[Draft] Bikini Bottom Bombers

[Zerphen]

This issue was written by me and my friend The Democratic Republic of the Empire

Title: Bikini Bottom Bombers

Validity: positive trout fishing industry, positive economic freedom

Description: After an influential study on the effects of bomb fishing on the environment, people have called to your attention the callousness of such a fishing method.

Answer 1: “Such practices as bomb fishing cause indiscriminate harm to the local fish and wildlife.” states @@RANDOM_NAME@@, the @@MAN@@ who organized the study of fishing ethics. “Despite any economic benefits, you cannot in good conscience allow such barbaric practices. These practices must be banned in favor of safer and less damaging alternatives.”

Effect: soldiers are weary of being too close to water for fear of being dishonorably discharged

Answer 2: “Are you really gonna listen to this tree hugger?” exclaims bomb technician @@RANDOM_NAME2@@, who is seen playing with sticks of dynamite in his free time. “Fish are food, not friends! No matter how we fish them up, they’re going to be dead in the end. If anything, we should be using MORE bombs, not less!”

Effect: many beaches are lined with “beware the bombs” signs

Answer 3: “We can compromise here.” says @@RANDOM_NAME3@@, one of your unusually talkative advisors. “How about we allow bomb fishing, but only in specific areas where it won't harm the wildlife? Sure it might be difficult to find said locations, but it’s the best we can get while pleasing both sides!”

Effect: the @@DEMONYM@@ government has spent years contemplating why fish refuse to enter their designated fishing zones filled with hooks and bombs

Answer 4A: “We need to go back to the old days when our ancestors gathered fish with their bare hands!” says Ryan Jackson, an extremely buff influencer who is the self-proclaimed “kidney king.” “We need to ban all tools designed for fishing, and make everyone EARN every catch.” he says all the while flexing his seemingly unnatural muscles.

Validity: Internet is not banned

Effect: fish are notoriously difficult to get your hands on

Answer 4B: “We need to go back to the old days when our ancestors gathered fish with their bare hands!” says Ryan Jackson, an extremely buff celebrity who is the self-proclaimed “kidney king.” “We need to ban all tools designed for fishing, and make everyone EARN every catch.” he says all the while flexing his seemingly unnatural muscles.

Validity: Internet banned

Effect: fish are notoriously difficult to get your hands on

[Australian rePublic]

What's Bikini gotta do with it? I get the Spongebob and the Bikini Atoll reference, but I don't see how it fits into the issue

[Verdant Haven]

- You'll want to define what "bomb fishing" is. I'm guessing it's what I've heard of as "dynamite fishing" (lighting sticks of dynamite and throwing them in the water to see what floats up), but that's pretty much always in the context of drunken idiots rather than serious fishing. Is this a real thing done commercially?

- Why is this study about fishing influential? Is "callousness" a defined fact, or an opinion about the fishing method that belongs in the option rather than the description?

- Effect line 1 is non-sequitur. Being a soldier doesn't mean you throw explosives at fish ( also check word: "wary" vs "weary')

- Option 3: allow bomb fishing, but only where it doesn't harm wildlife... which would include the fish. I think this needs to clarification and adjustment.

- Option 4a/b: I am not familiar with who or what this speaker is a reference to, and the nickname makes little sense even if I assume suitable context. Who is this?

[West Barack and East Obama]

- You'll want to define what "bomb fishing" is. I'm guessing it's what I've heard of as "dynamite fishing" (lighting sticks of dynamite and throwing them in the water to see what floats up), but that's pretty much always in the context of drunken idiots rather than serious fishing. Is this a real thing done commercially?

Pretty sure it is. According to the Wikipedia article on 'blast fishing':

One 1999 report estimated that some 70,000 fishermen (12% of the Philippines' total fishermen) engaged in the practice.

[The Democratic Republic of the Empire]

- You'll want to define what "bomb fishing" is. I'm guessing it's what I've heard of as "dynamite fishing" (lighting sticks of dynamite and throwing them in the water to see what floats up), but that's pretty much always in the context of drunken idiots rather than serious fishing. Is this a real thing done commercially?

- Why is this study about fishing influential? Is "callousness" a defined fact, or an opinion about the fishing method that belongs in the option rather than the description?

- Effect line 1 is non-sequitur. Being a soldier doesn't mean you throw explosives at fish ( also check word: "wary" vs "weary')

- Option 3: allow bomb fishing, but only where it doesn't harm wildlife... which would include the fish. I think this needs to clarification and adjustment.

- Option 4a/b: I am not familiar with who or what this speaker is a reference to, and the nickname makes little sense even if I assume suitable context. Who is this?

