Dying Oceans

[TMHeimer]

There is good news. If we leave it alone, it comes back quickly. Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines had been over fished and dynamited for years. The World Heritage moved in, put up some funding to have armed guards there that check on all boats in the area and lo and behold, the reef and fish came back in a short while.

I hope and believe that in the not so distant future, we will be growing fish and seafood in intensive culture systems cheaper than people can go out and catch them in the wild. It's already happened with shrimp. The trawlers in the Gulf of Mexico only survive because of lobbying and government subsidies. Farmers can produce shrimp for a lower cost then the trawlers.

Hunting on land is only for sportsman now. The same SHOULD happen in the sea. (and being a spearfisherman, I LIVE for that day )

Maybe I'm wrong, but I hate these doomsday sayers. There is always hope.

I assume you are talking about fish farms. If you mean the ones in the ocean, there is a big controversy here about the resulting effects/pollution on other sea life. If you mean the ones set up on land, apparently this is way more costly.

 

[aprivetera]

More costly, but in the end more efficient since less food is lost outside of the nets. And you still have a lot of water pollution that eventually makes it out to the sea. It seems much like the effects of the Green Revolution on land; sure we will solve hunger, but most likely at the expense of the environment.

I side more with the effects of population growth. We need to realize that we cannot keep growing and growing. I really have my doubts that technology is keeping up with the amount of food we need (and waste).

Makes me wonder how long it will be until we are eating the mush in the Matrix...

 

[Wookie]

There is good news. If we leave it alone, it comes back quickly. Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines had been over fished and dynamited for years. The World Heritage moved in, put up some funding to have armed guards there that check on all boats in the area and lo and behold, the reef and fish came back in a short while.

I hope and believe that in the not so distant future, we will be growing fish and seafood in intensive culture systems cheaper than people can go out and catch them in the wild. It's already happened with shrimp. The trawlers in the Gulf of Mexico only survive because of lobbying and government subsidies. Farmers can produce shrimp for a lower cost then the trawlers.

Hunting on land is only for sportsman now. The same SHOULD happen in the sea. (and being a spearfisherman, I LIVE for that day )

Maybe I'm wrong, but I hate these doomsday sayers. There is always hope.

Same thing in the Dry Tortugas. I am constantly amazed at the ocean's ability to heal itself. I was talking with a fisherman friend who also happens to be a biologist with FWC. I was remarking about how awesome the reefs looked in the Dry Tortugas this year, and, although we had a red tide in Florida Bay, it was of very short duration and didn't result in nearly the devastation and fish kills that normally occur. We think it might be that the dams are now correctly installed in the Everglades, and are keeping the waste runoff and nutrients from pouring out into Florida Bay. To back this up, the runoff from the St. Lucie river this year has devastated the north Palm Beach/Martin county waters. Where does the nutrients from Big Sugar go if not Florida Bay? Well, out the St. Lucie river, of course. Additionally, the amount of sediment/algae in Dry Tortugas was non-existent this year. The staghorn coral is growing wild in amounts not seen since the early 80's, and the big game fish (grouper/Snapper) are abundant. At least they were, before the gov't shutdown. The commercial fishermen took that as a permission slip for a free for all. The FWC realized the extent of the poaching and caught between 10-50 commercial boats (depending on whose stories you believe) and seized the catch.

I have great hope for the oceans. Commercial fishing laws and enforcement is getting stricter and stricter. A lot based on articles like this one.

 

[Crass3000]

Let nature take it's course. Starvation, sickness, natural disasters are nature's ways of dealing with over population. Yet every time nature takes action we step in and save lives. We want it both ways and are paying the price.

Although not politically correct, I agree with this. If you look at the nations that have the most starvation, many of them are the countries that have the highest birth rates and the smallest amounts of food resources. It is said they have more children so that hopefully one of their children will be able to take care of them when they are older. This obviously isn't going to work but is a cultural norm in many places where food supply is very low. How is that gonna work when more countries start getting towards the point where their food cannot support their population. This is simple food supply vs. population science that all animals ebb and flow with in nature. Look at a curve for animals. They hit a peak and population goes down quite quickly to a population that is sustainable. We are no different than those animals except we artificially try to stop the trend by transferring food.

