Fisherman needs to evolve

He said “Because they’re bloated and worn out, they can’t get away from the boats fast enough. I grab their front flippers, cover them in a wet towel and take them to a wildlife rescue station.”

He said dugongs were also being “hammered” and that “it’s up to the recreational fisherman to pull their finger out and do their bit”.

I’ve never been for or against fishing. I’ve never thought much about it. But after watching Japanese whale hunts, listening to Australian authors plead for fishing sanity, and doing a little work for a marine conservation group, I’m totally turned off food from the sea, and fishing, for life.

It is fairly certain that overfishing, global warming and boating are changing the fate of marine species. Human liability is clear. But perhaps some humans assume that, like us, fish, dugong, sea turtles, whales and other magnificent marine species are somehow resilient.

And as for the alleged health benefits, I’m healthy and I don’t eat seafood.

I thank the land for its abundant food. There is no need to empty the oceans.

Hundreds of years ago it may have been appropriate to hunt and kill fish, but the steady attachment to the slaughter is wrong, especially after the litany of curious sea shifts we experience but lightly disregard.

Cease overfishing. That was the Howard government’s message last year to Australian commercial fisheries in its 2007 Fisheries Status Report. According to the report the number of overfished species has multiplied by four since the 1990s.

The report found that in 2006 a ministerial direction was issued to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority to reduce overfishing, but the implementation of that direction “presents a significant challenge, particularly for some trawl fisheries”.

Are the political and commercial fishing waters too charged to say the words, cease all fishing?

Watershed decision-making vis-à-vis fishing and whaling is now imperative, as the ancient rhythms of the deep shatter and slow.

It’s time for fishing man to evolve.