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Comparison between historical data and modern research on lobsters
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Maine’s Commercial Lobster Industry
Summary
Scientists predict a major population crash of Maine lobsters in the near future, due to over-harvesting, increasing demand, and a lack of successful regulatory measures reflecting such factors. The attempt to introduce various policy measures creating more limited access to the resource has been largely ineffective due to the unique ecological, economic, and social characteristics of the state. Further complicating the issue is the matter of thriving lobster populations during recent years when other marine wildlife populations are experiencing severe losses along the same region of the eastern seaboard. This paper examines the conflict between lobster fishermen, scientists, and policy makers regarding attempts to work toward a more sustainable lobster fishing industry.
Introduction
The issue of Maine lobster fishing is an ideal case illustrating the challenge of the "tragedy of the commons", since the lobsters belong to no one until caught. They have been harvested commercially in New England (the "birthplace" of the nation’s fisheries) since the 1800’s. At that time, they "were so plentiful they could be caught by hand or, with less hazard (because the average lobster was so large), with a gaff, a pole with a large hook stuck in the end" (Formisano, 13).
Since the early 19th century, the industry adopted more efficient techniques (such as the use of lobster "pots", or traps, and boats that could carry lobsters over longer distances) to capture more lobsters faster. This led to a significant population decline by the late 1800’s, prompting the first lobster regulation (prohibiting the harvesting of egg-bearing females). Lobster populations remained relatively st...
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The lobsters are complex creatures, as David Foster Wallace explains in the essay, and the people that are going to the festival are making this complex creature so easy to kill. Wallace is able to validate this argument by using their complexity of life and the simplicity of their death to show the paradox that the festival has created explaining, “Taxonomically speaking, a lobster is a marine crustacean of the family Homaridae, characterized by five pairs of jointed legs, the first pair terminating in large pincerish claws used for subduing prey” (Wallace 55). Then later explaining, “Be apprised, though, that the Main Eating Tent’s suppers come in Styrofoam trays, and the soft drinks are iceless and flat” (Wallace 55). This paradox that Wallace brings to the attention to his audience show that these articulate and graceful creatures are being disgraced by the festival goers by being served on Styrofoam trays and served with unappealing beverages. It is no coincidence that two things that are really explained is the anatomy of the lobster and how complex the makeup of the lifeform is and the simplicity of the death of the lobster. By explaining these two things in depth, he is able to show how ridiculous and unfair he feels that killing and eating the lobster is. Wallace also humanizes the lobster to bring the situation into a perspective that
When settlers first came to America, lobster was considered a poor man’s food. The lobsters were so abundant at that time that many people felt that they were competing with them for space on the shore. The settlers felt that the lobster had no nutritional value. At that time both Native Americans and settlers used the lobster as fertilizer for their fields and as bait to catch other fish. Lobster was so disdained that it was given to prisoners, indentured servants, and children. This was such a common practice that in Massachusetts many servants and prisoners had it put into their contract that they could not be fed lobster more than two times a week.
"Consider the Lobster" an issue of Gourmet magazine, this reviews the 2003 Maine Lobster Festival. The essay is concerned with the ethics of boiling a creature alive in order to enhance the consumer's pleasure. The author David Foster Wallace of "Consider the Lobster” was an award-winning American novelist. Wallace wrote "Consider the Lobster” but not for the intended audience of gourmet readers .The purpose of the article to informal reader of the good thing Maine Lobster Festival had to offer. However, he turn it into question moral aspects of boiling lobsters.
Works Cited Chesapeake Bay Foundation.(2010). saving a national treasure Chesapeake Bay Foundation -. (2010). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard striking back against the Oyster Thieves. Chesapeake Bay Foundation -. n/d. The n/d is a Agriculture Cronin, L. A. Eugene.
In this entertaining, search into global fish hatcheries, New York Times writer Paul Greenberg investigates our historical connection with the ever changing ocean and the wild fish within it. In the beginning of the book Paul is telling his childhood fishing stories to his friends, that night Paul discovers that that four fish dominate the world’s seafood markets in which are salmon, tuna, cod, and bass. He tries to figure out why this is and the only logical answer he could come up with is that four epochal shifts caused theses wild fish population to diminish. History shows that four epochal shifts happen within fifteen years causing certain fish species populations to diminish. He discovers for each of the four fish why this happened to
Due to the demand many packaging for the fish can find its was back to sea, or when fishermen are out at sea they can leave their garbage. Many nets from the boats and gears can also be found in the water, that fish can later see as food, eat it, and die; this ties back to extinction in fish. There is much pollution and decline stocks in fish because it is very hard to regulate the seas. To fulfill the growing demand for seafood, many companies are forced to fish beyond areas that are supposed to be non-fishing zones. This is because there are hardly any laws or restrictions telling them where they can and cannot fish. Sally Driscoll and Tom Warhol report in, ‘Overfishing’, that itt wasn’t until 1956 where we saw our first regulation, the United Nations organized the first UN Convention of the Law of the Sea or the NCLOS which helped promote rights of all countries by establishing boundaries off shore. Meaning that some seafood fished in certain areas of the ocean cannot be sold in certain countries, and in some areas it is illegal to fish unless you have a permit from that country. Economy also helps make it harder to regulate the seas, in ‘Overfishing’ it is explained that Preisdent Barack Obama brought up Antiquities Act of 1906, that let fishermen expand their fishing areas. The United Nations FAO estimates that 25 percent of all fish trapped in nets are labeled unusable or not licensed for fishing by the
In the early 1900s people from Italy started to arrive on ship. They first arrived in Detroit, Michigan and later immigrated to Gloucester, to fish like they did back in the old country. Children, as young as ten years old went fishing to make a living for their family. When they first came the fishing industry was booming. There was no limit to how long you could fish or how much you could catch. Many men went fishing for weeks at a time. When Italian fishermen came upon the Atlantic off what is now Cape Cod, the waters churned with schools of fish. When they came nearly 800 of them in Boston and Gloucester combined became fishermen. In New England, cod was king. Enriched by a West Indies trade of fish for molasses, boat owners were referred to as the "codfish aristocracy. Sadly in the late 1990s the fishing industry went downhill and changed for the worst. (.)
