Complete collapse of North Atlantic fishing predicted

New Scientist ^ | 10:30 18 February 02 | Kurt Kleiner, Boston

[Saturnalia]

:D See my post above.

[Dinsdale]

If that is true the answer if just to subsidise beer for the sport fisherman. The more they drink the less they will catch.

[Dinsdale]

You've got to look to find wild salmon. It's worth it though, farm raised salmon got no flavor.

[Washington-Husky]

You've got to look to find wild salmon. It's worth it though, farm raised salmon got no flavor.

I tried some once, it wasn't too awful bad, but in the meantime, if I'm gonna' fool with cooking fish at all, I'll keep buying the Copper River Alaskan Kings, if and when I can find 'em. Until I'm forced to switch, they're the only fish worth the money IMHO.

But some day when the world is really without wild ocean fish due to overfishing, I don't think people will have much choice. They'll just have to get used to bland tasting salmon, or go without fish altogether. What's that old saying, "beggars can't be choosers" or something like that? Sad but true.

[elfman2]

"subsidise beer for the sport fisherman. The more they drink the less they will catch. "

If only I could nominate you for a nobel prize in economics and environment….

[Physicist]

Let them eat chicken. Can't overfish that.

Yes, You Can. Chickens get their protein from fishmeal. Entire fisheries (such as Chilean anchovies) are devoted primarily to producing chickenfeed, and they starting to succumb to overfishing, too.

[Washington-Husky]

...Chickens get their protein from fishmeal. Entire fisheries (such as Chilean anchovies) are devoted primarily to producing chickenfeed...

I thought that if you fed fishmeal to chickens you would end up with "fishy"-tasting chickens. I eat chicken but I don't recall ever having noticed a "fishy" taste. I believe that in N. America we feed our commercially grown chickens non-fishmeal based feed (either because we can afford to, or consumer preference demands it).

However, I have heard that in other countries, fishmeal - because of its excellent feed value and relative low cost - is in fact used as feed for livestock, and the livestock, when eaten by humans, does in fact taste like fish.

[ccmay]

Actually, sea cucumber is not that bad. It's rather bland and takes on the flavor of whatever sauce it is prepared with. The texture could be a little off-putting, but no worse than squid or octopus, among other things I eat occasionally.

-ccm

[Physicist]

I thought that if you fed fishmeal to chickens you would end up with "fishy"-tasting chickens.

Apparently American chickens are fed on menhaden from the Chesapeake. Some call it The Most Important Fish in the Sea.

[TheMole]

There are some interesting stats about the growth of fish farming here Fish Farming May Soon Overtake Cattle Ranching As a Food Source . Warning to sport fishermen and others: entering greenie panic propaganda zone. Have anti-BS hipwaders on for the deep stuff. There is some interesting info after you discount the envirowailing.

[Dec31,1999]

"Less is actually more with fisheries. If you fish less you get more fish."

Probably true. It's important for the stock to have time to recover.

[jwalsh07]

Chickens get their protein from fishmeal

So do the more popular table fish which is one of the problems with fish farms. You have to take from Peter the fish to pay Paul the fishery.

[parsifal]

Couldn't the fishermen just practice "catch and release" techniques? That has worked wonders here in Arkansas. More trout than ever. parsy the piscator.

[Frances_Marion]

"...Soylent Green is made from PEOPLE! PEEEEOPLLLEEEE!"

[tet68]

I find your parsing problematical, but I have no problem with that, pass another helping of the Pacific Slimehead please.

[ratcat]

I agree. When you consider the size of the North Atlantic, it's pretty hard to believe.

[Light Speed]

I'm a Canadian..live out West.
Many easterners have come west for work...the east coast economy in shambles...the story is the same from all.."the floor fell out"!
Ottawa did little after the second world war to create diversity in economics on the eastern seaboard...Forestry..Coal..and Fishing.
They made a ruin of it all..ran it all into the ground..now the eastern economy is shattered.
Resources forever the fools thought...no insight into education or alternative economics.
Canadian martime law was a joke...massive fleets of foreign process ships parked right on the legal fringes..and fished the thing to death..
The banks continued to float high interest loans to fisherman..the result..they threw sensiblity to the wind..and fished the shit outta the internal Canadian waters.
By the time Ottawa woke up..it was all over!
Iv'e seen programs where the little fish that are the food for bigger fish are in rapid decline..and with this..the death of the Grand banks..as the entire cycle is hinged on these little fish.
Every branch of the fishery is stressed to breaking...Lobsters are midgits compared to past...most fish caught are severly undersized.
Out west..the Salmon are barely returning to spawning grounds..and the Natives are catching them as they head up river to spawn..The western fisheries mired in Native land suits.
The brunt of the blame lies with Ottawa..for decades this machine has sat on it's socialist ass and dreamed fantasy's...in their mind..if there is water ..there will be lots of fish..so what are you Bitchin about.
The environmentalists are right..we are destroying our world for money!

[lepton]

There is indeed a problem with the fishing in the North Atlantic. It is one of the typical "Tragedies of the Common". There are no property rights in this area, hence the tendency to harvest greatly overwhelms the tendency to farm and conserve.

What needs to be done is for an equitable arrangement where those that harvest are given some sort of control sufficient to protect their investment.

Cod in particular would yield much greater harvests for the investment if we could give some areas a respite...but with the lack of property ownership, rather than increasing the base, that would merely allow others to harvest instead.

[CobaltBlue]

So how are you going to prevent your fish from being rustled? Put brands on them?-g-

[lepton]

That is not a solution. It is the Tragedy of the Commons. The situation stabilizes with a very small number of fish in the sea.

The goal should be to maximize the catch over a very long time period. That can be done by making sure that individuals own the fish that are being caught, just as the solution to the Tragedy of the Commons was to partition the land and sell it to individual farmers.

Hey! You pre-thunk me!