So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

[Michaelangelica]

How the Fishing Industry Is Trying to Stay Alive By Acting Like Small Farmers | Water | AlterNet

[Ahmabeliever]

Good article

 

The fishermen saying public don't want unprocessed fish is only partially true, i like them whole, scraps make cat food and fertiliser.

 

But there is truth in the statement. I've had a season in a smaller boat and the problem is easily solved. More money for 'processed' fish. There is a lot of down time as you sail back home. The fishermen themselves can fillet the portion of the catch that is purchased as 'prepared' product. They can do this on the boat in the time they sail home. We used to! The scraps can be used for fertiliser or pet food or compost or feeding farmed fish.

 

They are flogging a dea horse, but at least they're trying. Again, govt policy directly controls the plight of the industry.

[freeztar]

New research has shown that anoxic waters are increasing in the Atlantic and Pacific. Fisheries are likely to struggle as a result.

 

Oxygen-poor ocean zones are growing - Los Angeles Times

[freeztar]

More fish news...

 

The US has stopped most commercial and recreational salmon fishing on the pacific coast.

 

U.S. closes most of West Coast to salmon fishing | Environment | Reuters

 

West Coast salmon populations have declined sharply in the last few years, with experts citing a variety of reasons including climate change and hungry sea lions.

 

"Today NOAA's Fisheries Service will close most of the West Coast salmon fisheries based on the recommendations of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council," James Balsiger, acting assistant administrator of fisheries, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, citing "low returns of fall Chinook salmon to the Sacramento River system."

 

Balsiger said NOAA has not pinpointed the cause of the "sudden" collapse of the Sacramento River run, but "NOAA scientists are suggesting changes in the ocean conditions."

 

NOAA estimates fewer than 60,000 salmon will make it back to the Sacramento River this year -- about one-third the number needed to sustain a healthy fish population.

[DougF]

that will be one hard assay to wright!

[Michaelangelica]

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/current/audioonly/ssw_20080816.mp3

 

- So Long & Thanks for All the Fish Lyrics

 

Complimentary RingtoneComplimentary “So Long & Thanks for All the Fish” RingtoneComplimentary Ringtone

 

So long and thanks for all the fish

So sad that it should come to this

We tried to warn you all but oh dear?

 

You may not share our intellect

Which might explain your disrespect

For all the natural wonders that

grow around you

 

So long, so long and thanks

for all the fish

 

The world's about to be destroyed

There's no point getting all annoyed

Lie back and let the planet dissolve

 

Despite those nets of tuna fleets

We thought that most of you were sweet

Especially tiny tots and your

pregnant women

 

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

 

So long, so long and thanks

for all the fish

 

(yeah)

 

So long and thanks for all the fish

So sad that it should come to this

We tried to warn you all but oh dear?

 

(oh dear)

 

Despite those nets of tuna fleets

We thought that most of you were sweet

Especially tiny tots and your

pregnant women

 

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

 

So long, so long and thanks

for all the fish

 

[Thanks to [email protected], [email protected] for lyrics]

 

 

Complimentary RingtoneComplimentary “So Long & Thanks for All the Fish” RingtoneComplimentary Ringtone

[Michaelangelica]

The future has to be farming. there are anumber of farming projects under way in Oz especially off Tasmania (pristine pollution free waters)

But here is a succesful coastal enterprise

Restock helps fishers and ecosystem

Friday, 21 November 2008

University of New South Wales

One-year old eastern king prawns from

Wallagoot Lake.

Image: Dr Matthew Taylor

 

Eastern king prawns are back on the menu after a seven-year absence at Wallagoot Lake, near the NSW south coast town of Merimbula, following a prawn-restocking program that is yielding wins for prawners and the environment.

 

Prawners are reporting catches of up to three kilograms an hour and recreational anglers who use them as bait have had excellent fish catches. The eastern king prawn is an iconic and popular prawn species heavily targeted by NSW prawners. The species accounts for more than 80 per cent of NSW recreational prawn catches.

Restock helps fishers and ecosystem (ScienceAlert)

[Michaelangelica]

Sea Kittens

PETA's anti-fishing campaign renaming fish "sea kittens" so people willl stop eating them.

Perhaps this is a good thing. It is so outrageous that it will get people talking about an important issue.