It's not a perfect world and OUR population just keeps growing exponentially. Soon even countries like ours will be like Africa if people don't get their head out of their *** and realize their genes aren't that important.

Edit: You're already seeing signs of this even in the US as farmers, scientists, etc find and use drugs on both animals and crops to make them produce more which affects our health. Sooner or later that is not going to work.

 

[Hank49]

I assume you are talking about fish farms. If you mean the ones in the ocean, there is a big controversy here about the resulting effects/pollution on other sea life. If you mean the ones set up on land, apparently this is way more costly.

I'm talking about vertically integrated, multi species farms where the waste of one organism is the food for another.
The technology is evolving rapidly in the aquaponics industry, using tilapia (waste) to fertilize vegetables in greenhouses. This will evolve into fish or shrimp waste for sea weeds (cosmetics or foods), sea cucumbers, or other protein sources grown in the waste that can be processed back into a food source for the primary organisms.

There are many shrimp farms in the world that are over 20 years old and still successful. Shrimp isn't the ideal species for feeding the masses but learning to culture them and manage the environment, diseases etc has led to a lot of ground breaking technology.

Yes, I'm pro aquaculture. It's what I've done for a living for 36 years. But with the population growth, land will be more scarce and valuable. The sea is the only resource big enough to grow food for 40 billion...or more people.

 

[Crass3000]

Almost if not all commercially farmed fish/seafood is not as good for you as it's diet is pretty much the same thing everyday and typically not what it would normally feed on.

 

[lionfish-eater]

There is good news. If we leave it alone, it comes back quickly. Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines had been over fished and dynamited for years. The World Heritage moved in, put up some funding to have armed guards there that check on all boats in the area and lo and behold, the reef and fish came back in a short while.

I hope and believe that in the not so distant future, we will be growing fish and seafood in intensive culture systems cheaper than people can go out and catch them in the wild. It's already happened with shrimp. The trawlers in the Gulf of Mexico only survive because of lobbying and government subsidies. Farmers can produce shrimp for a lower cost then the trawlers.

Hunting on land is only for sportsman now. The same SHOULD happen in the sea. (and being a spearfisherman, I LIVE for that day )

Maybe I'm wrong, but I hate these doomsday sayers. There is always hope.

Those intensive culture systems will turn the oceans into the aquatic equivilent of a hog feed lot, with pollution, antibiotics, chemical feed, etc. Aquatic farming done on land in tanks is one thing, using the oceans a a growing medium will bring many problems as man puts more and more crap into the water.

---------- Post added October 22nd, 2013 at 09:03 PM ----------

There is a thread in the pub devoted to ocean destruction and exploitation. If readers are interested they can join the pub, or mods can link that thread to here.

Anyone ever hear of the International seabed authority? These bastards are dividing up the oceans for commercial exploitation.Homepage | International Seabed Authority The future for divers are MPA's. The world oceans are open for exploitation. Damaged nuke plant a problem? Just flush it into the ocean and hurry up and build new arena for the olympics.

 

[Wingy]

Also worth checking out is the dvd End of the Line.....and please keep the supertrawler Margolis out of your waters.

 

[Nemrod]

I know we have a forum for ocean conservancy, but I was afraid this article might bet buried there. It might get moved, but I hope it gets a wider readership first.

The ocean is broken

There are just too many people and nobody seems to be volunteering to be part of the solution.

N

 

[highdesert]

Let nature take it's course. Starvation, sickness, natural disasters are nature's ways of dealing with over population. Yet every time nature takes action we step in and save lives. We want it both ways and are paying the price.

This is, IMHO, a simplistic, romantic notion. The reality is that the Earth will become essentially uninhabitable before the population is pared down enough. Must we wait for "starvation, sickness, and natural disasters" before we take meaningful action?