BBC News: 'Only 50 years left' for sea fish

[ahaetulla]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6108414.stm

'Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating.

Writing in the journal Science, the international team of researchers says fishery decline is closely tied to a broader loss of marine biodiversity.



[...]

But a greater use of protected areas could safeguard existing stocks...'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6108414.stm

[flashout]

Have to agree with you. I m from Malaysia, and used to have alot of nice beach and coral bed, but once it become popular place, the whole place will gone within 2 years time. Polutions and development.

I m sad to say that, our goverment are doing nothing to protect the natural place.

No wonder the marine LS its getting more expensive from day to day. To no surprise to me, you can get alot of "special" items in most marine LFS, just need to pay extra.

[Orion]

We may have GM fishes in the future that grow fast, diease resistant, immune to water fluctuation etc.. but we may have to pay a premium for the 'true' natural fish. Paying is what we concern as there will always be demand.

In the future there may be global sea level rising and with water everywhere. It will be ironical that fishes will start to replace beef, chicken, lamb etc...

[StanChung]

IMHO, more Finding Nemo movies don't help at all although I enjoyed that movie. Disaster movies fall flat because nobody cares. Most only care when it hurts their pockets.

[jwuog]

I had met a lady during the course of my work who is like a "procurement manager" for a major food brand. It could be Ayam brand, Del Monte, Starkist, NTUC etc which I shall not name.

This is what she told me; if you like their brand of sardines, better stock up now, because even though they ordered tonnes of it, the landings ( the term they use when the fishing boat docks) had come back with zero catch.

Scary heh? Wait till I tell you guys what she said about corns and prunes etc.

[StanChung]

I'm safe, I don't like sardines.
On a more serious note, they already knew this long ago and been doing aquaculture for many types of species already.

[BFG]

Aquaculture fish for food will not be able to fill the demand of the world. The best way to prevent fish stock from dwindling is to create more no-fishing zone for the fish stock to increase in number. Also, as part of this no-fishing zone, mangrove habitat must also be protected from being destroyed as it has been proven that this part of the eco-system is also necessary as this habitat has been primary used as a place where juvenile fish congregate and grow larger before moving back to the open sea.

[jwuog]

Do people farm sardines? Never heard of it.

However I do know that the Japanese had began to start farming tuna (blue fin?) because we had eaten them to point of non-sustainability.

Read it before and they had success raising from it from fry. But don't know if it had gone into commercial scale yet.

[yyylarry]

*guilty thread spotted*

went for jap buffet yesterday and had 3 giant servings of mixed sashimi.

[StanChung]

Eat more chicken. I had some sashimi this week, total three large servings as well-coincidence. yum

If it's going to be gone it's going to be gone. The only ones who will miss it are those who eat so much of it.[us-] The kids of tomorrow won't miss it because the have no memory of it. Just like petrol. Use more because you can afford it. Please buy bigger more fuel guzzling cars. Concentrate on making more money, cynical as it sounds. [-read sarcasm-]

[Jungle-mania]

I have came across a research once where they wanted to check if there were pelagic fishes would travel through a particular area by using a underwater camera on a buoy for one year. Not one fish travelled through that area, they term these places as 'dead spots'. Apparently, it is more common than most people think.

I actually nearly did this for my honours thesis where I wanted to find if there was a correlation between the decline in fish population and fishing them during spawning seasons. If you notice almost all fishermen around the world actually target their fishing during spawning period, because it saves a lot on their fuel and fish with roe fetch a higher price. I wanted to test the hypothesis that if fishing was done during non spawning periods, it can remain more sustainable without a dramatic drop in fish population. I recalled once near my uni, they had a no fishing zone during spawning period for red snappers, the population shot back up in a matter of 3 to 4 years.

[FishSoup]

Actually there are many things that can be done do help sustain/boost fish stocks, its just that such moves are generally met with opposition from the fishermen. In many places they either do not comprehend the magnitude of the problem, or dismiss it by saying that such moves will not help much anyway. This is generally not true. In New Zealand, admired as one of the countries with the best protected marine environments, fishermen reported better catches AFTER the designation of protected (no fishing) marine sanctuaries. The protection of the sanctuaries provided a sustainable nucleus population of fish; their offspring are the reason for the increased harvest.