 

But to manipulate and brainwash children is beyond the pale. It is despicable.

You have to read the story book at their Sea Kittens site to believe it.

I think it is totally over the top and I would not let young, impressionable children read it.

SEE

PETA // Save the Sea Kittens // Sea Kitten Stories

 

Fish need marine national parks and protection from long lines, Japanese factory ships, Japanese 'purchase' of Pacific Islander fishing rights, poachers (eg Orange Roughy), and Indonesian fishermen that kill thousands of sharks just for the fins.

 

We also need more research on fish.

A recent paper suggests that older migrating fish teach young fish where to migrate to. So our policy of only taking bigger fish may be misguided.

 

The "sea kittens" idea has to backfire while real important conservation issues are ignored.

As long as PETA has the view that no animal can be eaten their credibility on animal rights issues is seriously compromised.

The logical extension is "air kittens" (see Australia thread) baby locusts dying in the Oz heat.

See

Let’s pretend we have a mutual friend. We’ll called him Peter.

 

There’s a lot to like about Peter: he’s deeply concerned about his impact on the environment, he donates time to local community projects, he’s thoughtful, charismatic and likeable. But there’s something odd about Peter, something deeply Out To Lunch - and every so often, this weirdness springs out of him.

He builds a floodlit shrine out of recycled credit cards outside the local Walmart and surrounds it with pictures of flowers and animals. He paints all the streetlights green within a 20-mile radius. He throws miniature wooden oil-derricks at cars as he cycles to work.

In short, Peter would be an admirable, inspiring pillar of the community…if he didn’t behave like an utter fruitcake.

When Good Causes Go Wrong: 7 Utterly Outrageous PETA Stunts | EcoSalon - The Green Gathering

 

The PETA website gives many interesting facts about Sea Kittens that most people don’t know:

 

* Sea Kittens keep gardens on the ocean floor that promote the growth of algae. These gardens become overgrown when the Sea Kittens are gone.

* Sea Kittens (all types) have a language “squeaks” that enables them to talk to each other.

* Sea Kittens build nests to protect their offspring.

* One study found that Sea Kittens could recall information they learned 11 months earlier.

* Sea Kittens enjoy being petted.

 

The website also posts a petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife department asking them to stop fishing for Sea Kittens.

 

I recommend that you check-out this clever Sea Kitten website. It has a “create your own Sea Kitten” game where you can play dress-up with a variety of species, but beware of the “Storybook” page which is interesting, but a bit more graphic.

 

I don’t know about you, but I am definitely rooting for the “Sea Kittens.”

Pet Rescue Examiner: PETA saves the sea kittens - game

PETA // Save the Sea Kittens // Create your Own Sea Kitten

It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.

 

The program looks like it is directed at kids.

PETA // Save the Sea Kittens // Sea Kitten Stories

A pity as fish is one of the best brain foods about. As we came from the sea the one food we can digest most readily too.

But PETA says trout are full of mercury and will make you go to the bottom of the class. The trout wants the 'end to come' because she is too crowded in a fish farm. Sally has watched her friends being hooked though the mouth and is being driven mad with grief. "Bitter and insane" she plots against the land people while in 'terror of being eaten'

Do you want you kids reading this stuff?

Joseph Goebbels would be proud of such clever (evil?) propaganda.

 

I guess The PETA campaign has got us talking about fish but perhaps more the PETA campaign than the important issues?

 

There is a bit of potted science in the sea kittens site

Dr. Sylvia Earle, one of the world's leading marine biologists, said, "I never eat anyone I know personally. I wouldn't deliberately eat a grouper any more than I'd eat a cocker spaniel. They're so good-natured, so curious. You know, fish are sensitive, they have personalities, they hurt when they're wounded."

• Culum Brown, a University of Edinburgh biologist who is studying the evolution of cognition in fish, says, "Fish are more intelligent than they appear. In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed those of 'higher' vertebrates, including non-human primates." Their long-term memories help fish keep track of complex social relationships. Their spatial memory—"equal in all respects to any other vertebrate"—allows them to create cognitive maps that guide them through their watery homes, using cues such as polarized light, sounds, smells, and visual landmarks.

FishingHurts.com >> The Hidden Lives of Fish

The thing is PETA, dogs have always been eaten; and many people eat primates too, perhaps not from choice.

