Fishing

William McCloskey’s column (“Fishing Rights and Wrongs,” Opinion, Oct. 29) on controversies surrounding the delayed reauthorization of the Magnuson Act concerning the U.S. fishing industry was a valuable report--with one omission.

Granted it is much harder to watch those intent on pillaging the seas than it is to catch those who devastate the land. But a start might be made simply in identifying the owners of the “fleet of large, Seattle-based U.S. fishing ships” whose greed impoverished 2,000 Alaskans.

Does McCloskey not know who these corporate marauders are, or the names of those responsible for giving the order to dump back into the ocean 60,000 tons of wasted fish carcasses? These acts were committed by people, and there is some faint possibility that publicity, and brand names, might induce restraint, if not anything resembling shame.

JANE WILSON

Santa Monica