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In Pictures: Overfishing


Cetacea

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While it's not exactly news I found this series of photographs on the National Geographic website and I find it really brings the point home. While a lot of supermarkets now offer free-range and other responsibly sourced alternatives, too few still acknowledge the need for sustainably sourced fish:

Our appetite for fish is wreaking havoc on aquatic populations worldwide.

The conservation group World Wildlife Fund predicts that if cod fisheries continue to be fished at current rates, there will be no cod left by 2022.

"Seventy-five percent of fisheries are overfished," says marine biologist Enric Sala. "If nothing changes, all fisheries will have collapsed by 2050."

The solution, says Sala—a National Geographic Society fellow—is involving all levels of society, from consumers to policy makers.

"The solutions exist, we just need the political will to implement them at [a] large scale," he adds.

See the overfishing photo gallery here

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That's so sad. :( I don't think I'll ever eat fish again. (Well, probably, because cod is just so damn good, but still! That's horrible.I wish we weren't so full of ourselves that we couldn't understand the errors of our ways.)

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It is indeed sad. And I always wondered, whenever in the grocery store, when we would start running out of meat.

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That's so sad. :( I don't think I'll ever eat fish again. (Well, probably, because cod is just so damn good, but still! That's horrible.I wish we weren't so full of ourselves that we couldn't understand the errors of our ways.)

I understand, I have a degree in Marine Biology and am finding it very hard to stay off tuna despite being hyper aware of the situation....

There is however still some seafood that is fairly sustainable, have a look at these seafood guides produced by the Monterey Bay aquarium, it gives indications about what is ok and what is not depending on what region of the US you live in, you can download them and print them off, they are meant to be in a format that you can easily fold and carry around with you.

There is also one for the UK though not quite as handy about what fish to avoid and which are ok. Also within the UK, an expensive option but a good one, Marks and Spencers only source from sustainable fish populations.

Edited by Cetacea
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The government should do something about this!!!

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That's so sad. :( I don't think I'll ever eat fish again. (Well, probably, because cod is just so damn good, but still! That's horrible.I wish we weren't so full of ourselves that we couldn't understand the errors of our ways.)

I would suggest switching to other white fish. The perception of cod's taste is just that. It actually tastes no different to other white fish (cod in fact has nothing to cause a taste) and other species are more sustainable.

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=\ I say time to put some humans through euthanasia

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I would suggest switching to other white fish. The perception of cod's taste is just that. It actually tastes no different to other white fish (cod in fact has nothing to cause a taste) and other species are more sustainable.

I'm not very experienced in the fish market, to be honest, but I will look into other white fish. :) Thanks.

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I'd just like to point out thanks to the European Union legislation. a Million tonnes of fish are put back into the sea dead every year. the Fishermen catch the fish and once brought aboard they can only keep their quota. or face fines by the EU so what do they do. they reach their quota and throw the rest of the fish back over, dead of course. what a bloody waste and what a fecking shambles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7635668.stm

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1292780.ece

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Phwoooarrrrr!!! One of the things ok to eat are Devon crab....how much I am looking forward to going to live there in a few weeks :wub:

Very useful info there, many thanks as it's not something I knew too much about, except have heard about the shocking waste and poorly managed quota system so :tu: all

Edited by sarah snow
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I'd just like to point out thanks to the European Union legislation. a Million tonnes of fish are put back into the sea dead every year. the Fishermen catch the fish and once brought aboard they can only keep their quota. or face fines by the EU so what do they do. they reach their quota and throw the rest of the fish back over, dead of course. what a bloody waste and what a fecking shambles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7635668.stm

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1292780.ece

The problem here is not the EU, it's a worldwide problem with the quota system, it happens everywhere. The problems lie with the enforcement of quotas (which are btw already a lot higher than any scientific recommendations). Quotas are obviously set to limit the amount of fish that are taken, the fines are in place to prevent deliberate overfishing of these quotas, it's a bit of a no win situation; if you allow fishermen to land and sell more fish than quotas allow, you have no control over how much they take because you cannot have a fisheries observer on every fishing vessel to ensure that they are sticking to them. If they were allowed to land everything they caught, it would be easy to overfish and pass it off as 'accidentally' caught. This happens rather a lot and fishery observers have gotten death threats about these matters. The fines are there to prevent deliberate overfishing, unfortunately this has now resulted in a lot of waste, it's not a good system and a lot of scientists believe discards should be included in quotas as fish are obviously not likely to survive being hauled out. This is however not popular with fishermen either as there is also a lot of deliberate discarding on the fishermen's part, discarding smaller, less valuable fish to make room for bigger more profitable specimens which would be made illegal by the introduction of these guidelines. Including bycatch in quotas is one suggested solution but there are also other approaches as the value based approach, which takes into account the value of the catch rather than the number of individuals and results in less discards but there are some problems with this as well especially as it is hard to assess.

