An international group of ecologists and economists warned yesterday that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if steep declines in marine species continue at current rates, based on a four-year study of catch data and the effects of fisheries collapses....
-- World's Fish Supply Running Out, Researchers Warn (front page, Washington Post, November 3, 2006)
As a special treat I've ordered Pho Seafood tonight
awaiting my bowl I glance at the newspaper headlines
if marine biologists really have got things right
the bowl of the ocean is facing a treacherous deadline
the sea after all is source of an ancient breadline
the fisherman stands at its window beaming and bright
every day for a million years on these loaves he's fed fine
as a special treat I've ordered Pho Seafood tonight
4 comments:
( : I'll lend a hand to extinction.I'm ordering my
fish-tacos right now! :)
In Saturday's New York Times, op-ed columnist James Tierney has (with sophisticated and interesting detail) rebutted the conclusions drawn in the Science article, beginning by asserting: "Contrary to what you may have heard, humanity will not run out of seafood in your lifetime or anyone else’s. But as false alarms go, this is a useful one." ("Where the Tuna Roam") At any rate, my poem is (as they say) a work of imagination.
There is not an endless supply of fish in the sea.With the population of earth always growing and the over-fishing and indescriminate fishing I do think that we will deplete sea life enough to where they may survive but not be plentiful enough to feed us.
Reyes,
I have sent you just now (by email) the full text of Tierney's little essay mentioned above, as its argument -- while perhaps speculative -- is worth noting.
[access to op-ed pieces on the NYTimes website is no longer free;
neither are fish in the sea ;-)]
cheers,
d.i.
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