I watched a special on the harvesting of fish in the Bering Sea on discovery a few days ago, and read a bunch of articles in National Geographic and other magazines on our fishing practices and trends in fish consumption.

It's sad, shocking, and it angers me. We are devastating our oceans beyond a level we can comprehend. If similiar practices were undertaken on the mainland, the world would be up in arms.

The ocean, IMHO, is NOT a renewable resource. You can't rotate the crop or plant more trees, we take, but we don't put back.

Every year we take billions of pounds of animal life out of the oceans, and the only thing we put back is fish that escape commercial farming operations.

We now target fish for market that we would never have considered as being edible less than 50 years ago.

Sushi is the latest "cool" thing to do, and restaurants have put more and more fish on the menu.

The worst part of all this IMHO, is that is only a very few nations drive the commercial fishing industry, and one in particular, JAPAN. There isn't a fish to be had within hundreds of miles of Japan, so what do they do? They trawl the worlds oceans and pay ridiculous prices for the remaining fish of other nations. Entire industries are built around 2 week periods of fishing to feed the Japanese hunger for fish and row.

It disturbs me to no end.

Being from the middle of the bald prairie, I have little use for the ocean or things in it, in fact, I don't much care for it. The only fish I eat comes from a Cpt. Highliner box once a month or the occassional fresh salmon from relatives on the coast.

I understand that we are dealing with people's livelihoods here, but it has to be put in perspective.

If fishermen were loggers, there would be ZERO old growth left, nothing would be replanted, and they'd be out cutting down the carriganas and poplar saplings in your back yard to sell to another country as prime lumber.

There comes a point when you have to put a stop to things, or nature will.

Anyone else's thoughts on this issue?

Waxy

 

waxy....ahh, finally an issue we agree on . As an avid outdoors man and fisherman, I do think they need to do their part. I agree completely with the fact that its not a renewable resource...that it will take a great deal of time for things to "right" themselves. Likewise, not only are they taking hugh amounts of certian kinds of fish, but they are throwing off the whole food chain and ecosystem as well. Its not right and the issue needs to be addressed quickly by the involved nations.

As a sidenote, I will try and find the article to post here, but we have out in the middle of west texas (no lakes around this place) a shrimp farm. The wells in the area are very salty and a guy came up with the idea to harvest shrimp...dug out several tanks and now provides shrimp to a large part of Texas. Pretty cool operation.

RIGHT ON WAXY!!!

 

There have been attempts to slow down the fishing industries for many years, in fact Iceland and Britain had a rather nasty Cod War at one time. Tempers get very heated and ignorance runs riot, but still they over fish everywhere.

Noting current practice, it could be estimated that the fish of the world will run out in less than 50 years, which would cause amazing ramifications for humanity. The ocean is responsible for a lot of things, that without it's fish, it could not achieve.

Look towards a loss of fish in the stores, because it will become too expensive to catch, and that may be a blessing, because the more expense involved in catching it, the less fisherman can afford to go after it.

There are thousands of tons of fish wasted every year, in supermarkets, warehouses and factory ships. Stop that waste and it will help address the problem.

Theo

 

waxy....

check this out..... I guess this is proof that everything has a purpose

 

Waxy,

Weren't you anti-Greenpeace last week?

This is a whole nuther sad story. I'm afraid this time we're doomed.
Or should I say the oceans inhabitants are.

Sooner or later the Japanese will catch and eat every last fish.

This could be a job for eco-terrorists.

 

Amazing.

Good work by that guy. I'd have a couple questions as to where he gets the saltwater and where it ends up though.

Theo-

The problem is, in a lot of cases, and especially with the Japanese, the more expensive and rare it is, the more they want it. It becomes almost a status symbol like an Armani suit rather than food.

Waxy

 

No,

I was anti government land grab.

Besides sinjin, I'm a complicated guy.

Waxy

 

The Canadian guys can verify this-- wasn't it a few years ago when the Newfy Preemer- what was his name- Tobin??-- sent gunboats out and threatened to go to war with Spain over turbot fishing? Caused quite a stir as I recall.

 

Instead of complaining about it, you should give some suggestions about how to change it. Like the story goes, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. I don't mean this at any particular person, but at everyone in general who just complains and doesnt give suggestions.

 

Sink the Japanese fishing fleet?

 

ahhh...sinjin...you better stay on the dry land don't want to be reading about you causing an international stir!

 

Hmm...leeme see, monthly agenda, sink the Japenese fishing fleet, bury the Japanese truck fleet..anything else?

 

It is very sad. The same thing is happening with most of the "wild" animals on this planet. In ten or twenty years I wonder if there will be any wild lions, tigers, giraffes, rhinoceros's, etc. One thing is for sure, there will be plenty of people.

 

Lions, tigers, giraffes yes, rhinoceros maybe not.

 

Who's complaining? I see someone spreading the news about a very real problem, and awareness is the first step toward a solution. We have been blessed with an abundant planet, but we have been and continue to be very poor stewards.
Dono