I'm not squeamish about killing, especially fish. We all have to eat, and we can't learn about living things solely in the wild. And learning about living things is important. And yes, killing for knowlege is worth it. Everything in nature dies a horrible death, whether by hunger, disease, predation, parasites, or accident. There are no exceptions.

But I don't fish for sport any more. Not too long ago, I realized that was unnacceptable behvior, and I quit fishing for pleasure, an activity I have enjoyed ever since I was a child. Call me irrational and inconsistent, but eating a fish you've caught is one thing, torturing it for fun is something else altogether.

Catch-and-release is better, but it stresses the fish, many never recover after being released, and the very act of fishing, with its lead sinkers, non-degradable synthetic line, and consumption of bait species puts too much stress on the environment, even if you catch nothing.

Too often, environmentalists love the environment out of some misplaced chidish, sentimental need to shelter the fuzzy-wuzzies. A well-managed fishery that provides employment and protein is a worthwhile thing; provided it is sustainable, and the habitat and the harvested species is allowed to recover. But to cause extinction, or to destroy habitat is unforgiveable, not only for moral or esthetic reasons, but for purely practical and economic reasons as well.

You can't own the sea like you can own a piece of property, it is all interconnected and without boundaries, its life in constant motion in space and time. The alleged virtues of husbandry inspired by private ownership simply do not apply there.

You cannot own a species or a habitat, you can only own a boat, and the economic imperative is to fish an area or species dry, destroying all the by-catch and habitat that gets in your way. Then you get a bigger boat and go further out. Fishing is like mining, except if you can do it with moderation and intelligence, the fish will always come back.

The sea belongs to everyone. And it is dying.