In the world of games and the Internet, people are often keen to exchange virtual "natural resources" for what they want, whether it is the original Happy Net stealing vegetables, or the popular game Animal Forest, everyone is happy to play this kind of game.
However, in reality, there are also many people who want to use natural resources to earn money by capturing animals, cutting down trees, etc., but the natural resources in reality will not be constantly refreshed like in the game, and the damaged environment will take decades or even hundreds of years to recover, so poaching, indiscriminate hunting, private logging and other behaviors not only harm the public interest, but also violate the law.
Today, we'll take a glimpse of how the laws of the U.S. state of Washington "harshly" protect local natural resources.
If you grew up at the water's edge, you will not be unfamiliar with catching crabs.
The Hood Canal under the Olympic Mountains in Washington State is home to a large number of treasure crabs, which has attracted the covetousness of many illegal fishermen. Although the population of Zhenbao crab is sufficient, if it is not controlled and opened, Zhenbao crab will also face the situation of being caught and caught, and in order to protect this resource, local laws have set many restrictions on crab fishing.
To catch treasure crabs, first of all, you need to have a fishing license issued by the corresponding authorities; second, you can only keep the 5 treasure crabs caught per person per day; of these 5 crabs, you also need to make sure that there are only male crabs and no female crabs. Finally, you need to pull out a special measuring scale for crab catching, and by measuring the width of the crab, you will determine that the crabs that are caught will not be too young, and the crabs under 16cm need to be put back into the lake. Violating these rules will result in fines of hundreds of dollars and repeat offenders will have their fishing licenses revoked.
If you've watched Discovery's Wild Survival show, you'll know that both De ye and Bei Ye are very time-consuming and laborious to catch a fish in the wild without the right tools. But human civilization has developed so far, even if it is just ordinary people, just by a copying net, as long as they find a suitable place, they can catch a large number of fish in a short period of time.
In order to eliminate the special advantages of human beings in access to natural resources, many countries also have clear regulations on the way of capture.
For example, in Lake Banks, which is rich in herring, Washington state regulations stipulate that the only legal fishing method is fishing. Anyone who uses gillnets or copy nets to catch fish will face legal penalties, such as fines of hundreds of dollars and forced community service.
The sparsely populated forested area of southwestern Washington State, with its large number of red deer, is an excellent hunting ground. But in order to protect the number of populations, the law also imposes various restrictions.
In the state, only about 6,700 people are qualified to hunt red deer, and during the hunting season, each person can only hunt one red deer. In addition, there are strict rules on the age of the red deer to be hunted, and it is illegal to shoot underage male red deer.
Hunters need to carefully observe the antlers before pulling the trigger, confirming age by the number of forks of the antlers. Even if a juvenile male deer is killed by mistake, hunters are likely to spend a year in jail and pay a $2,000 fine and revoke their hunting license for two years.
Protecting natural resources is still a long way off under Washington State's harsh environmental laws, with only 140 fish and wildlife department police officers patrolling the 184,000 square kilometers of land, both in the city and in the suburbs. In the face of a wider area, how much manpower do we need to fully cover it?
For the protection of natural resources, not only the strictness of the law, but also the change of social consciousness, refusal to eat, sell and process wild animals, and all these changes need to start from you and me.