"Four Fish" by Paul Greenberg is one of the most balanced and thoughtful books addressing the issues involving wild fisheries and aquaculture. There is one suggestion by the author that I find troubling though: the idea that wild fisheries can be managed much as a shepherd manages her flock.
The fallacy of this suggestion is that one cannot manage wildlife like one manages domesticated livestock. With domesticated animals we control the genetics of the animals, their range, what they eat, how we manage their waste and how many we raise and harvest. Wild species simply cannot be managed this way. Wild species are part of an ecosystem and when we tinker with one element of the system we can cause untold consequences elsewhere in the system.
The image of the fisherman-herder may be a romantic one that appeals to the author's nostalgia of fishing the way it was, however it has no validity in wild fisheries management.
