Here is what I consider a fair representation:
"I was very disappointed to read your essay on About.com's saltwater fishing website ("Save a Fish to Catch a Fish").
I understand your story about the sawfish, and how it illustrates the decline, the near disappearance, of a fishery that you took for granted when you were a kid. I've seen the same thing happen to salmon, goeducs, rockfish, and to a lesser extent, dungeness crab, in the Puget Sound area, where I grew up. In the late 1960's, we filled our gunny sacks with cod, caught on hand-lines in a few key spots in the Sound, where they congregated. Today, that fishery is gone.
So I understand, to some extent, your point of view. I like to fish, and I like to eat fish. Last night I ate my fill of sushi, and it was great! I'd like to be able to do that 20 years from now. But if fisheries in general continue to decline, it's likely that I won't be able to.
I'm disappointed in your opposition to the establishment of marine reserves. Yes, the establishment of a marine reserve reduces the area where you can fish. But it's not difficult to see beyond that, and understand how marine reserves can improve fishing outside the reserve.
You spoke of "bad science" in your essay, and also said that there was "no science" to support the contention that marine reserves benefit fisheries and fishermen. While I am not an expert on the topic of marine ecosystem management and fisheries biology, I am a professional scientist, and a professional wildlife biologist. I understand that scientific investigation of a such an extraordinarily complex and variable phenomenon as ecosystem changes and their relationship to the establishment of No Take zones is unlikely to show 100% consistent, predictable results. If one study or few studies, out of many, shows an ambiguous result, or fails to show improvement of the fishery, that doesn't necessarily mean that any of the studies are wrong. Multitudinous differences between studies -- including differences in study design as well as ecological differences in the system being investigated -- can lead to different conclusions regarding the effectiveness of marine reserves. However, when multiple scientific studies on this topic are reviewed, the tendency for fish numbers, size, and reproductive rates to improve with establishment of marine reserves becomes clear.
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