I get a lot of questions via mail and social media, that in most cases I’m always happy to respond. One that I get from people working in paywalled media (who wants to use my content of photos) is why I’m against subscriptions to paid content… my standard response is below:
Always looking for fish or information :-)
I totally understand you run a business and your livelihood depends on this... but you see, 30 years ago I was working on fishing boat earning 300USD a month. I manage to gain qualifications and progress in life thanks to studying and to many people that I knew but even more people I didn't, that provided me information, books (that's you FAO!), and training materials for free.
I started my blog as a sideline in my website (the blog option was part of the minimal package) so I started writing it for free and i always love making pictures of what is ee on board (and also said many times: no thanks to offers of paid sponsorship), mostly as a way to partly pay back all that free info and advice I was given...
I work at the present with many fishers and fisheries officers in the pacific that earn less per month than the value of most paywalled fisheries news sites...
So I adhere to the principle that fisheries information should be free, otherwise the gap in between those that can access and those that by no fault of their own cannot pay for it will keep growing... and with that, we will see sustainability fall even further, since only the rich can afford to be informed and care, while the less fortunate, keep having their choices and options further and further eroded.
I'm totally aware that it is a total ideological stand, as the gap is too wide already for a one-man band like myself to make a difference, yet I’m a man of principles... so I don't subscribe to paid content.
Said so, I really appreciate your interest in my personal rumblings in the blog, and as long as I'm acknowledged as the source of pictures and contents I'm honoured for you to be using them... just let me know when you do as a matter of courtesy, that is all.
Yours in legal and safe fishing,
--
Francisco Blaha