Fish Follies

40k-50k dead fish washed up in Hampton, VA
tack em onto the dead body count.
We are left to believe this is yet another instance of a hole in somebody's net.
This time they allege Omega Protein Inc. is at fault,
who fish for the sake of Omega-3 fish oil.
They primarily fish none other than Menhaden, the same fish that washed ashore in all other cases.
A lil' detective work uncovered Omega Protein Inc. recently acquired a $10 million loan from the U.S.
Something "smells fishy" here!!!
If I take my net, pull up 50k fish and there just so happens to be a hole in the net,
despite the fact that I'm sure these things are checked rigorously before being cast...?
Wouldn't the fish just dump out and go about their business, why would they be dead?
Maybe a few, but all of them? and if it wasn't all of them, did some live?
If some did live then how many fish can one single net possibly hold?

I did the math and came up with this:
-the average weight of one atlantic menhaden is .88 lbs.
-this supposed one net dumped 50,000 fish
50,000 fish x .88 lbs.= 44,000 lbs. of fish
Can one commercial net really hold 22 tons?
Atlantic menhaden spawn year round
so 44,000 lbs. x 365 days = 16,060,000
Rounded off 16 million pounds of menhaden caught a year by one boat throwing one net a day,
can you imagine how easy a work day that would be to cast one net?
In 2006 376 million lbs. of menhaden were caught in Maryland & Virginia waters.
The menhaden population is reportedly on the decline so the numbers aren't increasing annually.
This one boat casting one net a day catches 23.5% of that amount a year.
Now the Omega Corporation doesn't have just one boat working,
in 2007 they had 32 spotter planes and 61 boats,
one would assume that in 3 years that number has exponentially grown?
But we'll give them the benefit of the doubt, and say they only have 50 boats a day working.
If each of the 50 boats were to pull one net a day for a year.
The entire fleet would pull 800 million lbs. per year, 424 million more than the average.
And to boot, this is one company out of many that are fishing the area for menhaden.

Long story short, there's no fucking way this one hole in a net dumped that many fish.
My guess is this is yet another move to clear up the BP oil disaster
and the toll it has taken on the eco-system.
The carcasses of aquatic life are washing ashore globally.
This disaster has seriously disrupted the mantra of the ocean,
if one has ever tried to maintain a fish tank then they know how fragile these environments can be.
I believe Omega Protein Inc. just accepted blame on the "lets make a deal" circuit.
To skim a percentage off the recent loan they acquired.
They've been getting loans for years and currently stand in line for BP compensation.
The government is the puppet master to all these marionette corporations accepting bailouts.
They can be called on to take a dive, and I'm positive many will.