Another thing that can be done is to limit catches, only allowing specimens larger than a certain designated size to be caught. This ensures that the fish caught are not too young, and are allowed at least a few breeding cycles before they are caught for the table. This is a problem for some much sought after species, however.. some of their populations are so depleted that fishermen are already reporting average fish sizes much smaller than a couple of decades ago.

And also there is the problem of by-catch: the use of trawling and other unspecific fishing methods catch all the fish in the sea (the by-catch is then dumped), and not just the specific species the fishermen are targeting. This is a major cause of biodiversity loss , even of species not popularly eaten by man. The other reason would be the inevitable upset of the ecological food cycles as a result of population collapses of the food fish.

About the Bluefin Tuna, i had read that they are not really being reared, not in the same way salmon and garoupa are reared for the dinner table, anyway. Bluefin are supposedly pelagic fishes with distinct migration ans spawning patterns that are generally not well-understood. What the japanese (and Americans as well) are doing is capturing young tuna and growing them in offshore cages, in an attempt to lessen the capture in the open seas. Sadly, this is not a complete solution; as no reproduction is occurring, populations will still be low. And the threat of open sea fishing still exists.

Or it may be that new practices now allow for actual breeding and rearing I really hope that is the case.. at least it would give the species a fighting chance of recuperating.

[Orion]

I think that the problem is... too many people on Earth. No amount of fishes is going to satify the growing population in the world that explode to many more billions to come. Plus global warming, sea pollution, overcatch.

But there are still good fishing grounds like Africa, North South pole?

I read a article that the war in Bosnia a few years has caused the prawns and fishes population there to explode and refugees returning to their homeland had a pleasant surprise by finding the water full of them. Imagine every day succulent seafood when moments ago still hungery.

Actually we may not have to do anything. Just less people....

[FishSoup]

There are solutions, but they're not going to be easy to implement.. the setting aside of marine sanctuaries and no fishing zones, outlawing of trawling and forced usage of more specific fishing methods could help.. however, these measures will be unpopular with people who fish for a living, which in turn makes governments unwilling to enforce them too, as they fear losing votes. Outlawing of trawling and other destructive fishing methods will be hard to enforce in international waters, as no nation is going to be willing to dispense ships and manpower to enforce the laws on the open seas.

At the end of the day, many of the truly quick-acting solutions can only be enforced by governments, which explains the methods the common man and NGOs like Greenpeace use. In Singapore, however, it seems like all we can do at this point is to spread the word, raise awareness, and help educate others

[StanChung]

I think big business makes the law. If they can't make money, the various govt of the world will not support it because govt depends on big business.

Rich countries dictate ad nauseum to poorer countries when they the elite, produce more crap than dozens of poorer countries combined. In return, poor countries don't care what the rich think. For them it's survival. Heck, the rich countries themselves don't do what they say to protect the environment.

[FishSoup]

True, true. And extremely sad.

Environmental and biodiversity conservation is a very depressing field to work in.. but its the only hope

[XnSdVd]

Well, there's something else you can do; Swear off sardines. If we stop knocking off the bottom of the food chain, there'll be more food for everything else above it. Quite simple really.

Personally i've been off the following species for years now:

- Tuna
- Salmon
- Snapper
- Cod
- Sardines

Just thought i'd share.

[StanChung]

Good idea, I'm however, still hooked to Salmon and Cod but that's only as a treat- once -twice monthly.

[Orion]

Just curious(maybe off topic).

If there is a investment fund that promise 20% return for new technology that catches tons and tons of nature fishes sardines salmon tuna etc and investors already making lots of money from it. (Like bio fuel) Do we think that it is still posible for many people concerned about the declining wild fish stock to do anything when small group of people are making money.

The Japanese are still catching whales despite the mammals being almost driven to extinction in the name of research.


Perhaps the 'only' way to stop the exploitation is when scientists found that certain human consumption fishes type are the true causes of the new era dieases etc. ( people eating too much) and people gets hysteria and start eating vegatables
we have mad cow , napa pigs, bird flu and I think it may be soon we have new things coming out.