People said this about the cod on the Grand Banks, the West Coast salmon, moose here in Ontario, caribou in northern Quebec/Labrador, etc. For that matter a decade ago Ontario's biologists allowed up to six deer tags per hunter, and did not turn off the taps when the numbers started to crash. We had two bad winters in a row, and the deer, at least here in Southeastern Ontario, are only now getting back to a normal population. We humans are pretty effective harvesters of fish and game.........and when we KNOW that something is a poor practice conservation-wise, even if it is legal, we should try to help out the species when we can.
Just sayin'...........