 

BTW Here is some real work being done in just one Oz state.Not just W***ing

If you checked the others similar things will be happening

Conservation in NSW through Marine Sanctuaries

[Michaelangelica]

World treaty to block illegal sea fishing

 

* 08 February 2009

* For similar stories, visit the Endangered Species and Mysteries of the Deep Sea Topic Guides

 

MORE than 80 fishing nations met this week at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy, to hammer out a draft treaty which will allow them to block their ports to boats that are fishing illegally.

 

"Illegal, unregulated and unreported" fishing, whether from legitimate fishing crews bending quota restrictions or rogue vessels exploiting the high seas, now accounts for some 10 per cent of the global catch.

 

The illegal catch is escalating as food demand grows and as globalised markets allow vessels to sell their catches anywhere in the world, without the knowledge of fisheries authorities. This makes it difficult for countries to protect imperilled fish stocks by limiting catches.

World treaty to block illegal sea fishing - science-in-society - 08 February 2009 - New Scientist

[Michaelangelica]

Beating poverty could save fish

Tuesday, 10 February 2009

ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies

Developing societies tend to over fish,

leading to a cycle of poverty and reef

destruction.

 

 

An international team of researchers has proposed a revolutionary strategy for ending the plunder of the world’s coral reefs and destruction of their fish stocks – beating poverty.

 

In a major study released today of the western Indian Ocean the team shows that reef fisheries are in far better condition where the society is more highly developed or where there is little or no development – than in places where the society is developing.

 

Most studies about the human impacts on reefs focus on the negative role of human populations. This novel study went a step further, exploring how socioeconomic development can actually play a positive role in sustaining coral reefs.

Beating poverty could save fish(ScienceAlert)

 

I have worked out why deep sea creatures are so ugly. That's why they are deep sea creatures.

Deep-sea discovery mission uncovers new species

Tuesday, 10 February 2009

California Institute of Technology

This carnivorous sea squirt was one of the

new species seen during the voyage.

Image: Advanced Imaging and

Visualization Laboratory, WHOI/Jess

Adkins, Caltech

 

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and an international team of collaborators, including CSIRO researchers, have returned from a month-long deep-sea voyage to a marine reserve near Tasmania, Australia, that not only netted coral-reef samples likely to provide insight into the impact of climate change on the world's oceans, but also brought to light at least three never-before-seen species of sea life.

 

"It was truly one of those transcendent moments," says Caltech's Jess Adkins of the descents made by the remotely operated submersible Jason. Adkins was the cruise's lead scientist and is an associate professor of geochemistry and global environmental science at Caltech. "We were flying--literally flying--over these deep-sea structures that look like English gardens, but are actually filled with all of these carnivorous, Seuss-like creatures that no one else has ever seen."

 

The voyage on the research vessel RV Thompson explored the Tasman Fracture Commonwealth Marine Reserve, southwest of Tasmania. The voyage was funded by the National Science Foundation and was the second of two cruises taken by the team, which included researchers from the United States--including scientists from Caltech and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, which owns and operates the submersible Jason--and Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The first of those voyages was taken in January 2008, with this most recent one spanning 33 days from mid-December 2008 through mid-January 2009.

 

Up until now, the area of the reef the scientists were exploring--called the Tasman Fracture Zone--had only been explored to a depth of 1,800 meters (more than 5,900 feet). Using Jason, the researchers on this trip were able to reach as far down as 4,000 meters (well over 13,000 feet).

Deep-sea discovery mission uncovers new species(ScienceAlert)

[Moontanman]

Recently it has been officially found that blue crabs can be raised to marketable size in freshwater, three crops a year are possible. I can say with total honesty I have been aware of that possibility for 30 years but no one would believe me. I have talked to a great many people only to be told at every turn it won't work, but I continued to catch blue crabs in freshwater. At one time I had made plans to raise soft shell blue crabs in freshwater but life had other plans for me. Seafood farming is the answer to the hungry worlds cry, at least if they want crabs at a premium price!

[Michaelangelica]

News in Science

 

Jellyfish threaten to 'dominate' oceans

Monday, 8 June 2009 Anna Salleh

ABC

Giant jelly fish are taking over parts of the world's oceans due to overfishing and other human activities, say researchers.

