WHAT DOES A TERRESTRIAL CARNIVORE HAVE IN COMMON WITH THE ATLANTIC OCEAN?
In his marvelous book The Mortal Sea W. Jeffrey Bolster takes the reader on a historical journey. With detailed references from historical writings he relates how Europeans overfished their waters, and then sought new fishing grounds in the western Atlantic Ocean…….the coastal waters of North America.
Once here they overfished the rich newly found abundant life. As time went on the fishermen began to understand that the abundant life would soon end if man did not restrain himself. Even without understanding the complexity of life in the sea, they still observed that their overfishing was having a serious negative affect on the ecology of the sea.
But public officials did not listen to their concerns, no laws protected the life in the sea, and TODAY WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE LEGACY OF A ONCE RICH AND WONDROUS LIFE…NOW IMPOVERISHED.
Any number of times in his book, the author makes comment about the complete lack of understanding of the complexity of life in the sea …..by those who came before us.
This is also true for our terrestrial life…and our carnivores. Even though we know so much more than we did 50 years ago, there is still so much regarding the complexity of their lives and their value that we do not know or understand. So why do we as a society allow the intense persecution of Coyote…..who centuries from now may be the only carnivore fit to live in our human dominated world?
WE NEED TO LEARN FROM THE PAST ~ TO TREAD LIGHTLY UPON THE EARTH AND HER CREATURES.
What will we pass down to those who come after us? ……..