The affair that happened between Abigail and Proctor was definitely was the start of all of witchcraft trials. While Abigail was in the woods with the girls from Salem she was wishing John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, dead so that she could be with John. Abby was in love with John and was willing to do whatever she could to be with him. She would “wait for him every night” (Miller 145) hoping that John would leave his wife for her. While in the woods, they were spotted by many people who assumed that the girls were doing witchcraft. At first the
Parliament of Canada. (n.d.). Northern Cod: a failure of Canadian fisheries management. Retrieved June 17, 2014, from Parliament of Canada: http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=2144982&Mode=1&Parl=38&Ses=1&Language=E&File=21
Abigail desired to have John all to herself and wanted to take Elizabeth’s place. Nothing was capable of standing in her way, when it came to her mind being set on someone or something. “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife!” (Miller 1137). Betty Parris was trying to give information about what in fact happened, but Abigail kept telling her to be quiet. She wanted John all to herself but she didn't want anyone knowing she wanted Elizabeth gone.When Abigail was confronted about wanting to kill Elizabeth she kept denying it and putting on a scene to avoid
Ordinarily, Valentine’s Day conjures up images of exchanging flowers, chocolates, cards, and so on and so forth for most people, except Carol Ann Duffy, who buys her lover’s Valentine’s Day gift in the produce aisle of her local grocery store, an onion. In her poem appropriately titled, “Valentine,” she challenges her lover to adopt her what she deems a realistic notion that if one has true love for another, romance can be found in any gift, even something as unromantic as an onion. In order to convey the message that gifts of love are subjective and do not have to align with tradition; she uses an extended metaphor to compare her love to an onion throughout the poem.
To fish or not to fish is a personal choice. The fact that the oceans are being overfished is a growing concern for individuals, organizations, and governments throughout the world. In this paper I want to discuss the effects of overfishing on the restaurant industry, and possible solutions to solve the problem. Fishing is an ongoing source of food for people around the world. In many countries it is a food staple in their everyday diet. In more modern societies eating fish has become a sensual experience, and not just for the wealthy. It hasn't been until population explosions in the last century that the demand for seafood has led to more effective fishing techniques and technologies. Now the demand for popular fish like the salmon, tuna, sea bass, cod and hoki, which is the key fish in McDonalds filet o' fish, is diving wild populations to dangerously low levels. The methods used to catch the amount of fish demanded by the industry do not leave sustainable populations in the wild. In an attempt to preserve the fish population, governments have set limits on the minimum size that may be harvested and how many of each may be taken. Boundaries have been set up saying which areas can be fished and which ones should be left alone. A number of smaller fisheries have gone out of business because of the limits imposed by the government. This leads to even less fish being harvested and brought to market. Therefore the amount and varieties of fish at markets are smaller and can cause shortages for wholesalers and restaurants. Some restaurants will no longer have the variety on their menus that they used to enjoy. If a restaurant thrives on its seafood menu they may be unable to cope with the shortages and will go out of business. In the ...
David Foster Wallace starts off “Consider the Lobster” with the Maine Lobster Festival and why it is such a big thing during the summer time. Tourism and lobsters are two of the famous things in Maine so a festival is there to expand the tourism. The MLF introduces a lot of lobster dishes to the tourists who go to Maine and discover new things. There is a special dish called the “quarter” that is one of the main dishes at the Maine Lobster Festival. There is also a giant lobster cooker at that festival that can cook multiple lobsters at the same time. The cooker is out in the public so the people can watch their lobsters boil as they wait for their dishes to be made. The Lobster Festival is obviously about lobsters, as well as eating lobsters. However, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) do not think too fondly of the festival because of the number of lobsters that are being killed and turned into lobster dishes.
For most of history, humans physically could not overfish because of their methods and technology. Overfishing was not possible because “we couldn’t fish all of the places all of the time … [but] that isn’t necessarily true anymore” (eurekalert.org). Through enormous technological developments, fishermen now ha...
The oceans are the most important food providers on Earth, with its fish being the main source of protein for nearly 1.2 billion people, but the issue of overfishing causes fishermen to return home empty-handed more often. To overfish is to “deplete the stock of fish in a body of water by excessive fishing” (Oxford Dictionaries Web). Overfishing has begun around 1950, and all fish species may collapse within the next 50 years according to some scientists (Mosbergen Web). The depletion of fish species is caused by industrial fishing boats that install on average 1.4 billion hooks annually, with a fish serving as bait at the end of each hook. Likewise, these boats may throw nets that can catch 500 tons of fish, with openings of up to 23 000 meters squared. Fishermen have tried to remedy this problem with aquaculture. However, the latter does not create more fish as it simply trades low valued fish for higher valued ones since most farmed fish are carnivorous (Mosbergen Web). The overlooked problem of overfishing causes the depletion of fish stocks, involves inhumane killings of intelligent animals, and has staggering external costs such as by-catches and the destruction of a balanced ecosystem.