Editor's Blog Mar 22nd 2012
Ed Goes Bear Grylls
I am all for someone making a living, but not at the expense of raping nature. The Spanish fisherman saga, touted widely in Gibraltar News yesterday, took a surprising turn when vociferous and clearly anti Gibraltar Mr Landaluce showed up on our doorstep yesterday.
Clarification from the Government sent him scurrying away back from the hole he crawled out of. But has the Government done anything or will they do anything about the dozens of rod anglers that cross into Gibraltar every day?
Its been the bane of many a local rod angler, that when they arrive at one of the few legal fishing spots they find multiple Spanish anglers, with multiple rods, leaving them little to now chance to get their hooks in.
Overfishing around our coastline has done nothing for the biodiversity that exists under the sea, the total removal of one species will have an effect on the food chain, from which the knock on effects could see the decline of many other species, such as dolphins in our waters, as they would have to hunt for food further away.
Many large and not so large countries spare little thought about what they are doing to the sea, they delude themselves with the view that fish stocks are infinite and will continue to do so until the last mackerel is cooked.
The fishing industry as such should turn to sustainable methods of bringing all things aquatic to our tables. Fish farming should be considered, as should seasonal bans on the fish most affected. This, along with other measures would ensure that we could all enjoy some "pescaito frito" in the future.
If, like me, you enjoy eating fish, why don’t you try and catch your own instead of buying from the market, when you have caught enough for one meal, quickly gut and cook it and relish in the fact that you have honed an individual skill, which our ancestors were very good at, its so much tastier too.
Ed.
