So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

[Ahmabeliever]

Before I talk about farming fish. I want ocean fishing severely curtailed, but the reality is, it wont be. Maybe increasing mercury is the only way to stop man from fishing, and even then, non predatory species will have less mercury and continue to be culled, thereby starving out predators...

The future of humans eating fish is not over as enclosed farming can continue on land. The practise of Aquaculture is fraught with it's own problems however, the two main concerns being pollution and nutrition.

So long as people kill ocean fish to feed farmed fish it's unsustainable. Especially with the oceans supply rapidly diminishing.

Fish nutrition from vegetable proteins, and specific insect rearing techniques, and smaller fast growing fish species as food sources, etc. This is where research $$ could be poured.

When we can sustainably feed farmed fish, the pollution is easy to take care of, and profitable.

With Aquaponics.

Freshwater you grow veggies with the waste which keeps your fish healthy in recirculated water.

Saltwater you grow seaweeds and filter feeding shellfish.

Freshwater aquaponics could take a small fortune to set up. Or you could dig a big hole in the ground, line it, stock it, and use the water on crops. The complexity is up to the individual.

Many land based farmers are getting diminishing returns for staple crops, a 'green' farmed fish would fetch good market prices. Farmed fish are frowned upon, and they should be But Aquaponic farmed fish, well, once we can feed em sustainably, that's a clean sustainable fish supply which could ease pressure on the oceans (though it wont as going out and catching fish is always easier than waiting for them to grow unless there's none to catch).

Much of it hinges on govt policy, unfortunately.

[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/podca...w_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 fartingmenace@hotmail.com, pettrum42@yahoo.com 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