by Dwayne Theriault

Created on: July 21, 2008

I have been a fisherman for 25 years And I would say the ocean is now very sick .I do not like the words over fishing as I think this is a very misleading statement .The ocean is capable of providing much more fish then we harvest from it at this time . I see a ocean that has almost lost its ability to repletish itself . Its very scary now to see what we have done to our oceans .

I just returned from a trip to Norway and I found the Norweigion ocean is much more healthy then here in Canada .The reason is Norway is more wise then here in Canada to the methods used to harvest marine resources . Here in Canada there is much scraping our ocean bottom with trawlers and scallop drags and the result is a very sick ocean that has almost lost its ability to replentish itself . Norway mostly avoided fisheries such as scallop dregeing and bottom trawling the results are a much healtier ocean .

In our bibles we are told to only eat Certain fish and to avoid fish that do not have fins and scales . Men has paid very little attention to this and I suspect the number one reason for a sick ocean is the pursuit of shellfish as most fishing for shellfish is done with very distructive methods . Even fisheries such as lobstering with baited traps i suspect have done much damage through feeding pestilence such as hagfish . The Canadian ocean is now very sick with these Hagfish which i believe is the number one reason for our shortage of cod .

In my area of Canada most fisheries are now in very serious trouble , most the boats in my area now can't pay their fuel . No over fishing is not the trouble . Fishing in a unwise way has been 100% of the trouble . We have distroyed the oceans ecosystem . Our ocean use to be able to produce so much fish we could hardly catch it and even with great amounts of food being taken there was no decline in the fish populations . Only with the introduction of things such as scraping the bottom for scallops has the ocean given up its ability to feed us .

The goverment is pressured not to tell the truth as most the companies that harvest things such as scallops became very wealthy and politiceans are finaced with money from these large rich companies so the truth is hid and we start hearing words like over fishing .I honestly think the ocean could of fead us all and produced 10-20 times the food it now produces if we would of fished in more wise ways . Longline and gillnet maybe would of not hurt the ocean . Scraping the bottom has just about distroyed the areas I fish . Over fishing s a lie ! Improper fishing is the truth !

I think if future famine is to be avoided its time to start telling the truth !

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