Our Conservation Efforts Are Hurting the US While Helping Others

Take fishing for instance:

Tales of huge haddock hauls were a few of the fish stories that came with the boat Chris Brown bought last year from a Canadian. To Brown, they were stories of missed opportunity.

The previous owner told Brown that for years the vessel trolled the edge of an area closed to U.S. fishermen for conservation. Because no one told the fish the Canadians hadn’t signed on, the fish grew undisturbed in U.S. waters, then swam east into the nets of waiting Canadians.

“They were incredibly grateful for our conservation efforts,” Brown, of Point Judith, R.I, said dryly.

We seem bound and determined to shoot ourselves in the foot with conservation efforts, whether it be fishing as in the example above, or in things like offshore drilling. We ban drilling and other nations ramp up their efforts and take our oil.

We ban incandescent lightbulbs and put hundreds of Americans out of work when their factories are shuttered.  Meanwhile, the bulbs continue to be manufactured overseas to meet the demands of the world population that still wants to use them...including Americans.  We replace those bulbs with compact fluorescents that have dangerous mercury in them and are toxic if they break.  We are our own worst enemies.