co-opting these results as well as more effectively
strangling the artisanal fisheries of Chile and Peru. (Okay, okay, along
with the Chilean longline fleet).
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