plundering the oceans--overfishing

[Rogue]

Here is a site which lists some of the species of fish that are now much less common than they used to be as a result of overfishing:

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/peril_overfishing.html

It is one thing to raise enough domestic cattle for people to consume and another thing to go into a natural environment and take all that you desire. The environment you are harvesting will be affected.

Fish that used to be thrown aside (trash fish) are now being harvested for food as well. For example, the extremely ugly goosefish is now being used as food in many countries.

Fishing in the oceans will continue to become a bigger problem as the human population increases. What do you think should be done about this problem?

I personally feel that countries should make efforts to severely limit the amount of fish their fisherman can take. Isn't the ocean's health more important that everyone getting all the swordfish steaks they can eat?

[squealpiggy]

How will you feed the fishermen then? Fishermen fish for a living. If you ban this what will your solution be for the people who rely on fishing for a living? Just one consideration.

Apparently it's not good to eat Atlantic salmon any more as they are on the endangered list. Cod is on the at risk list. I think continuing to fish but catching different edible fish to the popular ones to allow restocking would be the best solution.

[Twatybollocks]

What I don't understand is that if Cod is on the endangered list, why is it available in every chippy, pub and supermarket in the country?

Surely to conserve stock we should be switching to an alternative for a few years??

We should be taking more of an active stand, personally I go for Haddock now, if it is available, instead of cod.

[squealpiggy]

Haddock is more widespread, but cod is what everyone wants. Have you noticed the cost has increased exponentially? It's because of depleted stocks. It isn't "endangered" yet, I think it's two levels below that.

[Dr-Electro]

When I was but a child, in the 50's and 60's, there was great speculation that aquaculture (sea farming) was the "wave" of the future. Man would farm the oceans, seas and large lakes to the happy abundance of all mankind's dinner table. The sad truth is that greedy corporate bullshit has replaced speculative optimism.

There is not one thing wrong with the concept of repopulating overfished areas of the oceans and seas with hatcher-bred fish. It works like a charm in US lakes using fresh-water fish. So why not in the oceans? The people behind the hatcheries, and I am not talking governments here, are not willing to invest in restoring a commodity that "foreign interests" could benefit from.

The donkey-men who run the bigg corporations only want profit for their already overbloated personal net worth. "Give me something to fatten my stock options, to Hell with putting fish back into the oceans where the Japanese can take them!"

This problem is an international one, but no one seems to be willing to take the first step. Governments won't even think about touching it.

[squealpiggy]

Originally posted by Dr-Electro
When I was but a child, in the 50's and 60's, there was great speculation that aquaculture (sea farming) was the "wave" of the future. Man would farm the oceans, seas and large lakes to the happy abundance of all mankind's dinner table. The sad truth is that greedy corporate bullshit has replaced speculative optimism.

There is not one thing wrong with the concept of repopulating overfished areas of the oceans and seas with hatcher-bred fish. It works like a charm in US lakes using fresh-water fish. So why not in the oceans? The people behind the hatcheries, and I am not talking governments here, are not willing to invest in restoring a commodity that "foreign interests" could benefit from.

The donkey-men who run the bigg corporations only want profit for their already overbloated personal net worth. "Give me something to fatten my stock options, to Hell with putting fish back into the oceans where the Japanese can take them!"

This problem is an international one, but no one seems to be willing to take the first step. Governments won't even think about touching it.

Not so in Europe where there have been laws passed to prevent richer countries (ie ones that contribute more money to the EU such as Britain) from fishing but allowing poorer countries (ie ones that contribute less to the EU such as Spain) to go nuts. Noone has done anything practical about it though.

[plattbridger]

I just like the way we practically went to war over fishing. My 3rd cousin (there's a phrase you don't hear often) was serving in the Navy during the Cod wars and the Icelandic fishing vessels where always the aggressors (a bit obvious really otherwise the British fishermen wouldn't need Naval protection)

Like squealpiggy said as usual we were Europe’s soft touch and the government will do nothing to help. We had to sell a shed load of British trawlers to the Spanish and with British codes on the side they could go where the hell they liked without being suspected. It was in the local news just a few weeks ago about a Spanish trawler getting into trouble- in the Irish Sea!!! And there was that case of the coast of Cornwall a few months ago, which was just the same.

Obviously fishing techniques have improved and hauls are greater so we cannot sustain as many fishing vessels but that doesn't mean entire towns and regional economies should be laid to waste. I asked a harbourmaster in Fife where all the boats where as it was deserted and he said they had all gone out to the Hebrides that’s a few hundred miles all the way around the coast! Just to get fish because of restrictions placed in the North Sea.

What they need is stricter control on pelagic trawling and dynamiting and to stop the smaller European countries running wild.