An associated problems are mesh sizes, larger mesh sizes would catch fewer immature individuals resulting in less bycatch that has to be discarded but would also result in increased time spend to reach quotas which is a rather unpopular notion with many fishermen as well as it is obviously more expensive and labour intensive. The problems are fishery methods have become increasingly efficient, when there are these restrictions aimed to reduce catch however, these methods obviously result in a lot of waste.

Fisheries are very controversial, complex and difficult to manage efficiently as there are a lot of conflicting interests when funnily enough, everyone really wants the same thing: lots of fish.

Edited by Cetacea
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Well once all the tasty fish are gone I guess all those fish eaters out there are going to have to switch to whatever will fill the nitch in the ecosystems that the fish once had. Perhaps jellyfish soup for all? Yum... <_<

I personally find it illogical for us to depend on food supplies that are not replenishable. The wild as it is now is obviously straining under the conditions we are imposing on it. It has never encountered anything like our technology before, and hence, does not have the mechanisms to adjust to our voracious appetites. IMO

Edited by doesnt_matter
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Wouldnt it be better to do away with the quotas and instead limit the amount of time the fisherman can fish. that way all captured fish are used and not wasted and the close season gives the fish a chance to recover. if this was to happen Fisherman would have to be compensated or subsidised. for the time they aren't allowed to fish. either way its still unworkable. too many bloody humans.

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Wouldnt it be better to do away with the quotas and instead limit the amount of time the fisherman can fish. that way all captured fish are used and not wasted and the close season gives the fish a chance to recover. if this was to happen Fisherman would have to be compensated or subsidised. for the time they aren't allowed to fish. either way its still unworkable. too many bloody humans.

That is a tactic that has been discussed and in fact some regions currently do have closed seasons, mainly during spawning. Closed seasons alone do not help, the cod bank fishery has still not recovered after over 10 years of a complete ban.... However, the most likely outcome of a time limitation would be that techniques would be refined further and further to get the most possible catch out of the time out. It's therefore important to limit numbers to maintain a healthy reproductive population. Quotas would be more efficient if bigger mesh sizes and more specialised methods (hook and line) were used but these methods are more labour intensive and expensive and are therefore not very popular.

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That is a tactic that has been discussed and in fact some regions currently do have closed seasons, mainly during spawning. Closed seasons alone do not help, the cod bank fishery has still not recovered after over 10 years of a complete ban.... However, the most likely outcome of a time limitation would be that techniques would be refined further and further to get the most possible catch out of the time out. It's therefore important to limit numbers to maintain a healthy reproductive population. Quotas would be more efficient if bigger mesh sizes and more specialised methods (hook and line) were used but these methods are more labour intensive and expensive and are therefore not very popular.

Your spot on with the hook and line method. but like you've said its unlikely. has the human population grows, the food stock will dwindle.

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Your spot on with the hook and line method. but like you've said its unlikely. has the human population grows, the food stock will dwindle.

I would hope so, lol, wouldn't want that fisheries course and 3 years of marine biology to be a complete waste of time!

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I would hope so, lol, wouldn't want that fisheries course and 3 years of marine biology to be a complete waste of time!

You been watching Monty Halls great escape. he's one of these marine biologist.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j6...cape_Episode_2/

This three years course in Marine Biology has it enabled you to travel the world. studying?

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You been watching Monty Halls great escape. he's one of these marine biologist.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j6...cape_Episode_2/

This three years course in Marine Biology has it enabled you to travel the world. studying?

No I haven't actually, I'll have a look, at the moment I am mainly concentrating on getting my 5000 word literature review for my MSc. done sadly :(

I've always travelled thanks to my parents, not so much for uni sadly, more courswork than travelling but I have done some internships and volunteering in the course of gaining experience in both Florida and Croatia, working with bottlenose dolphins both times.

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No I haven't actually, I'll have a look, at the moment I am mainly concentrating on getting my 5000 word literature review for my MSc. done sadly :(

I've always travelled thanks to my parents, not so much for uni sadly, more courswork than travelling but I have done some internships and volunteering in the course of gaining experience in both Florida and Croatia, working with bottlenose dolphins both times.

Brilliant, just brilliant well done. :tu:

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