Posted on 01/03/2003 12:12:20 PM PST by cogitator
Centuries of Overfishing Push Ecosystems to the Brink
An article I recommend reading. Two excerpts:
"Essentially, by overfishing our coastal oceans for centuries, we are doing uncontrolled experiments and witnessing the transformation of the global coastal ocean," Jackson said. "Were witnessing the disappearance of large organisms and the increasing ascendancy of small invertebrates and microbes throughout the coastal ocean. We dont know how easy it is to reverse the process, assuming we have the will to do it."
and...
"He points to ship logs from Christopher Columbuss voyages, describing Caribbean waters so abundant with green turtles that crewmen feared their vessels might run aground on the turtles backs. Old colonial records from Jamaica confirmed these reports and allowed Jackson to calculate a "conservative" estimate of the 30- to 50-million giant green turtles thriving in the Caribbean during the 1600s. "With each turtle weighing 100 to 200 kilograms (200 to 400 pounds), thats more biomass than all the large animals in East Africa," Jackson observed."
In many of our states, hatcheries have long provided a successful means of replenishing freshwater species that are overfished by sportsfisherman. The oceans are mighty big, but I wonder if a similar approach might be practical for at least some of those saltwater species that are overfished for food.
The technology isn't really all that expensive or high-tech: basicly a bunch of huge fish tanks with plumbing, filters, pumps, etc. etc. And all ya gotta do is raise the fry long enough that you significantly improve their chances of surviving to maturity in the wild.
It would take quite a few hatcheries to impact ocean populations, but those could easily be spread around the various fishing nations to share the load. And while governments may pay the cost of original construction, operating costs could be paid by a fee tacked onto commercial fishing licenses.
Not a panacea, just an idea that is worthy of consideration IMHO.
Were witnessing the disappearance of large organisms and the increasing ascendancy of small invertebrates and microbes throughout the coastal ocean. We dont know how easy it is to reverse the process, assuming we have the will to do it."
Check your food chains. An abundance of small invertebrates and microbes (food) will lead to an abundance of 'higher' predators. As food is easier to obtain, reproduction and survival rates for predators increase. It's seen all the time in nature.....cycles for rabbits and bobcats mirror each other, for instance.
He points to ship logs from Christopher Columbuss voyages, describing Caribbean waters so abundant with green turtles that crewmen feared their vessels might run aground on the turtles backs
Anecdotal evidence. I would wonder about any exaggeration, as well. In my own circumstance, for instance, stories about my fishing trips, the casual observer would think that massive trout were so commonplace that I could scoop them out of the water with my bare hands. I rarely talk about all of the fishing trips that I got skunked.
Jackson to calculate a "conservative" estimate of the 30- to 50-million giant green turtles thriving in the Caribbean during the 1600s. "With each turtle weighing 100 to 200 kilograms (200 to 400 pounds), thats more biomass than all the large animals in East Africa," Jackson observed."
This statistic is utterly meaningless. It's just a large impressive number. That's all. Read 'How to Lie With Statistics'. It's a real eye-opener.
Personally, I am willing to discuss environmental topics, but only facts, not wild guesses.
Would you care to elaborate more specificly how you would do this?
Or are you simply chanting a mantra?
Wolfgang Berger, a Scripps research paleogeologist and another coauthor of the report, has been studying sediments from the Santa Barbara Basin that date back more than 1,000 years. "We tend to be more familiar with historical records in terrestrial systems," Berger said. "If you dont understand the time scale of changes to an ecosystemwhether its the chaparral on land or marine life in the seathen you dont really understand the ecosystem...."Thanks for posting this."You cant understand the Balkans without understanding what happened 100 and 200 years ago. And you cant understand rockfish populations on the California coast if you don't know what's been going on there over the last 100 years or more."
There is a relation between the two that is ironic considering that alledgedly "green" groups are trying to limit CO2 emmissions. As humans consume more food and take up more space, the increased CO2 from our cars increase the plant densisty which mitigates some of the losses the rest of the ecosystem suffers.
The Enviorment is too serious an issue to leave in the hands of modern "Enviormentalists".
The problem is, what carrot and/or stick do you use to get sovereign nations to agree to a plan to leave enormous fisheries untapped?
Well private enterprise has already pursued offshore fish farms, so I suppose we're OK with the cows and chickens.
So I suppose I'm thinking more along the lines of trout, which just get dumped back into the water and are free to swim around whereever they please until they get consumed by a predator (whether the predator is man or another fish).
Let's use the shrill liberals' line on Iraq: where's the evidence?
Christopher Columbus' logs from 1492 probably won't convince many that there are problems 511 years later.
That's no problem. It's exactly why I proposed building the big tanks just like the freshwater hatcheries.
IMHO, all you've suggested is "don't build the hatcheries" then wondered how it's gonna work.
If you ever try to prune a tree, be mighty careful which side of the limb you're sitting on before you start to saw.
Or are we going to pay for this with a surcharge on our big-government magnetic train windfall?
Let's also remember that they believed in "SEA MONSTERS" and Mermaids at this time to. And had regular sightings of them.
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