Anonymous OP 21w

I’m more and more convinced that republicans just cannot plan for the future and that defines the entirety of their natural resource policy. Plunder it all now, don’t care about what happens in 20 years. I’m hoping this gets struck down in court. There’s a lot of very good arguments as to why it’s illegal and Trump can’t just do that with an executive order.

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Anonymous #1 21w

I’m a fisheries biologist. We are not competing with China for fish. This isn’t fucking microchips or ai there isn’t a fish arms race. These are protected areas within U.S. waters. Only we can fish there. The reason US fisheries are doing so well meanwhile China is fishing in international waters is because we take care not to overfish everything. Or at least we used to.

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Anonymous OP 21w

And this is literally the opposite of what you would want to do if you wanted to increase US fisheries yields long-term. Creating marine sanctuaries allows for increased fish populations. It is documented that commercial yields increase in adjacent areas following fishing bans within protected waters. If you fish them all right now then you’re just out of fish.

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Anonymous OP 21w

You do realize the American Samoans wanted this right? Because for many it’s how they make an income.

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Anonymous #4 21w

The majority of American Samoan territorial waters is open to commercial fishing, and even protected waters permit limited subsistence and recreational fishing. The presence of the marine protected areas consistently increases commercial yields in adjacent waters.

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Anonymous OP 21w

Regardless of whether they want this, this will harm not only the environment but long-term fisheries yields. Local people can be wrong. All over the country, fishermen and other resource extraction professions perceive the protections that keep their industries intact as limiting their success, when the reality is that those limitations are what allow them to keep existing. You need enough fish to survive to produce the next generation.

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