Answer for invasive species: Put it on a plate and eat it
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
9 July 2011 With its dark red and black stripes, spotted fins and long venomous black spikes, the lionfish seems better suited for horror films than consumption. But lionfish fritters and filets may be on American tables soon. An invasive species, the lionfish is devastating reef fish populations along the Florida coast and into the Caribbean. Now, an increasing number of environmentalists, consumer groups and scientists are seriously testing a novel solution to control it and other aquatic invasive species — one that would also takes pressure off depleted ocean fish stocks: they want Americans to step up to their plates and start eating invasive critters in large numbers. “Humans are the most ubiquitous predators on earth,” said Philip Kramer, director of the Caribbean program for the Nature Conservancy. “Instead of eating something like shark fin soup, why not eat a species that is causing harm, and with your meal make a positive contribution?” Invasive species have become a vexing problem in the United States, with population explosions of Asian carp clogging the Mississippi River and European green crabs mobbing the coasts. With few natural predators in North America, such fast-breeding species have thrived in American waters, eating native creatures and out-competing them for food and habitats. While most invasive species are not commonly regarded as edible food, that is mostly a matter of marketing, experts say. Imagine menus where Asian carp substitutes for the threatened Chilean sea bass, or lionfish replaces grouper, which is overfished. “We think there could be a real market,” said Wenonah Hauter, the executive director of Food and Water Watch, whose 2011 Smart Seafood Guide recommends for the first time that diners seek out invasive species as a “safer, more sustainable” alternative to their more dwindling relatives, to encourage fisherman and markets to provide them. “What these species need now is a better — sexier — profile, and more cooks who know how to use them,” she said. She has enlisted celebrity chefs to promote eating the creatures. Scientists emphasize that human consumption is only part of what is needed to control invasive species and restore native fish populations, and that a comprehensive plan must include restoring fish predators to depleted habitats and erecting physical barriers to prevent further dissemination of the invaders. “We are not going to be able to just eat our way out of the invasive species problem,” Dr. Kramer said. “On the other hand, there are places where this can be a very useful part of the strategy.” […]
Leave it to the capitalists to find a way to profit from this (overfishing), by claiming we will "reduce consumption of depleted fisheries" by eating even more.
Think this through.
Depleted fish stocks are primarily human-caused (by overfishing and pollution). We've caused a gigantic swing in fish populations, causing predatory species to move into new ecological niches that are now either abandoned or severely depleted.
This then causes a population explosion of these predatory species, with the root human cause still remaining.
So if humans begin preying upon the predatory fish species, this then puts humans (land based animals) in the position of regulating predatory species populations ALSO.
Fast forward a few years… humans must now "manage" all forms of ocean life (somehow) in order to try and keep an ecological balance in the oceans, all the while we continue to eat our way down to the very bottom of the food chain since we have still done nothing about consumption.
Their "answer" is "eat more". Consume more, dine more and this will somehow "fix" the imbalance that we caused. If anybody things we are going to just give up game fish to eat predatory species, they're dead wrong. We'll simply consume them both (witness the collapse of game fisheries all over the world).
How utterly stupid this proposal is.
This is ABSURD. And it is not even possible for very long. But the capitalists don't care about self-regulating oceans or ecological balances, all they care about is how they can make a profit from this insanity.
The oceans are self-regulating, just like the forests. If left alone, they will quite nicely manage themselves and their wildlife populations at sustainable levels. But what is sustainable with the scenario these clowns are proposing?
Once again, we see the failure to answer root causes and root reason for situations that we cannot bring ourselves admit to.
The only true answer is to stop acting like God and to start allowing nature to replenish itself without human intervention, which is the only way a true balance can actually be achieved.
We need to do exactly the opposite of what they are proposing: eat less, consume less, fish far, far less and let the oceans recover from our predations. The rest will take care of itself far, far better then anything we could "manage".
The same of course could be said to the rest of the biosphere. But there is of course, no profit in that either, so we already know what will be done. This proposal and many others like that will be adopted, dooming the oceans to death.