A fishing-boat dock at Grimsby, U.K., at the turn of the 20th century.
Posted on 05/14/2010 7:40:53 AM PDT by NYer
A fishing-boat dock at Grimsby, U.K., at the turn of the 20th century.
Over the last century or so, trawlers have gotten more powerful engines, fish-detecting radar, lighter nets, and vast onboard freezers.
What the fleets might really need, though, is a time machine.
After all, bottom-fishing fleets in United Kingdom waters today have to work 17 times harder to catch the same amount of fish as their sail-powered Victorian counterparts did, according to a new study.
To address innovations have made fishing more efficient over the years, the study authors devised a new measure: units of "fishing power."
After analyzing historic catch records from England and Wales, the researchers conclude that the amount of fish caught per unit of fishing power has fallen by 94 percent since 1889.
That doesn't necessarily mean the number of fish along the seafloor, such as cod and haddock, dropped by 94 percent. But it's probably "a very good approximation," lead study author Ruth Thurstan, a graduate student at the University of York in England, said via email.
The decrease in catches is "truly shocking," given how much more efficient fleets have become, Thurstan said in a telephone interview.
The statistics sting all the more because they involve not just one species but an entire section of the marine ecosystem, she added. The U.K. seafloor could be undergoing a wholesale shift as a result, with exploding populations of baitfish and crustaceans, for example, taking the places of their former predators.
For better or worse, the Britain isn't alone in the fisheries decline.
The fisheries is "very much in line with what studies have shown in other ecosystems," said Andrew Rosenberg, a University of New Hampshire marine-sciences professor who wasn't involved in the new study.
"We've seen the same thing in the western Atlantic, in the North Sea, and in the Baltic," said Rosenberg, a former U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fisheries manager. "In the Mediterranean you probably have even greater declines."
(Related: "Overfishing is Emptying World's Rivers, Lakes, Experts Warn.")
Fishing Better, Catching Fewer
Bottom-dwelling fish landings at U.K. ports rose from 1889—the first year reliable records were kept—through the mid-20th century as the fleet grew larger and technology made fishing much more efficient, according to the new study, published May 4 in the journal Nature Communications.
Trawlers, which drag bag-shaped nets along the seafloor, began trading sails for steam engines in the 1880s, allowing the fleet to fish more distant, deeper waters for longer periods. Net technologies further improved catch rates, and refrigeration stretched the fishing boats' capabilities even further.
But since World War II, despite ever increasing investment in a more efficient fleet, trawler catches in U.K. waters have been dropping, presumably due to overfishing.
For example, today's trawling fleet off the U.K. annually catches about half what its sail-powered predecessor did in 1889, the study says—and less than a quarter of the peak annual catch in 1938.
(See pictures illustrating the current global fish crisis.)
Fishing Fears Nothing New
Even in 1889 trawl fishing had already been practiced for centuries off Britain. "Fish stocks around the U.K. were already in decline, and it was being noticed at the time," study leader Thurstan said.
In fact, the records used in the new study were begun as a result of two Royal Commissions of Inquiry to address Victorian fishers' concerns over shrinking stocks.
The study found that the first steep declines in U.K. trawler catches began in the 1960s. That's a full 20 years before the formal enactment of the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which fishers often blamed for the current state of European fisheries.
But the earlier date for the first steep declines doesn't mean the CFP is completely off the hook.
"The stocks have continued to decline throughout the [time of the] CFP, so it hasn't allowed the recovery of many of the stocks," Thurstan said.
(Also see: "African Bush-Meat Trade Linked to EU Overfishing.")
Can Seafloor Fishery Be Fixed?
Gavin Gibbons is a spokesperson for the National Fisheries Institute, which represents the U.S. fish and seafood industry. Fishery collapses, he says, aren't due to increases in fleet efficiency but rather to poor management.
What's needed, Gibbons said, is proper direction, based on better knowledge of stock status, reproduction, and sustainable catch levels. With that in place, he said, fish generally can be harvested sustainably.
"Understanding the seafood science behind safe harvest levels and following them under strong unified management schemes has been a recipe for success that NOAA has employed for years [in the U.S.]," he added.
The University of New Hampshire's Rosenberg is also hopeful for solutions to overfishing's effects.
"We need to accept that we've fundamentally altered these ecosystems, but that doesn't mean that everything is irreversible," he said.
For example, bottom-dwelling haddock on North America's rich Georges Bank were decimated to the point of collapse in the early 1990s, Rosenberg said. Though abundance remains far below historic levels, stocks increased tenfold from 1995 to 2005, due to restrictive guidelines, he said.
"It's a challenge," he said. "But I think it's sometimes possible to rebuild if you can address the problems of overfishing."
Has the fish eating population of the world increased so much, or are we grand-folks eating more cat food and enjoying less health care?
Guess that will be Bush’s fault too.
Blame it on the ‘anti-meat’/food nazis. Meantime, while I don’t doubt the depletion; do wonder where they get their ‘percentages’. . .
OR is our ability to measure fish populations getting more accurate?
There is a connection, and no amount of man-made scientific tinkering can fix what is really a spiritual problem, outworking through the physical world.
I haven't read the article yet but I strongly suspect they'll blame it on GoreBull Warming.
China..............
A whale appeared in the sea off Israel for the very first time and of course, they blamed it on global warming.
If you have been watching Glenn Beck you know this is the vehicle they plan on using to bring down our entire economy.
I heard See BS do an interview with Strobe Talbot yesterday and I nearly ran off the road in fury. He’s the head of Brookings Institution and is insisting the planet will not survive if we don’t pass cap and tax.
How did they do fish counts in 1894?
“A whale appeared in the sea off Israelfor the very first time “
Did it spit up a pissed off prophet? Tell the arabs to repent?
Lol ... have you seen the price of cat food? The market is flooded (no pun intended) with a plethora of brands selling gourmet food in fancy packages. It is more expensive than those products intended for human consumption.
!?
Healthy management policy is difficult to implement initially, but works. If such policy is not implemented, bans will result, and you want to talk about unpopular! The bans will affect us sport fishers first.
The fish eating population of the world has increased, exponentially and that increased demand is clearly putting an enormous strain on the natural production capacity of the world's oceans.
As an example, if we relied exclusively on wild land animals, those animals all would have gone extinct centuries ago in Europe, and probably more than a hundred years ago here. We consumed over 27 billion pounds of beef in the US alone, in 2008 - that's roughly 27 million head of cattle, each year.
It only makes logical reason that if man doesn't augment the natural biological production of the seas with "farmed" fish, it's only a matter of time until most of the frequently eaten fish species start to go extinct. It's not environmentalism, it's just basic math.
Beck is excellent, but I didn't learn this from him, although he does occasionally present info I hadn't known before. Then again, he misses a lot of stuff, too. Overall, though, I'd say he is doing a terrific job informing the public of the radically left nature of the demonRat party.
Fish and game management is a must.....I wonder if they are practicing it?
Most of the public are not smart enough to pay attention to people like Beck....they come around when gas hits three dollars a gallon and AFTER things like Obamacare is already passed!
I just don’t believe their studies anymore. Consider Harvard getting 100 million from Rockefeller last year and then turning around and doing a study for one of their foundations who, for example, what to ban fishing or guns. I think we’ve been had for a number of years with bogus studies.
That doesn't necessarily mean the number of fish along the seafloor...dropped by 94 percent. But it's probably."a very good approximation,"...
In other news, it has been revealed that 78.3% of statistics are made up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.