Yesterday I spent the morning talking to a fisherman. Great discussion we had! He told me about all the fish that isn't fished anymore because there is no demand (selling price is too low) so instead these fish are overpopulating our waters and creating troubles in the fishing nets. Now they found some Russian customers that wanted to by the stuff by the million, and with a good price on top of it all. Jackpot. A couple of guys further south from here made almost a fortune in a matter of just a few weeks.
A lot of things starting going seriously wrong when the economists took over the fishing business... I mean detaching it from the community and the face-to-face pricing principles.
And another thing that occurred to me, we usually hear that the fishermen are to blame for the bad catch that you can achieve these days. They over-fished Well, what if it isn't that simple.What if the pollution from industry has made it impossible for fish to survive? What if the international pricing of some species have changed the delicate ecosystem in the sea? These days I have a hard time to see how traditional fishermen, fishing for the local communities only, would have caused the tragic situation visible in almost all coastal regions around around the Baltic Sea. Actually, they are a reservoir of knowledge which we should care for and make sure never dies out.
I am right now reading an article on how the ancient food culture of the Americas mixed with the European culinary heritage after the arrival of the Spaniards and the Portuguese. It is soooooo interesting, and hopefully I'll have time to tell you more about that another day.
Now, out in the sun with my two kiddos!
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