We did indeed research if Bomb/Dynamite/Bomb fishing, (Which is indeed using some form of explosive to kill fish and make them easy to catch) was a common thing. While not... "common" per se, it was common enough to be put into numerous articles, and considering many NationStates nations have more trout fishing than the real world, (hence the trout fishing validity) we felt it fair to make an issue for.

Truthfully the only reason we put the word "influential" in there was because we couldn't think of a better adjective to add, simple as that. We used callousness to describe it in the description so it's clear as to the reason that this is an issue, which in fairness COULD be put in only an option, but for the sake of clarity we put it in the description.

About effect lines, we kinda just went as dumb as we could with them because they generally make no sense anyway. Though it could probably be changed to bomber pilots or something in that vein.

Effecting wildlife was supposed to be implied to mean not fish, but clarity is better in something like that so, fair enough on that.

Option 4 is a reference to "The Liver King" who preached living jurasically only to be exposed for using steroids to gain the form he claimed to gain from said lifestyle.

We will edit the issue soon, and Zerphen should come around soon to offer their insight, and/or the new version. Thanks for the response, it seems like this issue is salvageable <3

[Zerphen]

What's Bikini gotta do with it? I get the Spongebob and the Bikini Atoll reference, but I don't see how it fits into the issue

We went with the reference to Bikini Bottom and the Bikini Atoll since it was a notable coral reef known for its nuclear testing, and while this isn't an issue related to nuclear testing we felt it fit the theme with blast fishing (both being explosions underwater that caused massive damage to a coral reef ecosystem), and the alliteration also felt quite nice.

- You'll want to define what "bomb fishing" is. I'm guessing it's what I've heard of as "dynamite fishing" (lighting sticks of dynamite and throwing them in the water to see what floats up), but that's pretty much always in the context of drunken idiots rather than serious fishing. Is this a real thing done commercially?

Yes, we are referring to dynamite fishing. It goes by many names, including bomb fishing, dynamite fishing, fish bombing, grenade fishing, and blast fishing. We may consider changing all mentions of bomb fishing to blast fishing as that seems to be the more common term for it, and we can also define blast fishing for those who don't know what it is in the description. While blast fishing is illegal practically everywhere as far as I can find, it is difficult to enforce in poorer countries, so blast fishing is done commercially though illegally in those areas, with a few notable examples being the Philippines, Malaysia, and Tanzania.

- Why is this study about fishing influential? Is "callousness" a defined fact, or an opinion about the fishing method that belongs in the option rather than the description?

The study's influence was the best reason we could think of for a leader having to address this issue, and at the time we didn't give much thought beyond that to be honest for lack of any better ideas. We can certainly come up with some reason for why this study was so influential. Callousness is a fairly apt description of blast fishing considering the wanton destruction of coral reefs in many areas as well as the many fish that are killed or harmed by blasts without being collected. Though callousness does seem like too strong of a word for the description, so we may consider changing that.

- Effect line 1 is non-sequitur. Being a soldier doesn't mean you throw explosives at fish ( also check word: "wary" vs "weary')

This isn't completely untrue actually. Blast fishing was sometimes practiced by soldiers during wartime, especially during World War I and II, to get a quick meal by throwing their grenades in the water. This is where one of its names "grenade fishing" came from. That said, we should probably make considerations for not every soldier blowing up every fish they see, and we may change it entirely to something that is a bit more obvious.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/business/energy-environment/the-horrors-of-fishing-with-dynamite.html

- Option 3: allow bomb fishing, but only where it doesn't harm wildlife... which would include the fish. I think this needs to clarification and adjustment

Yeah, this is pretty bad. We thought it would be funny to create designated fishing zones instead of protected zones, and on top of that being fairly insensible, the wording is poor especially when you would expect one to suggest a protected zone. We will change this to instead create protected wildlife zones, and change the effect line accordingly.

- Option 4a/b: I am not familiar with who or what this speaker is a reference to, and the nickname makes little sense even if I assume suitable context. Who is this?

This is in reference to Brian Johnson, a TikTok influencer and YouTuber who preached an ancestral lifestyle and promoted eating raw organs and meat, especially liver, daily. He was especially controversial when people found out his physique was gained not from his titular diet but from his use of steroids and testosterone. Admittedly, I don't know much about him either, as it was my friend who suggested we put a reference to him in here. We wanted an option where someone would advocate getting rid of all fishing technology in the belief that all fishing technology was destructive in favor of fishing bare handed or with primitive tools, and he seemed like a good fit on top of being a reference to a real world person. We went with the name "Ryan Jackson" since it was quite similar to Brian Johnson's name, and we choose the Kidney King simply because it was the first other organ we could think of.

Thanks for all of the feedback, we will get around to making changes within a few days or so.