Sedentarization of Tibetan Nomads

In my editorial I explicitly and repeatedly refer to “swordfish or tuna from overfished and declining stocks” and to “Mediterranean swordfish.” Even the ICCAT report Kerstetter cites suggests that the Mediterranean swordfish stock is in crisis. So what is the point of criticizing my editorial on the basis that another swordfish stock can be “proudly” eaten because, in Kerstetter’s words, it has “rebound[ed] to near maximum sustainable yield levels”? The government of Greece has recently set the minimum commercial size for swordfish to zero, thus further promoting the removal of juveniles, a policy to which the EU appears complacent. Italy persistently keeps deploying pelagic driftnets targeting swordfish. These nets kill cetaceans, sea turtles and manta rays and are banned from EU countries. Similar examples of mismanagement are found everywhere (with some exceptions of course), and the devastating global impact of overfishing has become so outrageous that it is now featured in high-profile documentary films such as “The End of the Line.” Loss of large marine predators and shifting environmental baselines are increasingly well documented worldwide. In such gloomy circumstances, I believe pride should stem from actions other than eating swordfish.