Re:Maine Is Drowning in Lobsters
by colechristensen on Monday May 22, 2017 @10:36PM
(#14398424)
>As an engineer that is just about more than my mind can handle.
Why? It's just engineering to optimize for a bigger system. Set your system boundary too small and you risk damaging the whole. Making a perfect trap is something like premature optimization.
Because the core labor is boating around to process each trap every day. That's time, fuel, and bait every day. Point taken about optimizing the larger system, but the other pieces of the regulation resonate more for me. Throwing back a small lobster or a producing female offers a tangible connection to the global effort, whereas pulling up more traps for the same catch feels like doing more work just to keep busy. I'm sure there are good reasons for how it fits in the system, but that one would bug me nonetheless.
Also, chrisbennet's comment reminded me of another piece of the sustainable fishing regulations, which is that the traps are regulated to be inefficient and let the lobsters walk out. As an engineer that is just about more than my mind can handle.