 

Dr Anthony Richardson of CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research and colleagues, report their findings in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

 

"We need to take management action to avert the marine systems of the world flipping over to being jellyfish dominated," says Richardson, who is also a marine biologist at the University of Queensland.

 

Richardson says jellyfish numbers are increasing, particularly in Southeast Asia, the Black Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

 

He says the Japanese have a real problem with giant jellyfish that burst through fishing nets.

. . .

Richardson says researchers are experimenting with different ways of controlling jellyfish.

 

Some methods involve sound waves to explode jellyfish, while others use special nets to try and cut them up.

Simple animals

 

Jellyfish are considered simple jelly-like sea animals, which are related to the microscopic animals that form coral.

 

They generally start their life as a plant-like polyp on the sea bed before budding off into the well-known bell-shaped medusa.

 

Jellyfish have tentacles containing pneumatocyst cells, which act like little harpoons that lodge in prey to sting and kill them.

 

The location and number of pneumatocysts dictate whether jellyfish are processed for human consumption.

 

While dried jellyfish with soya sauce is a delicacy served in Chinese weddings and banquets, not all kinds of jellyfish can be eaten, says Richardson.

 

According to Richardson, the species increasing in number aren't generally eaten.

 

World Oceans Day 2009 Registered Events

2009 Events | 2008 Events | 2007 Events

2009 Events by World Region

The Ocean Project

[Boerseun]

They actually blow up jellyfish with soundwaves?

 

That must be pretty cool to see. :ud:

 

I wonder what that'll do to whale communications, however... :ud:

 

Anybody here had jellyfish before? What does it taste like? I suppose if we can somehow figure out a way how to make money out of jellyfish, it won't be such a bad thing, and pretty soon they, too, will become extinct...

[Michaelangelica]

Probably a Spanish line. Still carring on the 17 C rape and pillage mindset?

Australia confiscates 130 km long deepwater gillnet

This vessel—the Anela—was photographed by a New Zealand Patrol on the high seas between Australia and New Zealand, and is believed to have deepwater gillnetting equipment aboard Click photo to enlarge © New Zealand Maritime Surveillance Patrol

Sydney, Australia, 6 November 2009—Just days after TRAFFIC wrote to the fledgling South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) to express alarm that Flag States are allowing deepwater gillnetting, Australia has revealed it confiscated a huge gillnet set illegally in Antarctic waters earlier this year.

 

The net, or rather series of nets strung together, was confiscated this April at Banzare Bank in the south western Indian Ocean and measured a staggering 130 km end to end—roughly the same distance as the width of New Zealand’s South Island—and set at a depth of 1.5 km.

 

The area is within waters controlled by CCAMLR (the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources), the international fisheries management body that regulates fishing in Antarctic seas, where gillnet fishing has been banned since 2004.

 

Inside the net were 29 tonnes of Antarctic Toothfish, plus a significant bycatch of skates. No vessel was apprehended.

 

Vessels fishing illegally (so-called Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) vessels) in Antarctic waters are increasingly using gillnets rather than longlines to target Patagonian and Antarctic Toothfish.

TRAFFIC - Wildlife Trade News - Australia confiscates 130 km long deepwater*gillnet

 

 

Glenn Sant, the global marine program leader at TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network, said the discovery was devastating for the marine environment in the commission area.

 

''These nets are actually an invisible curtain of death for everything that swims into them,'' he said. ''The nets kill indiscriminately, and if they are lost they keep killing as ghost nets.''

. . .

Mr Burke said Australian officials would take up with the European Union the discovery of Spanish fishermen in the Tasman Sea with the same type of nets.

 

The Spanish are exploiting a gap in the fisheries zone boundaries of Australia and New Zealand, where endangered sharks migrate. Nets have been set for two seasons, an environment assessment by the Spanish Government disclosed.

 

''As fish stocks are increasingly depleted worldwide, fleets such as Spain's are scanning the farthest seas for stocks left in unguarded patches,'' Mr Sant said.

 

A Spanish Government assessment concluded that the nets would have very low impact on deep water corals and sponges.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/illegal-fishers-escape-the-spotlight-20091106-i251.html

It's good to know the sponges will be OK???????????

