: Today the "Los Angeles Times" published a front-age article on the impending extinction of North Atlantic right whales. Unless drastic action is taken, the species is expected to perish (but perhaps not for a century, as each whale lives a long time).: Compounding this tragedy is the way the whales sometimes die: from being caught in abandoned drift nets. The nylon nets slowly bind them and dig into their bodies, leading to months of pain, infection, and eventual death. Calves caught in the nets die when the nets tighten around their growing bodies.
: It's almost to horrible to believe, but the disastrous consequences of drift net fishing have been well-publicized. What's truly sad is that we could end much of the killing of marine life immediately if we just stopped eating "seafood."
: ...And the chances of that happening are about as good as McDonald's switching over completely to veggie burgers. I tell you one and all, the human race (to paraphrase Lene Lovich) is a disgrace.
The oceAN IS literallyswimming woith billions of foodfish, full of protein and vitamins. These fish coiuld serve as a vital source of nutrition for billions of malnourished people who need protein and the other nutrients, without using up scarce feed stocks to feed the fish. Do you seriously think that any of these people are going to go vegan to save some right whales? If so, all I can say is that i don't share your
'optimism'- if that's the right word. We need to be eating MORE fish, in developed and developing countries alike, not less. If you can suggest ways to make fishing less dangerous to the whales, then by all means I'd like to hear them. But personally, oif the deaths of the right whales is the price we have to pay to make mankind welkl-nourished, then I'd say that's a pretty good deal.
