Posted on 04/19/2006 5:44:22 PM PDT by SJackson
It's common knowledge that we are running out of oil. What's not so well known is that we are also running out of big fish.
The harsh realization that catches of big fish marlin, sharks, swordfish and tuna are declining rapidly is beginning to sink in. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization considers about 75 percent of all fish fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted.
The crisis can be seen most extremely across the Pacific, the world's largest source of tuna, where catches are shrinking along with the average size of the fish. Today a 70-pound swordfish which is too young to have even reproduced is considered "a good-sized fish" and can be legally landed in the U.S. Just a few short decades ago the same fish averaged 300-400 pounds and could be caught close to shore with a harpoon.
In the past two years, the Pacific has seen quotas, restrictions on catches, freezes on effort and even moratoriums. The U.S. longline fleet had to shut down for the second half of 2005 in the Eastern Pacific. Japan and China were not far behind.
Just last December, the new international body with the unwieldy name Western and Central Pacific Fishery Commission imposed a freeze on further efforts to catch bigeye and albacore. Throughout the Pacific, it is widely documented that these two species have recently joined the lucrative southern bluefin tuna on the overfished list. In fact, southern bluefin already has a step up on its cousins and is considered an endangered species by the World Conservation Union.
Shameful shark finning has caused numerous shark species to plummet as well, and a few sharks such as the great white to be considered vulnerable to extinction.
All told, recent scientific reports document that the biomass of these large fish has declined by about 90 percent in the Pacific since 1950 about the time that new technologies allowed us to fish further from shore for longer and catch more fish. Since then, technology has eviscerated those last areas of the ocean safe from us only because we were unable to reach them and stay there.
The announcement last month by the U.S. government that yellowfin tuna is also being overfished in the Pacific will undoubtedly send a shock wave throughout the U.S. and the Pacific.
We are now faced with incontrovertible evidence that the lions and tigers of the sea the ones we feed our children for lunch are disappearing fast.
Imagine the day when cans of tuna, a staple food source for millions of Americans, can no longer be found. According to the warning signs, that day may already be here.
That's bad news for the dozens of impoverished Pacific island nations that have leased their national waters for pennies on the dollar to foreign industrial longline vessels to catch and export their fish primarily to the U.S., Japan and the E.U. For some of these nations, these meager licensing fees contribute as much as 70 percent of their GDP. When greed and waste finally lead to the collapse of these fish, millions of people throughout the Pacific will sink even further into poverty. Canneries are already cutting their hours or even shutting down for want of fish. Stories of crews mutinying or being abandoned in foreign countries by captains who couldn't pay them abound.
The days of three cans of tuna for a $1, a vivid memory from my childhood, are long gone.
The way out of this crisis is to catch less and pay more while staying out of critical areas of the ocean. It only seems fair that the countries with the resources should receive a far larger share of their $2 billion-a-year resource and still have some of the big fish around to attract far more lucrative game fishing tourism.
The U.S. has taken the right step by restricting longline fishing for tuna in the Eastern Pacific and banning it on the West Coast. Now it's time to put the pressure on other countries to do the same.
Otherwise we may start having to add these fish to the endangered species list.
darn...another language, I can't spell in. LOL.
Deep sea farms are becoming more popular. They anchor huge netted cages that can later be brought up to the surface.
Yes. As others have noted, we'll have to grow fish. A relatively simple task which American's will do. And if we have to reduce the tuna or swordfish catch, fine, no one will starve and other countries will harvest them for us.
Agriculture is a major industry, maybe the major industry. Fish is also an agricultural industry of sorts, as is forestry, but fish are not so visible. Fish should be possible to industrialize completely, although I haven't looked at the business from the economic standpoint.
Welcome to FR from a kindred spirit.
yummy... "free pie and chips?" couresy of Geico :-)
You failed to post the figures from 1900-1930-1950. The same was said back then. This planet can't hold anymore people. Guess they were wrong back then, huh?
We'll just add more dolphin and sea turtle to our diet.
Circua 1880: The world will soon be dark as the whale oil is soon to be depleted.
Now it's time to force major chain restaurants like Red Lobster (actually RL in particular) to start buying locally and not from the non-US longliners.
Otherwise we may start having to add these fish to the endangered species list.
Small business commercial fishermen (AKA watermen) are already on the endangered species list, especially in the mid-atlantic region.
I wonder how many of the anti-WalMart FReepeers are frequenters of such places as Red Lobster, LoneStar and other such chain venues - who all get their seafood from the rapers of the water, as opposed to getting it locally from people that respect what they are doing?
How about catfish sushi....nigiri or a spicy catfish roll?!! We've laughed about this as we LOVE sushi but one day we just might have it on the menu! Luckily the husband loves uni and mackerel which isn't for the tastebuds of all.
It's that dern Mike Leavitt's fault. After he pointed out that keeping tuna under my bed would protect against bird flu I rushed out and bought two cases of it. There's probably a shortage of powdered milk by now as well, which I'm sure is putting a strain on powdered cows.
LOL!
NO, you don't get it. Illegal mermaids and water sprites will work the fish farms off the books as cheap labor. Outside the 3 mile limit, no labor laws will apply.
Here's another one for you. Had some catfish cakes in Mississippi that were as good as, if not better, than any crab cakes I'd ever had.
More pictures of fish please!!!
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