Download Overfishing

Overfishing
“ ……….Simon Peter saith unto them,
I go a fishing and
that night they caught nothing.
John 21: 3
Overfished, Career change.
“ …………..Follow me, and I will
make you fishers of men.
• Matthew 4:19
• The Decline of Somali Fishermen
Thousands of Somalis once made their living as fishermen.
The once-abundant supply of fish it held.
• Foreigners exploit fisheries off Somalia's coast, and
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the lack of a governing body to stave them off, many of these
fishermen are finding their nets empty.
• It's estimated that $300 million worth of seafood is stolen from
Somali waters altogether every year—a
• depressed economy as Somalia's. Some local fisherman believe
there will be no fishing industry to speak of if the practice goes on
unchecked—so over-plundered are the fish populations in Somali
waters.
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A Path to Piracy
And without the ability to bring home even a sufficient
amount of fish to eat, many of these fisherman
justifiably grow desperate. But even from here, it's not
a simple jump to pirating. Initially, many of the nowtermed "pirates" were vigilante patrol squads, steering
their boats to fishing vessels they found illegally
snagging seafood or dumping toxic waste in Somali
waters and demanding they pay a tax. After this proved
ineffective, something closer to organized piracy
developed.
Somali PIRATES
OVERFISHING
• Many marine ecologists think that the biggest
single threat to marine ecosystems today is
overfishing. Our appetite for fish is exceeding
the oceans' ecological limits with devastating
impacts on marine ecosystems. Scientists are
warning that overfishing results in profound
changes in our oceans, perhaps changing
them forever. Not to mention our dinner
plates, which in future may only feature fish
and chips as a rare and expensive
Facts of Overfishing
Factory Ships:
Smaller and smaller mesh nets
Smaller sizes of fish caught
Used for animal food
Used for fertilizer
Exhausted stock unavailable for the food web
Local fishermen “caught nothing”
Factory Fishing
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Use advanced technology
Helicopters to locate schools of fish
Radar to locate schools
Small mesh size nets
Pirate fishing in “third world “ sea areas
Other animals caught and discarded
> 20,000 porpoises per year
OVERFISHING
Factory Ship
Factory Ships
• A factory ship, also known as a fish processing
vessel, is a large ocean-going vessel with
extensive on-board facilities for processing and
freezing caught fish. According to the FAO, there
are about 38,400 vessels greater than 100 tons in
the world's factory fishing fleet.[1]
• Contemporary factory ships are automated and
enlarged versions of the earlier whalers and their
use for fishing has grown dramatically. Some
factory ships also function as mother ships
Factory Ship
Local Fishery, idle fleet
Atlantic Herring
Altantic Herring
( Clupea harengus)
• Fully matures at 4 years
• Large scale fishing Gulf of Maine
• Migration summer feeding –Gulf of maine,
Georges Bank, Scotian shelf , to New England
and Mid-Atlantic areas during winter.
Herring Harvest in Maine
• Coastal stock ,
• Declined by 470,000 mt in 1968 to 36,000 mt in 1983.
(Table 22.1, Figure 22.2 [Fig 22.2 Data]).
• Offshore fishery collapsed in 1977,
• Gradual increase from the 1980s to 1990s
• Peaked at 133,000 mt in 2001.
• Landings declined during 2002-2005, averaging
109,000 mt.
• The USA has accounted for about 72% of landings since
1978, but during the last decade has accounted for
85% of the total herring.
Distribution , Atlantic Herring
Clupea harengus
Herring in the food Chain
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Atlantic herring is a major forage species off the groundfish such as
cod, hake, haddock, flounder,
monkfish, and dogfish,
bluefin tuna, swordfish, and bluefish, as well as
striped bass, black sea bass,
Atlantic salmon,
sharks and skates, and
even squid.
Many species of seabirds and
marine mammals also rely heavily on herring as a major food source.1
The recovery of overfished groundfish and pelagic fish species may
depend on the abundance and availability of herring as a food source.
The ultimate Price of “no Herring”
• We all need striving Herring populations,
otherwise we lose everything we have.
• We need to follow the science advice we now
have because
• the cost of overfishing HERRING is way too
high in the long run.
Herring, food for Whales
Forensics
• Tagging evidence of intermixing during
different phases of ther annual migration.
• No current genetic evidence that the gulf of
maine and Georges Bank stocks are separate
stocks.
From No HERRING to Human PIRACY
References
• ^ a b BBC (2006) Factory fishing: facts and figures
• ^ US Court of Appeals (2002) Can a fish processing barge
qualify as a "vessel in navigation".
• ^ FAO (2004) The Status of the Fishing Fleet The State of
World Fisheries and Aquaculture.
• ^ The Guardian (2006) Dinosaur fish pushed to the brink by
deep-sea trawlers
• ^ Nature (2003) Rapid Worldwide Depletion of Predatory
Fish Communities
• ^ Nature (2005) Decline of Pacific tuna populations
exaggerated Page 434:E1-E2, 28 April 2005.
• ^ FAO (2000) World Review of Fisheries and Aquaculture
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture.
References
• www.msc.org/cook-eat-enjoy/fish-to-eat
www.fishonline.orgwww.greenpeace.org.uk/o
ceans/time-and-tuna-are-running-out
www.seashepherd.org/blue-rage
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• www.sustainablewaters.com/dolphinfriendly-tuna-is-it-a-meaningless-label/
The