Joel Gallob, who writes for the Newport (Oregon) News-Times, has a fascinating columnon Tidepool.

It points out the awful time lag between how fishing is regulated and how fish populations change. There’s too much fishing when fish populations plummet and too little fishing when populations surge. And he suggests an ingenious mechanism-involving the gonads of female black rockfish-for synchronizing fishing with fish numbers. Check it out.

Updated 12/30/04: Joel writes for the Newport News-Times, not the nonexistent Newport News, as I wrote. My mistake.