Food Chain Question

[solodiver]

Yes I have to admitt that the receipe for share sure sounds some good... yummmmmm LOL
:yellow:

 

[voidware]

If you're afraid, dive in freshwater. I have yet to be attacked by by a bass, but those crappies, better watch out. They can take off toes.

brandon

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by Bob3
No recorded attacks on humans by Orcas, but then I don't have a recipe for them either.

Perhaps they leave no witnesses...
Rick

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by vr

Not quite. At best, you'd be number 2, if that. Chain mail does no good against a great white that could swallow you whole.

I think a power head was mentioned... have you ever used one? I have - built one in 1962 - 12 GA 3" magnum. A remarkable piece of efficient killing machinery, the combination of explosive gas expansion and shock with a head shot will kill anything alive, instantly. Makes mush of the brain in about 15 milliseconds. Even a small one, like a .38, can take care of critters under about half a ton.
Surprizingly quiet, too.
Rick

 

[budgy]

I like to laugh and joke but the subject of killing fish in these times disturbs me.
Bombay harbour in my teens was full of fish that would attack a piece of cigarette ash flicked on to the water. In Greece the anchovies could be reeled in as fast as you could get a hook into the water, in Scottish waters, mackeral would fight to get on your hook. In Geralton Australia you could earn twenty to forty dollars a day pulling in crays in a morning, which in those days was equal to a good weekly wage.
I have remarked on another forum that I saw fewer fish last year than the year before, I dive generally on the weekend and can't keep formal count or survey, just a seat of the pants observation or guesstimation. It seems that what I saw was a indictator of the state of the sea, UK catches were less than half the previous year, our fishing boats are being smashed up to reduce the fleet. I see many areas are becoming devoid of fish, and these are maritime areas which for centuries, have provided a regular substainable livelyhood from the sea. Is our civilised way of life turning our oceans and seas sterile.
We are people from all over the world with eyes in the ocean.
What do you see.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by budgy
I like to laugh and joke but the subject of killing fish in these times disturbs me.
Bombay harbour in my teens was full of fish that would attack a piece of cigarette ash flicked on to the water. In Greece the anchovies could be reeled in as fast as you could get a hook into the water, in Scottish waters, mackeral would fight to get on your hook. In Geralton Australia you could earn twenty to forty dollars a day pulling in crays in a morning, which in those days was equal to a good weekly wage.
I have remarked on another forum that I saw fewer fish last year than the year before, I dive generally on the weekend and can't keep formal count or survey, just a seat of the pants observation or guesstimation. It seems that what I saw was a indictator of the state of the sea, UK catches were less than half the previous year, our fishing boats are being smashed up to reduce the fleet. I see many areas are becoming devoid of fish, and these are maritime areas which for centuries, have provided a regular substainable livelyhood from the sea. Is our civilised way of life is turning our oceans and seas sterile.
We are people from all over the world with eyes in the ocean.
What do you see.

I see the same.. I believe the world fishery is in danger of imminent collapse, and I see no easing up of the global pressure on it. Indeed, there is more commercial fishing tonnage afloat now than ever before in all history. I also see the emphasis in the wrong places... for example, in an effort to "save the turtles" the US shrimping fleet has had to install Turtle Excluder Devices (TED's), a coarse grate that theoretically throws turtles clear of shrimp nets without affecting the shrimp catch. But it does, and boats have to pull some 30% longer hauls to get a load of shrimp, which means more dead by-catch - and the turtles? Shrimpers were and are a drop in the bucket on turtle populations. The destruction of nesting beaches, digging up and consumption of the eggs, and turtleskin products continues unabated. And besides all that, foreign flags don't have to use TEDs, so the shrimp you see at Red Lobster just comes across the border in trucks rather than off the docks in Texas.
It's a global mess - I don't see any easy answers. The collapse may already be irreversible. Then again, that may save the oceans in the long run, by forcing seafood farming on a grand scale, driving the price of farmed fish down and wild fish up to the point where it is no longer commercially feasible to harvest wild fish at all.
Forty years ago I was a teenager hunting in an inexhaustible sea. The only good shark was a dead shark. The day's catch was measured in ice-chests full of fillets, not in a few edible fish. The Jewfish was our wake-up call. In the sixties they were everywhere; we killed them and feasted on their steaks and sold them to restaurants and never thought there was a limit - and suddenly they were gone. Our inexhaustible sea suddenly became our pond to protect, and the Jewfish the bellringer. They, at least, are on the comeback. Indeed, our little corner of the Gulf is seeing some recovery of inshore species - grouper and snapper and even shark. But out to sea the Japanese long-liners are hard at it. Some day I hope to be able to enjoy a fresh, thick piece of cod & chips in London again...
Rick

 

[budgy]

Not far from where I live is a place called Loch Fine and its lovely, though its cold and on most days you can expect rain, its is still an area of outstanding natural beauty. The viz is sometimes 6 - 8m when other areas of the Clyde would be 2-4m. Around Funace at the quarry there were always big pollack and wrasse. With a steep shelve from the shore to + 30m of deep water, it was very popular with fisherman. There is salmon fish farm off- shore now, and the natural fish are vanishing. I could not understand how this was happening, as you would expect a surplus of fish food around a fish farm, to lead to a concentration of fish in the area.
I am told a salmon fish farm can put more pollution into the sea than a medium size town. I don't know what this pollution consists of or how and why it is damaging the marine life. I am told that salmon fish farms are contributing to the destruction of the marine environment in the Oban area.