The Fish Riot Act!

We came into the House with barrels and barrels of fish;
and now, at the end of the day, they are mostly all gone...

Did the Master of the House take sufficient care to safeguard and sustain those fish intended to feed all the inhabitants within and those that came to the front (and back) doors to be nourished?

Did the 1949 House de-cod us?

In case of the Ottawa House Master who took in the "poor" Newfoundland  child in 1949, he can only be found negligent.

Negligence is defined as "failing to take proper or normal care of something or someone."
 
In this case there was a legal document binding and reminding them of their responsibilities - it was called the Terms of Union.  This solemn, historic and legal pact stated that if we brought the fish to the House, they would take over caring for them and keep them alive and healthy and we were told not to question their expertise.

Trusting, we walked across the threshold with our 500-year-old bounty of beautiful big barrels of Cod (and numerous other species). Then dysfunctionality set into the Household and the once strong fish started to get sick, dwindle and some nearly disappeared.  Today, some 65 years after we came there are now over 50 species in Atlantic waters un-viable or endangered.

What happened at that Household?  Bad science? Bad Bureaucrats? Bad Politicians? Bad Advice? Bad Leadership? Bad Monitoring? Bad Regulators? Bad Timing? Bad Luck?

The bad-ass culprits are many, but they all took place within that Home.

If fish were children and so many ended up ill and missing, there would be one huge investigative unit converging on this house with  spotlights from the sky and miles of police tape cordoning off the crime scene.

But, as it is, fish are not children.

They are, however, meant to be nourishment for our children and children the world over now and forever.

They are a part of our earth's great ecosystem.

They were here hundreds of millions of years before us late comer humans  emerged on this planet.

Fish is what brought people to our shores and why we have evolved as a magnificent people and a place.

Fish is one of the golden gifts we brought to the House in 1949 with the promise of good management. Instead it turned out to be a case of criminal neglect and now it appears totally abandonment.

If nothing else fish are a species just like humans on this planet and they should be respected and protected.

 

Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, all evidence points to the fact that we need a new House for the Fishery.

If the current House cannot, or will not protect our most precious resource, we need to move the fisheries either to a new room or out of the House altogether.

 

65 years is long enough to know when something is working for us or against us.

 

2014 is the year to read the Ottawa Housemaster the Fish Riot Act!  

 

Signing ...
Next!