Acidification, warming, the destruction of coral reefs: the biggest problems facing the sea are as vast, deep and seemingly intr

admin2013-09-16  27

问题     Acidification, warming, the destruction of coral reefs: the biggest problems facing the sea are as vast, deep and seemingly intractable as the oceans themselves. So long as the world fails to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases, cause of the global warming behind these troubles, they will grow. By comparison, overfishing, another great curse, should be easier to put right, especially in the coastal waters where most fishing occurs. And yet it goes on, year after year.
    One reason why the pillage continues is that knowledge of fish stocks is poor. A new statistical attempt at estimating the remaining shoals, from the University of California, Santa Barbara, is therefore welcome. The study found that better-understood fisheries are likelier to be healthy. Another reason for overfishing is new technology(developed, aptly enough, for battlefields), which makes shoals easier to detect. As large boats and refrigeration have’spread, fishing fleets have covered greater distances and dragged larger catches. Because technology lets fishermen fish with less effort, it disguises just how fast the stocks are depleting.
    In most fisheries, the fishermen would make more money by husbanding their resource, and it should be possible to incentivise them to do so. The best way is to give them a defined, long-term right to a share of the fish. In regulated industrial fisheries, as in Iceland, New Zealand and America, this has taken the form of a tradable, individual share of a fishing quota. Developing countries, where law enforcement is weak, seem to do better when a group right over an expanse of water is given to a co-operative or village fleet. The principle is the same: fishermen who feel like owners are more likely to behave as responsible stewards. The new statistical study confirms that rights-based fisheries are generally healthier.
    Yet only a few hundred of the oceans’ thousands of fisheries are run this way, mainly because such schemes are hard to get right. Limiting access to a common resource creates losers, and therefore discord. Cultural differences affect success rates; not everyone is as law-abiding as Icelanders. Almost everywhere it takes time to convince fishermen, the last hunter-gatherers, to change their habits. But, barnacled by caveats though it may be, the rights-based approach is the best available.
    In rich countries, satellite imagery will increasingly help, by making monitoring cheaper and better. In many poor ones, devolution is making it easier to form local organisations. Another promising idea is to incorporate rights-based fisheries with no-catch zones. These safeguard breeding-stocks and are easier to monitor than individual catches. Where stocks are recovering, as a result of these reforms, fishermen are likelier to see scientifically determined quotas as in their self-interest.
The first paragraph intends to show that oceans______.

选项 A、are being endangered by various environmental problems
B、are in a crisis rooted in the emission of greenhouse gases
C、are being protected from the damage of overfishing
D、are in urgent need of fishery management efforts

答案D

解析 第一段首先呈现对比:海洋面对温室气体带来的各种棘手问题;但另一问题 过度捕捞,却相对容易解决。随后转而指出,但过度捕捞却没有得到有效治理,而是年复一年仍在继续。可见,本段作者是在暗示海洋渔业管理措施的迫切性,[D]选项正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/lbO4777K
0

随机试题
最新回复(0)