Fish populations have been reduced by 70-95% - Imagine a world without seafood for supper

[steven johnson]

Over fishing, like global warming, is a product of denial.

"If I wanted people to understand the global fishing crisis, I would bring them here," says Sally Bailey, a marine programme officer with the World Wide Fund for Nature, one of the more moderate NGOs combating the exploitation of the seas. Last year, one of the more militant groups - Greenpeace - managed to "close down" five exhibitors trading in critically endangered bluefin tuna, by deploying 80 activists to drape their stands in fishing nets, chain themselves to fixtures and put up banners that read: "Time and tuna are running out".

What the organisers must know, but are keeping mum about, is that the oceans are in a parlous state. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 70% of the world's fisheries are now fully exploited (ie, fished to the point where they can only just replenish themselves), overexploited or depleted. The majority of fish populations have been reduced by 70-95%, depending on the species, compared to the level they would be at if there were no fishing at all. In other words, only five per cent of fish are left in some cases. In more practical terms, fishermen are catching one or two fish per 100 hooks, compared to 10 fish per 100 hooks where a stock is healthy and unexploited - a measure of sustainability once used by the Japanese fleet.

Where have all those other fish gone? In short, we have eaten them. "Tens of thousands of bluefin tuna used to be caught in the North Sea every year," says Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of York. "Now, there are none.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/apr/26/seafood-overfishing

[grasswire]

1. I wonder how much fish is just thrown away.

At the supermarket, I see aging fish every day -- fish that is surely thrown away at the smell point. How much of this waste could be averted, somehow?

[wroberts189]

4. Lots of restaurants here in CT only serve fish on certain days now.

I get torn between buying some at sale price in the market or not suport the continued destruction of the oceans.

[DCKit]

13. "By-Catch" can be as much as 70%....

and that's before they get it out of the net and onto the boat. Because of the weight in the net, almost everything is hauled aboard already dead. You concern about what's thrown away at the fish counter is a drop in the ocean (not that it's not valid).

We need an international moratorium until all stocks recover then draconian laws against all unsustainable fishing methods. The seas wouldn't be nearly destroyed if fishing were still done by independent contractors on small boats.

[flvegan]

2. As if no "seafood for supper" would be the worst of it.

Thank humans for the pending ecosystem collapse.

[wroberts189]

5. Sadly quite correct ..if the seas die we die. nt

[Dead_Parrot]

14. For most people, it is.

Fuck the oceans. Fuck the dolphins. Bathypelagic? Guess you don't play basketball, then. Huhuhuh.
Take my fish supper? OH NOES!!!1!

Makes you pround to be human, doesn't it?

[wroberts189]

3. fish disappear from restaurant menus..no one seems to notice..

just gets replaced by another fish ..Cod and Haddock become Tilapia ... no one seems to care.


Supermarkets only carry farm raised salmon with added coloring. Wild Salmon going extinct ..no peep from the media.

You can still get it but it will cost ya... it seems they will sell till the very last fish species is alive.

Mercury in Tuna.. so much so pregnant women and kids should avoid it.

Damn... seafood so delicious and healthy and no one will stop the tragedy. Like clear cutting or strip mining no thought is given to the future.

Sad.

knr

[MADem]

6. Time to start cloning Mister Limpet, IMO!!

[excess_3]

7. why is it acceptable for ex-politicians to feast on endangered fish

while it is unacceptable for ordinary citizens
to eat tuna?

[msongs]

8. don't eat fish anymore nt

[babylonsister]

9. Not 'Go, Fish', but 'NO, FISH'? . This is really bad.

Many people rely on a local natural resource for their sustenance and protein.

Not good.

[flamingdem]

10. Very important k+r

So sad to hear about the wild salmon populations and everything else..

[HamdenRice]

11. That's why fish farming is part of the solution

It has its own environmental problems, but they are not worse than overfishing, and ultimately the problems with fish farming can be ameliorated.

At this point, I only eat farmed salmon, sustainable shellfish, and extremely plentiful east coast fish like whiting.

[formercia]

12. The Vatican should tell people to stop eating fish on Fridays

or at least, reduce the amount to a token quantity. Perhaps a fish-shaped wafer of unleavened bread.