LETTER: The loss of fisheries should be an alarm for humans

July 25, 2026

To the editor:

Your story of the restoration of Maine’s iconic Big Jim statue was a welcome stroll down memory lane for those of us old enough to remember the place that the sardine industry once held in our state’s economy. Most particularly in Washington County, the loss of this fishery was keenly felt—and still is. It’s ironic that, now that tinned fish is once again a culinary trend, there is not a single cannery left in the US.

It is also ironic that, amongst all the pining for the loss of this important industry—the jobs, the way of life, the fine vessels involved—there is so little alarm for the biggest loss of all: the fish. In not much more time than a single human lifespan, we have reduced the once super-abundance of a key coastal species to a mere footnote. As with cod, halibut, scallops, shrimp, mussels, and whales, we blast one hole after another into an ecosystem that we barely understand, but almost certainly depend on in ways beyond our fish market shelves.

Our daily weather forecasts are but one reminder of how poorly we understand the planet that gives us our life. We plunder our oceans, forests, wildlife, fresh water, topsoil, petroleum, with little thought to what we will do when they are gone. Our understanding of the mechanisms of extinction is woefully inadequate, but most people seem to feel that homo sapiens will be exempt. As Jane Goodall has warned “We humans are not exempt from extinction.”

Doug Hylan, Brooklin

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