 

Complicated, large-scale business

Last year, Australian customs caught two illegal fish vessels in their nets. The two vessels had been fishing illegally for Patagonian toothfish inside the Australian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Ocean. As the poachers were interrogated, a picture started to unfold of systematic pirate fishing on a scale never seen before.

 

Documentation onboard revealed a literal alphabet of boats (their names being the Austin, Boston, Champion, etc, until Jackson, with vessels K, L and M under construction). These ’alphabet boats’ were part of a web of professionally coordinated fishing activities, with transshipment, refuelling and changing of crew and provisions at sea, and with operational techniques designed to evade apprehension. Such sophisticated coordination ensures that the fishing vessels can stay virtually permanently on the fishing grounds, while the catch is landed safely in port.

 

The setup of the company involved in the ’alphabet saga’ and its subsidiaries disguises the origin of fish and fish products, which then can be sold legitimately and reach the consumer market. Ownership structure, flag states, operational bases and names of these vessels have been changed numerous times in the past year to conceal their true identity and purpose. The Russian company whose name was painted on the back of the boat did not even exist. The fishing boats were flagged in countries where company ownership is not public information, providing a perfect curtain for illegal activity and beneficial owners to hide behind.

 

”If such a large-scale fishing operation is allowed to continue, it is likely to result in the commercial extinction of the local toothfish population within a few years”, said Jenny Hodder of the Coaliton of Legal Toothfish Operators (COLTO), a group representing legal fishers for Patagonian toothfish.

 

Complete "fishing out" of the Patagonian toothfish stock has already happened at the South African Prince Edward Islands, where CCAMLR has recommended a zero catch for several years for the highly prized fish

.

WWF - Pirate fishing plundering the oceans

[Michaelangelica]

A troglodyte with opportunistic policies

Abbott pledges to curb marine parks

KIRSTY NEEDHAM

July 28, 2010

 

 

THE Coalition will stop Labor's expansion of marine protection parks which the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, said was ''threatening to lock up our oceans''.

 

Mr Abbott also pledged to give commercial fisheries and coastal communities greater input in plans.

Abbott pledges to curb marine parks

 

Plastiki sails into Sydney Harbour

ISABEL HAYES

July 26, 2010

 

AAP

 

The Plastiki, a boat made of 12,500 plastic bottles, has arrived in Sydney to cheers from hundreds of well-wishers who witnessed the end of her four-month voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

 

The catamaran, crewed by six, docked at Darling Harbour on Monday morning to emotional scenes as one crew member met his newborn son for the first time.

 

Vern Moen became a father for the first time on April 22, while he was on board the vessel. He was reunited with his wife and baby after 128 days at sea.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/plastiki-sails-into-sydney-harbour-20100726-10r09.html

[Michaelangelica]

This is alaming we rely on Phytoplankton more than any other life form

witout them we all die.

Ocean life support dwindling

Posted by Jef Akst

 

 

Phytoplankton, which are responsible for half of the world's primary production and are the basis of all marine ecosystems, have been declining for more than 100 years, perhaps the result of rising sea temperatures, according to a study published in this week's Nature -- a cause for concern about the health of the Earth's oceans.

 

 

"It is troubling," said marine scientist David Siegel of the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not involved in the research. With data dating back to the late 1800s, "this paper finds a long-term trend that's huge," he said. "The phytoplankton community has undoubtedly been changing."

 

Phytoplankton productivity lies at the base of the marine food web, supporting all ocean life and contributing to global geochemical processes, including the carbon cycle. Through photosynthetic activities, phytoplankton reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. Satellite data from the last few decades has suggested that phytoplankton might be on the decline.

 

To determine whether these apparent declines are indicative of a longer-term trend, marine biologist Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Canada and his colleagues turned to data from a variety of sources, including direct measurements of chlorophyll levels, a pigment found in all phytoplankton, and Secchi disk data. Secchi disks are a simple yet fundamental tool in oceanography, and are used to measure water transparency, which can serve as a proxy for phytoplankton abundance.

 

 

 

Read more: Ocean life support dwindling - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences Ocean life support dwindling - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences

Ocean life support dwindling - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences

[Knowledge515]

Sometimes I think the human species is in the ultimate rat race to destruction. I came across this video a few months ago, which I found very disturbing!

 

TOXIC - Garbage Island on Vimeo

 

In my own opinion, the annihilation of the environment will not cease until the destruction of capitalism.