LSAT 17 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q7

LR Question 7 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: The fishing industry cannot currently be relied upon to…

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: If the government wants an accurate count of how many seabirds are killed by fishermen then the government should institute a program where tissue samples of dead seabirds are examined for toxins.

REASONING: The fishers will have an incentive to hand in dead seabirds. They want to know if the fish they catch are contaminated by toxins (seabirds eat the toxic fish.)

Without an incentive the fishermen will not turn in dead birds. If it can be proven that they catch too many the government might restrict net fishing.

ANALYSIS: The argument hasn’t established that we need cooperation from the fishing industry. Maybe we can measure the number of birds killed using another method.

___________

1. This would weaken the argument. The idea is that seabirds eat all the fish that the fishermen catch. This makes the birds an accurate indicator of how toxic the fish are.
2. A past program wouldn’t really affect the situation. The previous program might have been utterly ineffective.
3. CORRECT. If this were true then the government would have to find a way to convince the fishers to cooperate. There would be no other way of counting the number of dead seabirds.
4. This would mean that the fishers would not want the government to test for toxins. This weakens the argument.
5. This doesn’t help because the government has not restricted net fishing.

Recap: The question begins with “The fishing industry cannot currently be relied upon to”. It is a Strengthen question. Learn how to master LSAT Strengthen questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.