Hey

So I just decided I need to write instead of just letting these emotions and feelings bottle up inside my head because it'll just make it worst and by letting it out I'll eventually help myself I guess.

So I'm very scared of aliens: I believe in them and myself have had an encounter not one-on-one but with my cousins witnessing a UFO in the sky. The lights, the irregular flight patterns that do not follow any particular form or law of physics. We knew what we saw. Now I've seen stuff since in the sky and maybe have just dismissed it as satellites and such but this night was different due to the setting and the location.

On a bog in a small town a few hours outside of St. John's, Newfoundland it was night and it was getting late I would say and my cousins and I were out on the Bog skating, because it was winter at the time so it's just something we were able to do. The three of us saw the same thing and kind of were skeptical of what we saw... and we weren't exactly exposed to anything of this nature, I mean we were around 8 years old and too concentrated on seeing moose or the cold weather.

But since that night it sparked an interest in us, and I'm not sure if they continue to pursue this interest but it gets me thinking all the time. About us, about life and about the world and the cosmos.

The age old question: Are we really alone?

I've watched almost all the movies, from War Of The Worlds to Fire In The Sky to Encounters of the Third Kind, etc and some are absolutely extreme and others are downright eerily fact based. I've had discussions with people from friends who's had close encounters of their own and friends who've been wanting them and hunting them their entire lives.

So I just can't believe we're alone in this universe or collections of universes, because it would all just be way too random that circumstances would arise that ONLY this planet would gain all the right formulas and gatherings to support life... in ALL the planets out there, coupled with stars and moons of their own surrounding their own suns with organic compounds, etc. But who said they need to be organic? Well that's only life on Earth that supports that... so we're limiting ourselves.

I think we're going to see something in OUR life times that will change the way we view these things. Something that will rock us right outta the water.

Like this movie just said... we used to think the world was flat and that we weren't able to travel it entirely to visit other places... and now we think we are alone. It's the same kind of thinking.

Entry Number Two: Fish, fish, everywhere?

The fish are in danger, once again.

While discussing the fish quotas with a fellow colleague of mine who had a background in Fish Biology and setting quotes, immediately what came to mind was how we (the general public and some policy makers) can feel like we have the upperhand in deciding what is to become of these animals.

By no means am I an animal rights activist, and I do not condone how extreme they can be, but where do we get the approval to allow ourselves to push a certain species into endangerment or extinction.

(Now we all know that us human beings have a long history of pushing animals into extinction so I will accept that as common knowledge and move on to arguement.)

In the example of the Fishing Industry, having a background in a very fish-oriented culture of St. John's, I know first hand the difference it can make when quotes are messed with, and what can become of it. Face it, there are family and people who live solely for this little creatures. Whether it be for commercial fishing, or for that much-needed getawway fishing trip, much is to be weighted on these little guys.

Ah, but some may say, "Zak, there are thousands of other types of fish that someone can just substitute into their lives." Excellent point, but we have to look at it this way: the yellow perch most commonly found in Lake Ontario, has the highest quota, and is the most commonly fished fish for a reason - because it's most common! Very few people are willing to sit on the dock for hours waiting for a catch a Lumpfish.

Overfishing has been an issue since the near endangerment of the Atlantic Codfish, introducing a cod moratorium in 1992. Upon being introduced, the East Coast was influenced greatly both economically and culturally. Economically, thousands of people lost jobs, and since that day, Newfoundland and the region, lost something that was seen a being a cultural activity that brought together both Father and Son (Or Father and daughter/Mother and Son, etc). The following findings illustrate, for example, the economic impact of the Cod Moratorium as we see a sharp decline in revenue:

Am I getting off topic? Unfortunately not. If that were the case then we would have noting to worry about. But on the contrary, we must learn from our past, and from the sharp decline in cod populations, and apply it to other populations at hand, i.e. yellow perch and other endangered or soon to be specicies. We must learn from their habits and some commonalities noticeable between all endangering species, and apply it to species that need to be protected, so this does not happen again.

Although a lot of the science cannot be immediately transferred from one species and applied to the living habits/breeding habits of another, the basics can. What I mean by basics is the downright basic advice of the scientists and experts in this field of biology and conservation.

This brings me back to the conversation (debate?) that sparked my interest. As stated by my fellow colleague, she would spend months calculating an absolute threshold that this specific species at hand (Yellow perch) could sustain, in the form of a quota. These months of hardwork and many overtime unpaid hours, would go to waste under the pressure of minutes of politics.

So my question is: If politicians are given a set quota for a species (whether yellow perch, codfish. or american bald eagle), where does rational thought allow politics the right to push a species into endangerment, extinction or even at risk?