December 17, 2021 — Sometimes fishermen get lucky, and their complaints about flawed data get noticed by scientists. Such was the case with an article about Marine Protected Areas that’s been used to justify a new push for ocean zoning — including the recent 30×30 initiative to shutter up to 30 percent of the nation’s waters.
“A retraction is a Big Deal in science, especially from a prominent journal,” wrote Max Mossler in a post on the University of Washington’s Sustainable Fisheries UW.
It’s an even bigger deal — or should be — if that article is being used to position policy at the federal level.
The original piece, Mossler writes, “claimed that closing an additional 5 percent of the ocean to fishing would increase fish catches by 20 percent.” Some of the biggest titles in the mainstream press picked it up.
We’re talking End of Fish by 2048-level propaganda.