Defending the Truth - View Single Post

tyreay · 11-03-2006, 05:30 AM

I've have previously mention our need to better regulate our oceans. Fisherman that have no other income really have no other choice than to go out and fish. these guys need some other way to make a living and not take away from our wild stocks of fish. I think that ocean fish farming is something we need to invest lots of money into.
I am a former commercial fisherman and have been in one position or another in the seafood industry, since 1976 to about 1997. I have a fairly good grasp of the decline in our oceans stocks of fish and shellfish. Watching speices like Cod and summer flounder become a rare thing in the net was disheartening. I remember us getting busting full nets of these fish when I first started.
In 97' I was working as a manager in a grocery store fish dept in N.H. I was moving a 80lbs box of steamers and a customer called me. I turned and felt something go 'POP'. it didn't hurt tht bad then but I went home and woke up later in the worst pain of my life. I pinched a nerve in my neck and I was out of work for two years. I worked on the therapy thing hard and got so I could do some work. I was limited on what I could do but knew my limits
By this time you either had a deep sea rig or owned an inshore dragger or lobster boat. By the winter of 2000/2001 I had my own boat going, a 22' aqua-sport, foam blown in with reinforces sides with a 130 yamaha. It was a great inshore net and dredge boat. I had been on successful boats and knew where the fish should be. My first year, with my own boat, I fished all the places the other guys fished and the fish were gone. Yeah a few were still in ther but the inshore New England fishing grounds are pretty much cleaned out. I made a shitty living for a year with a commercial bait license and blue crab license. A red tide(an algae bloom)the next year killed off all the blue crabs and I was forced to sell the boat. I just couldn't make a living fishing inshore. This is about the time I started looking into learning more about our oceans. I worked in the summers tying up boats at a resort marina and I have been assisted by the non-profit company I volunteer for with fairly a good eduction and taken it upon myself to learn everything else I can about the eco-systems of our world. I know some here think I am a enviroment nut case but this is not the case.
The reason for this post is I would like to appeal to everyone. First, please read this article and tell me what you think:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science...2-overfishing-

Study: 90% of the ocean's edible species may be gone by 2048
Updated 11/3/2006 12:19 AM ET

HUNGRY FOR FISH

As supplies dwindle, the American appetite for seafood grows. U.S. annual consumption per person:
1960: 10.3 pounds
1970: 11.8
1980: 12.5
1990: 15.0
2000: 15.2
2004: 16.6
Source: National Marine Fisheries Service

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
Oversight of commercial fishing must be strengthened or there may eventually be no more seafood.
That's the conclusion of a report in today's Science journal that predicts 90% of the fish and shellfish species that are hauled from the ocean to feed people worldwide may be gone by 2048.

Even now, 29% of those species have "collapsed," meaning a 90% decline in the amount being fished from the sea, said Boris Worm, lead author and a professor of marine conservation biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

"It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating," Worm said. The paper represents four years of work by an international team of researchers at various universities who analyzed ocean species diversity over the past 1,000 years.

The team concludes that this trend can be reversed. "We need to implement sustainable fishing methods, create marine sanctuaries where species can replenish themselves and limit pollution from coastal areas," said Heike Lotze, a marine ecologist at Dalhousie University.

"If the habitat is gone or the water's destroyed," the fish populations can't bounce back, she said.

"We know how to do this. But it must be done soon," Worm said. "With each species that is lost, the opportunity for the system to repair itself is diminished."

The findings are too pessimistic and not true of the USA, said Steve Murawski, chief scientist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, which oversees fishing regions in U.S. waters.

Murawski said "aggressive fisheries management" is reducing the percentage of U.S. overfished species, which he estimated is now 20%. U.S. fishing regions represent about 10% of the world's catch.

Worldwide, overfishing is a big part of the problem, the researchers said. "Every year it's estimated that human beings remove 150 million metric tons of life from the seas," said Joshua Reichert, environment-program director at Pew Charitable Trusts in Philadelphia.

But fishing isn't the only problem, the report states. The destruction of coastal areas, estuaries and reefs by dredging, building and pollution destroys nursery habitats for young fish.

As marine species disappear, the ability of others to survive is further harmed by the drop in the ocean's overall productivity and stability, the researchers found.

Fish and seafood are key protein sources for a world that's expected to add another 3 billion people by 2050. But it's also a problem for people who don't eat fish. Sixty percent of Americans live within 60 miles of a coast. Declines in marine biodiversity can:

Increase coastal flooding because of the loss of floodplains and erosion control provided by the wetlands, reefs and underwater vegetation that are a cornerstone of marine life.

Reduce water quality by destroying the plants, shellfish and fish that are the ocean's biological filtering apparatus.

Increase beach closure because of harmful algae blooms, such as red tide, facilitated by diminished filtering.
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Dust from the Sahara Desert causes red tide, a toxic algae bloom. Harmful blooms are diminished by filtering, which is the job of the ocean's fish and shellfish. A decline in their population will lead to bigger blooms.
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Many things we do are contributing to this problem. With the every increasing population of th eworld we are really going to be in deep shit soon.
First step is putting some of our war money into better technology for ocean type fish farming. The second step is complete conversion to ecologically friendly energy sources.
This is not some half ass threat. Guys, this is real.