• Historic cod fishing cuts threaten centuries-old industry in New England to Nova Scotia
    20 replies, posted
[quote]"It's the only job I've ever had," said Al Cattone, a Gloucester fisherman, who -- like his father and grandfather before him -- spent more than 30 years braving the Atlantic's rough waters and cold winds in search of fish. "It's not so much a job as it is an identity." But Gloucester, like many coastal towns, now faces the largest cuts ever to the region's commercial fishing industry. An advisory council voted Wednesday to slash cod catch rates by 77% in the Gulf of Maine, a region roughly the size of Indiana that extends from Cape Cod up through Nova Scotia.[/quote] [url]http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/31/us/northeast-cod-fishing-cuts/index.html?hpt=hp_t2[/url]
Fishermen have such a shitty job, you can only work for a short period of time and despite fishing being such an important industry they kind of get thrown under the bus on the off-season. Finding temp work in a place where basically everyone else is looking for temp work has got to be hard.
It sucks that so many people may be losing their jobs, but I do think it's important to take steps to maintain the cod population sooner rather than later. Just my two cents.
didn't the Cod fishing industry collapse almost 20 years ago? For years there's been a hell of a lot of overfishing happening just past the international boundaries in open water.
I thought they figured out how to breed cod.
[QUOTE=MIPS;39454649]didn't the Cod fishing industry collapse almost 20 years ago? For years there's been a hell of a lot of overfishing happening just past the international boundaries in open water.[/QUOTE] It collapsed in Newfoundland, and hard, though I guess it's not too bad now.
Possibly re-position the fishermen in the New England area towards the Mississippi River, and use their expertise to eliminate[or regulate] the Asian Carp infestation?
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;39454985]Possibly re-position the fishermen in the New England area towards the Mississippi River, and use their expertise to eliminate[or regulate] the Asian Carp infestation?[/QUOTE] River fishing and ocean fishing I think are pretty big in differences. Not to mention, these fishermen probably haven't the money to move such a great distance - or the will to move so far from a place where their whole lives were defined as cod fishermen. "It's not so much a job as it is an identity."
[QUOTE=Zeke129;39453354]Fishermen have such a shitty job, you can only work for a short period of time and despite fishing being such an important industry they kind of get thrown under the bus on the off-season. Finding temp work in a place where basically everyone else is looking for temp work has got to be hard.[/QUOTE]If they were allowed to fish as much as they could all year round, they'd find themselves permanently out of the fishing industry anyway, as cod would pretty much go extinct. They're in a rather shitty position. Would be nice if the government tried something to get them some alternate work off-season, but i'd be surprised if they cared.
[QUOTE=laserguided;39454667]I thought they figured out how to breed cod.[/QUOTE] male cod female cod play some sensual beats underwater ?? babby
[QUOTE=laserguided;39454667]I thought they figured out how to breed cod.[/QUOTE] It's kind of hard to breed fish on the same scale they are caught at sea...
[QUOTE=Dispenser;39454565]It sucks that so many people may be losing their jobs, but I do think it's important to take steps to maintain the cod population sooner rather than later. Just my two cents.[/QUOTE] Yeah, you have no idea how true this is. Don't get me wrong, I feel sorry for the Fisherman, my family background on both sides is from fishing boat skippers and crew, but as an Ecologist (And having had a heavy slant on Marine Biology during my Zoology undergrad due to being in a coastal city), cod stocks need time to recover - current fishing methods do not do enough to discriminate between the elements of the stock which are safely harvestable.
[QUOTE=Craigewan;39458972]current fishing methods do not do enough to discriminate between the elements of the stock which are safely harvestable.[/QUOTE] What happened to those self-powering light rings/gates that allowed undersized fish to swim out of existing nets?
