Originally Posted By: bobrr
Originally Posted By: Carcassman
Overpopulation, in the ecological sense which is my world of work, results in starvation as there are too many of them and too little food. Your "overpopulation" is a social construct as in "they are eating my fish". i don't disagree that the pinniped populations have to be at least temporarily reduced to aid in recovery of salmon but salmon recovery (at least as practiced in the eastern Pacific) is focused on controlling/fixing everything other than fisheries.

And yes, sometimes one strays in a position to maintain income, health insurance and such. But, as many on here know, there are folks on the inside working hard for change through a variety of channels. More would be accomplished by dealing with the Generals that pissing and moaning about the Privates.

So you tell me in one post that sea lions and seals are not "over

populated" and then in another you say that you "don't disagree

that the pinniped population have to be at least temporarily reduced

to aid in salmon recovery" . As with a lot of fisheries employees I have

talked to or heard from it sounds like you are talking out of more

then one side of your mouth. And I have given flack to more then one

"general" and it does about as much good as talking to "the privates".


Bob,

Surely you're not so dense that you cannot see that there are many shades of gray between black and white. Trying to explain that there are different perspectives does not equal "talking out more than one side of your mouth." From a fisherman's narrow perspective, any predator that eats fish that might otherwise be caught by fishermen is a predator that needs to be controlled. From the perspective of an ecologist, predators that eat fish are parts of a natural ecosystem, and fishermen are just another group of predators. In the natural order of things, one predator is no better nor worse than another. There are likely other perspectives as well, and there is no one "right" perspective or point of view, even if we, as fishermen, are partial to the view that provides the most fish for us to catch.