Overfished and under-protected: Oceans on the brink of catastrophic collapse
44 replies, posted
[URL]http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/22/world/oceans-overfishing-climate-change/index.html?iid=article_sidebar[/URL]
the most damning part though, is this:
[quote]Many marine scientists consider overfishing to be the greatest of these threats. The [URL="http://www.coml.org/"]Census of Marine Life[/URL], a decade-long international survey of ocean life completed in 2010, [B]estimated that 90% of the big fish had disappeared from the world's oceans,[/B] victims primarily of overfishing.[/quote]
jesus
any professional opinion, OvB????????????????????????
Not only does this affect the ecosystem, it also affects the consumers (in case you don't give a crap about the oceans), as everything gets its price raised by a lot.
[QUOTE=from the comment section]“Only when the last tree has died, and the last river has been poisoned, and
the last fish has been caught, will we realize that we cannot eat
money.” –Native American proverb[/QUOTE]
This is actually a great proverb
Sad.
It's not like we'll be able to enforce any laws anyway because a lot of fishing is done by people who don't give a shit about the environment, just profit.
Anyone else pretty pissed at the fact that we've been doing this for a long while now? And haven't gotten any wiser?
[QUOTE=GlebGuy;40006475]Anyone else pretty pissed at the fact that we've been doing this for a long while now? And haven't gotten any wiser?[/QUOTE]
I dont think we will, And im not stating that as a big, damning comment on all of humanity.
I think we are just unable.
I think that in these cynical post world-war times, Large-scale social undertakings are a thing of the past. And all these mindless conflicts have simply drained us.
[QUOTE=GlebGuy;40006475]Anyone else pretty pissed at the fact that we've been doing this for a long while now? And haven't gotten any wiser?[/QUOTE]
I am but I also have a vague idea how incredibly difficult it is to protect such a huge percentage of the planet. Especially when you're holding back hordes of people that do this to eat and profit.
We will probably have to spread our cheeks and diarrhea all over the ocean before the people with enough power decide to make a large scale attempt at change.
I once saw someone who thought the Tragedy of the Commons had been "disproved."
Back to hand collecting, hand spearing, and rod and lure. The only way to not slaughter the entire ocean really.
Hope you dont eat tuna or anything but most seafood we eat will go super rare or extinct by 2050s at the rate we are going.
It will take some [i]serious protection[/i] to save this from happening.
I know, why don't we start a global fish farm? If we can farm chickens and cows, why not tuna and salmon?
[QUOTE=Sprockethead;40006360]This is actually a great proverb[/QUOTE]
but you can eat money
it's just not very nutritious
[QUOTE=BCell;40006916]I know, why don't we start a global fish farm? If we can farm chickens and cows, why not tuna and salmon?[/QUOTE]
im pretty sure they already do that. Not a global one but theres a few of those around.
Overfishing has been quite the problem in Portugal. Cod fish is used in a lot of traditional dishes that have been made for centuries, yet now we dont have cod fish in the seas anymore, so we have to import them from somewhere else.
[QUOTE=Marbalo;40006941]see, that's another world crisis solved
humanity: 1 nature: 0[/QUOTE]
Now get these tons of fishermans to quit thier jobs super easy right?
[QUOTE=BCell;40006916]I know, why don't we start a global fish farm? If we can farm chickens and cows, why not tuna and salmon?[/QUOTE]
Cost too much money
[QUOTE=shackleford;40006975]Cost too much money[/QUOTE]
Making giant pools full of fish can't cost that much. If you rotate them like crop rotation to clean them out, I don't see why it wouldn't work.
Sure, trawling the ocean is a hell of a lot cheaper but there needs to be action taken against it unless we want the ocean to be devoid of fish life.
This is the sort of thing that makes me more sure of my plan to buy some land, stick a house on it, get a couple of solar panels and grow all my own shit
[QUOTE=BCell;40006916]I know, why don't we start a global fish farm? If we can farm chickens and cows, why not tuna and salmon?[/QUOTE]
if im not mistaken that already does exist. However, there is still quite a demand for wild-caught fish due to some difference between the two. I think the argument is that farmed fish has less muscle or something and tastes rougher cause of the closed quarter environments or something compared to a wild fish.
[QUOTE=shackleford;40006975]Cost too much money[/QUOTE]
Have you never been to a public aquarium? It does not cost that much to build and maintain an area to house fish, especially if you're going to periodically sell them off to be eaten.
