Saving the sea kittens
Written by: | 6 Mar 2009
“When your name can also be used as a verb that means ‘driving a hook through your head’ [fish-ing], it’s time for a serious image makeover. And who could possibly want to put a hook through a sea kitten?” says People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in its mission statement on peta.org concerning the future safety of fish the world over.
With 6,990 signatures as of Feb. 23, 2009, on an online petition aimed at halting the US Fish and Wildlife service from promoting the continued fishing, or “sea kitten hunting” as it were, that has apparently plagued this country for decades, it sure seems that the organization is spreading the word rather effectively.
Equipped with links to further information, a petition and a build your own sea kitten page, PETA has also given the general public a little online story book, complete with graphic illustrations of all sorts of unique and twisted forms of execution and inhumane torture of fish, in an effort to try to prove a point.
The only point that I have taken from it all is that fish are good… good for you… so good in fact that I think I’m going to eat twice as much as I ever have before from now on.
You can do that?
It just strikes me as funny. The audacity of a group of people to take a matter so far as to change the name of a thing is astounding. And all in the righteous pursuit of preservation.
Well with some six billion people on the planet and countless numbers of creatures, preservation doesn’t top my priority chart.
Now, I am not saying that conservation isn’t cool, or that actively pursuing support and help for a needy cause isn’t necessary or just. I simply think that portraying the death of an animal and featuring far-fetched and reprehensible consequences in such a dramatized fashion is a little much. Especially when I can turn right around and, using their own program, dress up my own digital pet sea kitten as anything from a Chinese kung fu master to a Hell’s Angel…
It’s fun. You should try it sometime.
But perhaps they do have an interesting point lying hidden underneath it all.
“The audacity of a group of people to take a matter so far as to change the name of a thing is astounding.”
The fishing industry
It’s no big secret that the world’s fishing industry isn’t doing so well. Most fishing boats aren’t allowed out for work during most of the year, leaving only a few months out to sea at best.
So with the aid of government established individual fishing quotas (ITQs), we now just have a lot of out-of-work fishermen.
While the ITQs do help to conserve fish populations, they also cause other problems with human lifestyles.
Because ITQs are really like property rights and are non-relinquishable, it’s kind of like the ITQ holder owns those fish. ITQs can be bought and sold or passed down through generations. This makes it pretty hard for non-holders to either get to work at all, or to break into the business for the first time.
Catch shares
Some people argue that catch shares are the better way to go. The difference is that catch shares are kind of like renting space, while ITQ’s are like owning a place. Either way they are both designed to assist in the continued health and preservation of the aquatic species. Which is kind of the whole idea behind organizations such as, ummm, the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
According to its website fws.gov, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has over 70 national fish hatcheries around the country for restocking and repopulation purposes.
Paired with their endangered species program, the US Fish and Wildlife Service seems to put a lot of effort into what they do. A far as promoting “Sea Kitten Hunting,” well yeah I guess they do, but there are limits to that and if one creature is allowed to over populate others are going to be overrun; that’s nature.
Besides, protein is good for you.
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