Scientists Call For Closing 1/3 Of World's Oceans To Fishing For 20 Years Or More - Guardian

[hatrack]

One third of the world's oceans must be closed to fishing for 20 years if depleted stocks are to recover, scientists and conservation groups have warned. Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of York, has reviewed 100 scientific papers identifying the scale of closure needed. "All are leaning in a similar direction," he said, "which is that 20-40% of the sea should be protected."

Friends of the Earth, the Marine Conservation Society and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds all support the idea of a 30% closure. The proposal comes in the wake of a green paper calling for radical reform of the common fisheries policy, which EU ministers admit has failed. It reveals that 88% of European Union stocks are overfished (against a global average of 25%), while 30% are "outside safe biological limits", meaning they cannot reproduce as normal because the parenting population is too depleted.

The European Commission suggests a reduction in fleet size and a dramatic cut in fishing among its series of measures, but Roberts believes these will not work without the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs). "If we are ever going to have sustainable fisheries, MPA networks are essential," he said. In Iceland, Canada and the US, MPAs have "brought real increases in fish populations and real recovery of seabed habitats", he added.

The most convincing example is New England, where stocks, said Roberts, were "in a dreadful state" in the 1990s. Off Georges Bank, nearly 20,000 sq km - a quarter of the fishing grounds - was closed to vessels and fishing was reduced by "a draconian 50%". In the last 10 years, Roberts said, there had been a "spectacular recovery". Off Lundy Island in Devon, one of only three no-take zones (similar to MPAs) in British waters, the lobster population is eight times higher within the reserve. "We have already seen benefits in the lobster fishery immediately outside it," said Giles Bartlett, fisheries policy officer at WWF.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/26/fishing-stocks-protection-conservation

[GliderGuider]

1. OK, so long as it's the third with no fish left.

You see, we haven't finished fishing out the other two thirds, yet, so we'll need to keep them open for a bit longer.

[thereismore]

2. This is how gov'mint conspires to control the livelihoods of the fishing communities.

And their right to fish, catch and trap anything that lives, which was handed down to them by generations of hard-working fishermen. Nothing against hard working people, but this crazy glut for fish and shellfish has got to stop.
:sarcasm:

[AlecBGreen]

3. the sad thing

is that most of the fish brought up are "junk" fish that are ground up for animal feed or tossed back overboard.

[thereismore]

8. Damn. We'll reap what we sowed. nt

[defendandprotect]

4. It was also wise to throw back the little ones and go for the mature fish -- !!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. Hard to enforce - the pirates would clean up unless world governments

really got behind this. Even now, much of the "Chilean sea bass" (not a bass but a deepwater fish) is caught by crews that are basically pirates and who have been very environmentally destructive. The bluefin tuna fishery is another example of a disastrous profit-driven enterprise that is rapidly driving that species to extinction. Those people won't abide by the rules unless forced.

[DCKit]

9. Torpedoes? Seriously, 'cause if we kill the oceans, we're done.

Besides, how else should we deal with pirates? And no, those guys from Somalia aren't pirates, they're freedom fighters who used to be fishermen.

It has been my opinion that all factory fishing and all drag-nets should be banned. Long line and drift net fishing from small boats are both sustainable - and the money made stays within the country, if not the community where the fishermen live. The factory ships are owned by huge multi-national corporations with no regard for local issues.

On the other hand, none of this is going to matter if we don't stop pouring our sewage, toxic chemicals and pharmaceuticals into the ocean. As the only species that actually defends our "God Given" right to shit where we eat, we are the problem. We need composting toilets for every home, real sewage treatment and recycling at the factory level to remove *all* chemicals from "treated" water.

[Nihil]

10. And when you get through with that lot ...

... you can beat your gun-barrels into ploughshares, use voluntary
contraception globally to control population growth and get the
Palestinians & Israelis to live peacefully together ...

:smoke:

(FWIW, I totally agree with your dreams there along with the solutions.
I just have a problem picturing a non-zero probability of this in the
future given the starting point of today.)
:grouphug:

[4_TN_TITANS]

6. As much as I love my seafood, especially shellfish...

This really does need to happen. When I was a kid in TN, even shrimp was an expensive, rare treat. My first taste was the leftover tails from Mom's shrimp at Shoneys (it was too expensive to buy for the kids). Nobody had crablegs and calamari was unknown. Now you can get any seafood, anywhere.

[Lorien]

7. Yep; we'll have to learn to save now so we have something later

just like with our economy. Out of control consumerism has been killing us and millions of other species. It's time to rein it in!