[QUOTE=Ereunity;39459057]What happened to those self-powering light rings/gates that allowed undersized fish to swim out of existing nets?[/QUOTE] They're not that effective - plus Cod life cycle is pretty odd, so size isn't the most reliable judge of maturity, and they can be the right size but not have bred yet. It's why Scotland (Which has a far older fishing industry than the colonies) has such rigorous catch quotas that are getting tighter all the time. (Of course it would help if the EU enforced them on other nations who fish the North Sea in factory ships, but nah, just getting Britain to do it is fine, no need to worry about Portugal etc despite them rampantly defying quotas/bycatch laws) But when you get down to it, the real solution which nobody can realistically posit is a couple decades moratorium on Cod fishing, so that the Stock can replenish itself without interruption. It's never going to happen, but it'd be the ideal solution.
[QUOTE=Craigewan;39459071]They're not that effective - plus Cod life cycle is pretty odd, so size isn't the most reliable judge of maturity, and they can be the right size but not have bred yet. It's why Scotland (Which has a far older fishing industry than the colonies) has such rigorous catch quotas that are getting tighter all the time. (Of course it would help if the EU enforced them on other nations who fish the North Sea in factory ships, but nah, just getting Britain to do it is fine, no need to worry about Portugal etc despite them rampantly defying quotas) But when you get down to it, the real solution which nobody can realistically posit is a couple decades moratorium on Cod fishing, so that the Stock can replenish itself without interruption. It's never going to happen, but it'd be the ideal solution.[/QUOTE] What if regions of the world stopped cod fishing and other countries paid them during those years to make up for the loss? Then when those areas became active again other areas would stop fishing and be paid for it? Like farm field rotation, where you leave a field fallow after a few seasons to restore it's fertility.
[QUOTE=Ereunity;39459104]What if regions of the world stopped cod fishing and other countries paid them during those years to make up for the loss? Then when those areas became active again other areas would stop fishing and be paid for it? Like farm field rotation, where you leave a field fallow after a few seasons to restore it's fertility.[/QUOTE] Getting out of my field there, I'm a terrestrial ecologist, I can comment on the current state but I can't really provide any accurate projections as to that sort of method. I can say that it would really depend on how much migration there is between cod areas. At certain levels, recovery in some areas in this rotation style would eventually lead to recovery elsewhere by migration, but if migratory pressure is too high in the "recovery zones", then you'll make no progress as the fish will migrate to the zones still being fished and be caught, meaning the effort would be largely ineffective. This also depends somewhat on ocean currents, as I believe cod larvae, like most fish larvae, are planktotrophic and so tend to be dispersed in the planktonic layer where currents are strongest and are thus dispersed very long distances with no ability to affect their course. I'd ask my best mate, who is a marine ecologist, to comment further, but he's a complete luddite who only uses computers for professional purposes, so no dice there. (And my oldest sister, who is a Doctor of Marine Biology/Ecology works for the Falkland Islands Government, so I don't really have much contact with her) Crop rotation is perhaps not the best analogy because a field is a relatively closed system, only affected by the conditions of the field (Weather, crops, fertiliser, etc) - Oceanic systems are incredibly open systems affected not only by conditions at that area of ocean, but those of all surrounding areas.
I swear Facepunch has an actual expert in everything... and I love it.
[QUOTE=areolop;39460301]I swear Facepunch has an actual expert in everything... and I love it.[/QUOTE]We've a lot of highly-educated people here, it's become a lot more varied demographically over the years.
[QUOTE=areolop;39460301]I swear Facepunch has an actual expert in everything... and I love it.[/QUOTE] There's even a herpetologist.
[QUOTE=Sgt Doom;39460580]We've a lot of highly-educated people here, it's become a lot more varied demographically over the years.[/QUOTE] Yeah if OvB wasn't banned I'm sure he'd be on this right now. The intelligent people are a nice balance to the total mongs.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;39453354]Fishermen have such a shitty job, you can only work for a short period of time and despite fishing being such an important industry they kind of get thrown under the bus on the off-season. Finding temp work in a place where basically everyone else is looking for temp work has got to be hard.[/QUOTE] Proud Nova Scotian (Cape Bretoner) here, I can guarantee you that fishermen here love their jobs more than anything, it's part of our culture. Also on off-season they just collect unemployment. Fishermen are rich as fuck here [editline]3rd February 2013[/editline] And there's still a fuck load more to catch besides codfish m'son! crab fishing and lobster fishing haul in quite the pretty penny.
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