Libertarians are underwhelmed by media claims that the
blue crab population is dwindling. http://rexcurry.net/ecobluecrab.html
The media always fail to mention the only real solutions: private
property rights in waterways, aquaculture, aqua-farming, and free-market environmentalism.
As usual the media always call for yet more government intervention.
(As the libertarians say, the purpose of government
is to provide service, and the purpose of the media is to provide Vaseline.
The media prove that government schools create statists).
Blue crabs are a reminder of the hardship that bureaucracy
imposes upon blue crabs and those who love them (to eat). Dwindling
blue crab populations are a creation of bureaucrats who subvert private property
rights under water in favor of trademark socialism: government ownership
of waterways with periodic unavailability and rationing. Thank goodness the
government isn't involved in most farmlands, foods and goods, or the results
would be similar.
The solution is property rights in crab habitats.
A proposal for specialty license plates touts the libertarian solution to
save Florida’s waterways: http://rexcurry.net/tageverglades6b.jpg
Blue crab habitats should be privatized. Private
property and aquaculture farming would produce bigger and better blue crabs.
Indeed, the abundance and prosperity that inures to land farming, would inure
to all seafood, not just blue crabs. See the work of Dr. Rex Curry at http://rexcurry.net/comindex.html
...................................
Blue crabs are by far the most valuable marine resource to North Carolina’s
economy, but hurricanes and overfishing in recent years have decimated the
blue crab population in the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds. Less than 43 million
pounds of the shellfish were caught in state waters in 2003, down 31 percent
from just five years earlier. If harvests continue to struggle, the state
could begin enforcing catch restrictions next year designed to help the population
recover—rules that also would make it more difficult for crabbers to make
a living.
Enter Dr. David Eggleston, part-time rock drummer and full-time crustacean
researcher, who wants to change the rhythm of the crabbing industry by farming
them in ponds across eastern North Carolina. http://www.ncsu.edu/research/results/vol9/10.html
Although blue crabs spend most of their lives in the open ocean or the brackish
waters of coastal estuaries, Eggleston’s studies show the creatures could
actually grow faster in ponds because fresh water helps their body tissue
expand whenever they molt. And the taste? “In a word, they were delicious,”
he says with a grin, noting he and his marine science students have feasted
on some of their freshwater experiments.
