X INTRODUCTION 



smaller todcty than previously in spite of the introduction of scientific fishing 

 methods. 



The sea is also used as a gigantic dumping ground for industrial chemicals, 

 sewage, garbage, oil, and atomic wastes. There is a widespread feeling that these 

 things thrown into the sea are safely and completely disposed of. But they 

 return to plague us in the form of reduced commercial fisheries, exterminated 

 game fishes, littered beaches, poisonous shellfish, and polluted waters. For 

 example, several New England rivers at one time had runs of Atlantic salmon 

 which compared favorably with the runs of Pacific salmon on the west coast, 

 but now, because of overfishing and pollution, there are few salmon south 

 of Maine. 



These are the abuses that conservationists work to prevent in order to main- 

 tain the long-term esthetic and economic resources of the earth. Conservationists 

 are not the wide-eyed dreamers they are frequentlv thought to be, interested 

 merelv in preserving remnants of rare fauna and flora. Although preservation of 

 rare species is part of conservation, they are mainly concerned with the 

 theme first popularly advocated by Theodore Roosevelt— "conser\'ation through 

 wise use." 



There are two basic concepts per\'ading the philosophy of western man that 

 have been serious barriers to the development of a realistic conservation pro- 

 gram. The first is the economic conviction that the only possible healthy econ- 

 omy is one which is constantly expanding— more and more production with 

 little thought gi\'en to resource limits and replenishment. Second is the primarily 

 theological dualistic view of the world wherein man and nature are somehow 

 separated— man rules the world by a sort of egotistical "divine right of kings." 

 Both of these concepts are in direct contradiction to the known facts that man 

 and nature are one and that man cannot abuse nature without harming himself 

 in turn. 



I do not see a planet concreted over its land surfaces to provide living and 

 factory space for an immense human population nourishing itself and sup- 

 plying all its needs synthetically. Human life is going to depend on plant 

 life for a long time yet, and in far more ways than its value as an efficient 

 conversion agent . . . man is still adolescent as a conscious species and 

 he is faced, again in full consciousness, with the choice of whether he shall 

 mature into a species loving his world or remain irresponsibly wielding his 

 new toy of an expanding economy. 



F. Fraser Darling 



American Scholar, Winter 1956 



>(■ H- 1- 1- 



Spearfishing and Skin-diving: A Progra)); for the Putiire 



Such is oftenest the young man's introduction to the forest, and the most 

 original part of himself. He goes thither at first as a hunter and fisher, until 

 at last, if he has the seeds of a better life in him, he distinguishes his proper 

 objects, as a poet or naturalist it may be, and leaves the gun and fishpole 

 behind. 



H. D. 1 horeau — Walden 



