Illegal Fishing
Poaching/Education
Illegal Fishing
Poaching
Illegal fishing or “poaching” such as catching and keeping designated fishes at specific times, locations or that have been shown to be harmful to the future fish populations have regulations against harvest. Poaching is conducted against animal populations or individuals and is a crime, and the laws should not be soft on illegal fishing. Officials of the courts must take breaking fishing regulations as crimes against limited numbers of fishes seriously and punish offenders comparable to crimes against land animals. Fish laws and regulations should be based on the best scientific information, where possible, and are put in place to increase the stainability of catches and marine animal diversity into the future without overfishing and or major disruptions of the ecosystems
Often fishers try to justify illegal poaching by claiming that they have overdue boat payments, house loans or families to feed to gain sympathy from the general public or the judicial system. Yet, any commercial investment by a fishing vessel owner and/ or Captain may need to consider reinvesting in a more profitable enterprise rather than a potentially overcapitalized fishing business venture.
Enforcement of no-fishing locations, closed seasons and/or limits to catches, which can be spread over large areas of the oceans and coastal waters, is often too small an underfunded effort to effectively apprehend those few that consistently break the fishing laws. Therefore, it is suggested that any poaching, especially in MPAs, should be reported to the Coast Guard as soon as possible. Enforcement offshore may improve with adoption of Vessel Monitoring systems to see if poachers' (= illegal, unreported, unregulated) fishing boats were fishing in the MPAs or use of on-site buoy systems that can identify fishers within the MPA boundaries. Although law enforcement agencies may apprehend fishers harvesting illegally, the resulting fines may be so light that they do not act as a deterrent for further poaching by the same fisher. Punitive actions must be strong enough to reduce any desire to breeze through them again and more strongly encourage legal fishing practices. Healthy and sustainable fish populations of the future will have to be fished/harvested within the regulations put in place to reflect the results of fisheries research. Our legal system has often under-valued wild fish and animal populations as an over abundant resource that does not need strict regulation or deterrent level fines. This attitude may not gain respect of those contemplating or presently breaking fishery laws to protect the public fish resources.
Learning How To Steward
Education
Communication of valuable information among people (education) is especially important for the improvement of human societies, especially for future generations. The importance of teaching and learning to future use of our ocean cannot be overstated. It is universally agreed that if future generations are to appreciate the ocean’s communities as well as shepherd the fish populations, those positive behaviors need to be taught and encouraged. Care of the marine environment will continue to be vital to how our earth’s atmosphere responds to industrial emissions in the large scale and to enjoyment of a beach experience without trash deposits on a small scale (as examples). Also, humans of the future would benefit from optimizing the harvest (not too many) of marine animal populations. These complex issues to be addressed and thought about must be brought to the attention of people through teaching. It may be human nature to think that natural animal populations are unlimited in their ability to replace themselves at all levels of removal/harvest for human benefit. But, as has repeatedly been proven, most people need to be taught to think about ocean and fisheries issues and therefore plan for the future by present positive actions.
In most people, the appreciation of nature, the out of doors and/ or Marine life is learned through positive experiences and, possibly, interactions with mentors. The need for public interest, involvement and influence at local and national levels is critical to slowly improving and sharing the earth’s environments with our co-inhabitants, such as the groupers and other reef fishes. Very few people with their busy lives consider preserving populations and habitats of all the animals that are on earth now and were here before us that contribute to the earth’s great diversity of life. Of course, elephants and other large land animals are important to save, but what about all the Marine animals (large and small) that we never see except on our plates, maybe? Please think about supporting the ocean’s communities through increased interest in Aquariums, educational programs etc.
