Senator John Kerry has once again proposed spending taxpayer money to cure a problem that the federal government itself has caused. Fish populations, particularly cod, have plummeted recently ... threatening increased federal restrictions on fish catches and a looming financial catastrophe among New England fishermen. Live-Shot Kerry's solution is to declare this a federal disaster area and start passing out relief checks to his loyal fishermen voters (see:
Worcester Telegram Story).
Can we please ask ourselves why are cod populations dropping? And it is not due to overfishing ... by man at least. It is caused by an explosion in the federally-protected gray and harbor seal populations off of the New England coast ... which are decimating the cod fishing industry ... and bringing the great white sharks with them. Seal populations off Cape Cod have grown from 10,000 to over 300,000 in recent years (see:
Accuweather Story). I heard a New Bedford fisherman on the radio Friday saying that, when he hauls in his nets, virtually all the cod therein have had their bellies eaten out by seals. This makes them commercially worthless. As a result, he and his fellow fisherman are reduced to going after junk fish ... like dogfish and skate. (Perhaps we might have to change the name of that famous peninsula to Cape Dogfish?)
So Mr. Live-Shot Senator, I have a better answer than more silly government largess. Perhaps, we can start harvesting these pesky seals instead? I'm sure that the cod fishermen would be happy to help ... I suspect by Xmas they would have things under control.
