sorry VFX, I didn't mean to direct any of my post towards anyone in specific. I only brought up the judgement thing because of the direction the thread seemed to be drifting towards. I only used that part of your original post to build my post off of, not to answer the somewhat rhetorical questions you posed. lol, I don't believe in rhetorical questions when I have an answer
the people in charge i referred to was the people who ultimately make the decisions whether or not to regulate fisheries. ie. government and international regulating bodies. Sea shepard serves a very specific role imo. it hits a different sector than lobbying parties (who go after the "people in charge"). Science usually targets them as well as opposed to trying to educate the public (consumers) and fishermen (producers); albeit science goes through a lot of middle men and gets a bit... muddled by the time it gets there. it's very much like a game of telephone.