Posted on 05/17/2010 10:50:46 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (AFP) – The world faces the nightmare possibility of fishless oceans by 2050 without fundamental restructuring of the fishing industry, UN experts said Monday.
"If the various estimates we have received... come true, then we are in the situation where 40 years down the line we, effectively, are out of fish," Pavan Sukhdev, head of the UN Environment Program's green economy initiative, told journalists in New York.
A Green Economy report due later this year by UNEP and outside experts argues this disaster can be avoided if subsidies to fishing fleets are slashed and fish are given protected zones -- ultimately resulting in a thriving industry.
The report, which was opened to preview Monday, also assesses how surging global demand in other key areas including energy and fresh water can be met while preventing ecological destruction around the planet.
UNEP director Achim Steiner said the world was "drawing down to the very capital" on which it relies.
However, "our institutions, our governments are perfectly capable of changing course, as we have seen with the extraordinary uptake of interest. Around, I think it is almost 30 countries now have engaged with us directly, and there are many others revising the policies on the green economy," he said.
Collapse of fish stocks is not only an environmental matter.
One billion people, mostly from poorer countries, rely on fish as their main animal protein source, according to the UN.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
How about the UN disappearing?
I don’t put any credence into an organization that elected a Nazi as Secretary General.
Poor people hurt most. < /sarc >
Have you ever seen what they charge for good fish in restaurants?
wait... don’t tell me... What we need is MORE TAXES, LESS FREEDOM, LOT’S and LOT’s of $$$ for research (and public education). Seen this franchise before?
I predict that in 40 years there will be more fish than now - and if you look at the cloud formations you will see someone thumbing His nose at cynical man.
Technically, the oceans are losing water to the tune of millions of gallons a year into subduction zones and other chasms in the ocean floor. We do get some back through volcanoes, but ultimately it will all disappear into the crust and mantle.
We must save the SEA KITTENS!!!
If only the UN would disappear in 4 hours the world would be a better place.
Oh, wait... that was the dolphins...
:)
Agreed. The only thing worse than a crisis is the Marxists profiting by it.
Actually, Gorebasm states that we’ll all be swallowed up with water, the world over.
So, you can’t have it both ways.
This reminds me of the dumbass Earth Day predictions from the 70s on.
We’re doomed....DOOMED!!!
All those islands are tipping over and splashing all the water out.
Women, children, members of minority groups, gays, lesbians, (always make that distinction, Norm, even though Lesbians are "Gay"), the handicapped (includes mentally), and the transgendered, will unfortunately suffer the most. (I could have shortened that by saying the "Baldacci Team.")
This environmental tragedy was clearly caused by The Holy Roman Catholic Church, which for centuries insisted that members of the cult eat fish on Fridays and Christmas Eve, although George W. Bush and his father certainly contributed to it by trolling for mackerel off Kennebunk Beach. Damn them!
In order to protect our dwindling fisheries in the Gulf of Maine, I suggest we put our Somalis to work as Environmental Fisheries Guards (Which is what the Somali Pirates call themselves), stopping fishermen and holding them and their boats for ransom. That is if anyone can get these transplanted border bandits to leave their goats and brothers behind and actually work ... at something.
These EEJUTS just don’t get it: God is still in control. I’m sure He’s got a plan. He still provides!
The fishing industry will restructure their fleets to accomodate the reduced catch. Over time, the stocks of fish should return.
Fortunately, the rate at which populations can grow is exponential, not linear.
“Overfishing is an extremely serious environmental issue.
I’m sad to see people dismissive of it here.
Unfortunately the leftists have cried wolf over so many bogus issues that when a real issue comes along people don’t take it seriously.”
I’m with you. Anyone who pays attention at all to the world’s fisheries, or even just the price and availability of previously very cheap and abundant fish species, must be aware that we have already seriously impacted the stocks of some of these species. Atlantic cod, wild Atlantic salmon, halibut, some (most?) types of Pacific salmon, and many other species are already endangered or threatened. Apparently some people think the ocean’s supply of fish is unlimited and we are not able to harvest enough of it to seriously harm it.
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