Extinction featured heavily in debates on site this week. George Monbiot asked where hope lies for English species, while Sylvia Earle and Susan Lieberman considered policies to avert over-fishing around the world. And in the run-up to the Cites conservation meeting currently taking place in Qatar, users commenting on their article considered the tragedy of our fishing commons, how far we can blame the state of our oceans and what fishermen can do instead if outright bans are the answer.
Debate of the week
Sylvia Earle and Susan Lieberman: Fishing in troubled waters
MoveAnyMountain: Cites is wrong way to go. The problem is that they ban all trade. This is a mistake. What they need to do is protect wild stocks while encouraging the farming of this species. As Australia has done. That means numbers will recover and the market for the fish will be met. A simplistic ban on the trade may well end in disaster as it has for elephants and the like.
Papalagi: I don't see how this makes any sense ... How are you going to assign property rights in the Baltic and North sea which are used by too many fishers of too many countries? You simply have to limit, to establish rules.
theonlyleon: Before you blame the fishermen, ask what else exactly they are supposed to do?
lazman: Fisherman can find other jobs. They'll have to anyway soon. Might as well get started now before three-quarters of the planet is a barren trash dump.
InActionManIAM: I would go one step further than an outright ban on fishing and ban the consumption of alll fish, or any other living flesh-based product. For every one person fed on flesh, 15 could be fed on a vegetarian diet.
Best comment
China defends detention of lead poisoning victims who sought medical help
AenimaUK: Shocking case, but to be fair, similar things happen in almost every country, it's just that the governments of less developed ones tend to use less "developed" means (arrest/intimidation) for stifling the unrest/criticism instead of more "developed" ones (legal obstructions/gagging orders/interminable investigations/inquiries/out of court settlements).
Made me smile
Bike blog: bspoke womenswear review
BalbKubrox: While I hesitate to pass comment on a lady's appearance, the outfit is truly appalling and makes you look like a firewoman minus the helmet and the hatchet and plonked on to a bicycle: perhaps as a result of some ill-conceived cost-cutting exercise.
Elsewhere on the web
Guardian readers and Flickr users have added over 250 brilliant photos of flowers, catkins and lambs to our "signs of spring" Flickr group. With spring officially arriving this Saturday, now's the perfect time to share your snaps of the season's arrival.
