If fish is your traditional food, carry on. But if fish is your taste, your passion, your tongue-lust, you are the idiot criminal responsible for over-fishing. More than that, if you are using consumer products where fish is used as raw material, you deserve a death by Tsunami or flood. Just to have a feel like a fish!
Same applies to all Egg, Meat and beef eaters/consumers.
Rekindle perception to see divinity in all. Revive idea of shared wealth and social responsibilities. Retire mindset of greed-based living. Once the supply chain at origin is altered, no one can force overfishing.
One such experiment is filmed beautifully by Shyam Benegal in movie Antarnad (Inner Voice), based on the Swadhyay Movement by Pandurang Shastri Athavale. (You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDzvr3wv3MM )
We are now at the peak of environmental problems created due to rampant consumerism. At this juncture, we must thank, Pandurang Shastri Athavale, who gave concept of floating temple to ever neglected fisherman community in Maharashtra.
Thus, the experiment called Matsyagandha (mother of the sage Veda Vyas) took its shape. The sagarputras treat these Matsyagandha boats as floating temples. A crew of six to ten swadhyayee fishermen is onboard each boat. Fishing goes on all year except for a three-month pause during the monsoon period which is used for repairs and refitting the boats.
The volunteers are many more than the Matsyagandha boats. No individual fisherman gets a chance for more than one trip (of 24 hours) in a year. And when the boat is docked during the monsoon, the seamen among the swadhyayees take over the job of repairs and refitting the boats.
There is no employer and no employee; there are no owners and no workers; none has claim over what he has willingly offered to God. Each fisherman and seaman is a pujari, while he is on his floating temple. To date there are one hundred vessels and few more are added each year. An open sea-going cargo ship, SS Jayashree Sagar, was launched in October 1996 that regularly plies between India’s west coast and Persian Gulf States.
Every local community has rules to interact with Mother nature. From fisherman to tribals. They all respect seasons and avoid resource collection in certain seasons. They all share the wealth gifted by mother nature. They all see indwelling God in everything.
As my Gujarati friends share, same experiments were done in agriculture and forest.
When perspective of divinity is killed and greed-virus is implanted, rampant overfishing cannot be controlled.
Ref: http://www.swadhyay.org/index.htm
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Research news
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Ocean’s Wildlife Populations Down by Half
A new WWF report reveals an alarming decline in marine biodiversity over the last few decades. According to WWF’s Living Blue Planet Report, populations of marine vertebrates have declined by 49% between 1970 and 2012, with some fish species declining by almost 75%.
In addition to fish, the report shows steep declines in coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses that support marine food webs and provide valuable services to people. With over 25% of all marine species living in coral reefs and about 850 million people directly benefiting from their economic, social and cultural services, the loss of coral reefs would be a catastrophic extinction with dramatic consequences on communities.
According to the report, the biggest drivers of these declining trends are from human actions–mainly overfishing, habitat destruction, and climate change. Although the report paints a dim picture of ocean health, it also provides solutions and opportunities to turn the tide. It highlights the need to protect critical marine habitats, manage fish stocks more sustainably, improve fishing practices, and redirect financial flows to support these needed initiatives.
