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The state of the oceans
Nov. 8th, 2005 07:31 pmFeeling a bit jittery.
I know why. I've just finished watching of the videos that came with the Open University course. It said in the guide book that it was distressing viewing and they were right.
Some fisheries are incredibly destructive. In most prawn fisheries, 90% of the catch is unwanted and is tossed back dead. That's juveniles of species that might have grown into commerical sized fish, sponges, starfish, crabs, all sorts of creatures - all dead.
Valuable species are being fished to commerical extinction (and sometimes actual extinction) all over the world. Some species are being fished out before we even know much about them.
The sight of dolphins drowned in fishing nets, of turtles and fish dying in nets that have sunk to the bottom and are killing more creatures in the years and decades it takes them to rot (if they ever do)...
Habitats are being destroyed the world over. 80% or coral reefs are dead or badly damaged, yet fishermen use dynamite and cynaide to catch fish and destroy even more reef in the process. (Cyanide kills coral and pet fish caught by this method - those that don't die straight away - will generally die within a few weeks, just *after* someone has bought them for an aquarium)
Mangrove swamps (which are homes for fish fry and juveniles of many important commerical species and provide protection against tsunamis) are being destroyed in vast quantity to make shrimp farms.
Local subsistance fishermen are having their livelihoods destroyed by foreign factory trawlers.
Everywhere, fish are being caught smaller and smaller and species that require 3-30 years to reach maturity are being killed before they can create the next generation.
Fish farming for species like tuna wastes even more fish. The farmed fish are fed on fishmeal which simply increases the demands on the wild - and takes valuable protein away from the poorest of people who would once have eaten those small fish. (Only 10% of the fish fed to farmed tuna will go to increasing the weight of tuna - the rest is burned up as energy by the tuna or excreted)
Catch limits are loaded with problems: everything from throwing perfectly good fish away because the quota is already full, to a massive black market in illegally caught fish (and governments that nearly always set the quota higher than the fisheries scientists recommend).
One of the very few things that actually seems to make a difference are 'no-take' areas. If these are properly monitored, the fish and lobsters in them grow much larger than those outside the region and as they get bigger, they start to move outwards and provide a better livelhood for fisherman just outside the zone.
I feel so helpless. I've already written to my MP to support better marine conservation. I belong to the Wildlife Trusts which are doing a lot to campaign for marine conservation around the British Isles.
The seas, properly managed, could provide food for millions. Sometimes, action is taken soon enough - the British herring industry had a total ban just in time and stocks have recovered a fair bit since the worst point. Other fisheries, such as cod on the Grand Banks, show no sign of recovering at all - the damage may simply have been too great.
Here's a link for the Marine Conservation Society. http://www.mcsuk.org/ I've just been and donated them a large sum of money. If you feel able to help, please do.
It's not just about preserving species and saving some of the incredible beauty that exists in the oceans. In protecting the oceans, we protect one of the world's most important sources of food.
I know why. I've just finished watching of the videos that came with the Open University course. It said in the guide book that it was distressing viewing and they were right.
Some fisheries are incredibly destructive. In most prawn fisheries, 90% of the catch is unwanted and is tossed back dead. That's juveniles of species that might have grown into commerical sized fish, sponges, starfish, crabs, all sorts of creatures - all dead.
Valuable species are being fished to commerical extinction (and sometimes actual extinction) all over the world. Some species are being fished out before we even know much about them.
The sight of dolphins drowned in fishing nets, of turtles and fish dying in nets that have sunk to the bottom and are killing more creatures in the years and decades it takes them to rot (if they ever do)...
Habitats are being destroyed the world over. 80% or coral reefs are dead or badly damaged, yet fishermen use dynamite and cynaide to catch fish and destroy even more reef in the process. (Cyanide kills coral and pet fish caught by this method - those that don't die straight away - will generally die within a few weeks, just *after* someone has bought them for an aquarium)
Mangrove swamps (which are homes for fish fry and juveniles of many important commerical species and provide protection against tsunamis) are being destroyed in vast quantity to make shrimp farms.
Local subsistance fishermen are having their livelihoods destroyed by foreign factory trawlers.
Everywhere, fish are being caught smaller and smaller and species that require 3-30 years to reach maturity are being killed before they can create the next generation.
Fish farming for species like tuna wastes even more fish. The farmed fish are fed on fishmeal which simply increases the demands on the wild - and takes valuable protein away from the poorest of people who would once have eaten those small fish. (Only 10% of the fish fed to farmed tuna will go to increasing the weight of tuna - the rest is burned up as energy by the tuna or excreted)
Catch limits are loaded with problems: everything from throwing perfectly good fish away because the quota is already full, to a massive black market in illegally caught fish (and governments that nearly always set the quota higher than the fisheries scientists recommend).
One of the very few things that actually seems to make a difference are 'no-take' areas. If these are properly monitored, the fish and lobsters in them grow much larger than those outside the region and as they get bigger, they start to move outwards and provide a better livelhood for fisherman just outside the zone.
I feel so helpless. I've already written to my MP to support better marine conservation. I belong to the Wildlife Trusts which are doing a lot to campaign for marine conservation around the British Isles.
The seas, properly managed, could provide food for millions. Sometimes, action is taken soon enough - the British herring industry had a total ban just in time and stocks have recovered a fair bit since the worst point. Other fisheries, such as cod on the Grand Banks, show no sign of recovering at all - the damage may simply have been too great.
Here's a link for the Marine Conservation Society. http://www.mcsuk.org/ I've just been and donated them a large sum of money. If you feel able to help, please do.
It's not just about preserving species and saving some of the incredible beauty that exists in the oceans. In protecting the oceans, we protect one of the world's most important sources of food.
