In the 1950s, Alaskans sought statehood partially to stop Seattle fishery interests from murdering all the salmon runs. They were setting up massive fish traps at the mouths of streams and taking all of the runs. Greed-driven, short-term focus on taking it all now for cash/money is inherently evil. Now Seattle-based trawlers are strip-mining the Bering Sea with trawl nets and every modern fish sensor conceivable, then dumping their killed “bycatch” overboard.
Almost 50 years ago, while attending college back East, there was a Fish ‘n Chips restaurant open Fridays. Overheard were discussions of the devastation wrought by bottom trawlers in the Atlantic; few knew because the damage could not be seen.
Just what do these “business” folk plan to sell after they eradicate the fishery? What do international fishermen plan to harvest after they take all the decades-old large fish? They can only drink shark fin soup until there is none, whatever the price.
It’s like a governor buying reelection by stealing the money originally dedicated to the great, great, great, great-grandchildren’s solvent state government’s fund, stealing from people we will never know.
Without foresight and planning, without sustained yield like what Indigenous peoples have practiced for thousands of years in their relation to the natural world, that greed will result in our species being an extinction event.
— Thomas R. Wilson
Anchorage
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.