I'll contribute to this cause by eating almost no fish. :v:
[QUOTE=BCell;40006916]I know, why don't we start a global fish farm? If we can farm chickens and cows, why not tuna and salmon?[/QUOTE]
Tuna needs to have loadsa area to move around. We are presently working on Genetically Modded Salmon.
[img]http://scienceprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/gmo_salmon_compare.jpg[/img]
Sadly the first words of "GMO" makes everyone get their panties in a twist, and we end up with a situation where presently companies like Traders Joe are refusing to sell any product made from GM Salmon.
I don't even LIKE FISH!
OK, Tuna sandwiches are nice, but I can give that up.
[QUOTE=tr00per7;40007365]I don't even LIKE FISH![/QUOTE]
Me too.
Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us guys.
[QUOTE=GlebGuy;40006475]Anyone else pretty pissed at the fact that we've been doing this for a long while now? And haven't gotten any wiser?[/QUOTE]
That's because people have been ignoring Marine Biologists and Ecologists for Decades now and instead want them to come up with predictions that fit their political agendas.
I wish my best friend was on Facepunch, he's a Fisheries Ecologist, and he could give you guys a great rant about this. (I'm a Terrestrial Ecologist, even though my undergrad had a pretty heavy marine biology slant due to my Uni's location and historical stuff, I'm still not fully qualified to comment much beyond - Hah, we told you so).
I read a paper a while back that suggested we were selecting for smaller fish that breed less often because we keep fishing the large and more fecund individuals, though.
This is very depressing news.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;40007334]Tuna needs to have loadsa area to move around. We are presently working on Genetically Modded Salmon.
[img]http://scienceprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/gmo_salmon_compare.jpg[/img]
Sadly the first words of "GMO" makes everyone get their panties in a twist, and we end up with a situation where presently companies like Traders Joe are refusing to sell any product made from GM Salmon.[/QUOTE]
if anything nasty "hormones" and "genetic modification" are making the animals healthier and more fit for consumption
[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;40007654]if anything nasty "hormones" and "genetic modification" are making the animals healthier and more fit for consumption[/QUOTE]
Part of the rejection for GMOs is due to the risk of creating invasive species that will inevitably enter the environment or taint the wild genetic pool.
I'm not too knowledgeable on the subject, but it's a more complex issue than you make it out.
[QUOTE=BlueChihuahua;40008449]Part of the rejection for GMOs is due to the risk of creating invasive species that will inevitably enter the environment or taint the wild genetic pool.
I'm not too knowledgeable on the subject, but it's a more complex issue than you make it out.[/QUOTE]
There are already examples of this happening with crops.
[url]http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126964.200-alien-genes-escape-into-wild-corn.html[/url]
[QUOTE=Don Knotts;40006556]I am but I also have a vague idea how incredibly difficult it is to protect such a huge percentage of the planet. Especially when you're holding back hordes of people that do this to eat and profit.
We will probably have to spread our cheeks and diarrhea all over the ocean before the people with enough power decide to make a large scale attempt at change.[/QUOTE]
The thing is we already have done that.
We have decimated our oceans and we're only gonna realise how fucking terrible it will be when the effects start to hit, lowered oxygen in the atmosphere since CO2 fixing bacteria and algae in the oceans do more for our environment than the entire amazon rainforest.
We want to save the tree when the trees do fuck all, and do you wanna know why?
Because they're tangible, people can grasp the idea of a rainforest being important, it has capybaras, jaguars, river dolphins and a bunch of tribes and shit. The ocean on the other hand, it's just rolling waves and a deposit of fish.
We're fucked because as a species we never really evolved with the environment in mind, because we are still just a small time ape in terms of our psychology, we're just at the transitionary peroid between humanity realising the collosal impact that we have on Earth and still being that small time monkey on the ground.
[editline]23rd March 2013[/editline]
[QUOTE=tr00per7;40007365]I don't even LIKE FISH!
OK, Tuna sandwiches are nice, but I can give that up.[/QUOTE]
Tuna and Salmon are the only two fish worth actually eating, Cod just tastes so bland and unappetising and we're over fishing them, it's completely retarded.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;40007334][img]http://scienceprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/gmo_salmon_compare.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Critics tell us that GM foods will never take off. And it was said the Panama Canal was impossible.
Ingenuity my friend, ingenuity.
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