Comments on: Sea bottom, sea bottom, talk about mudtrails, China's got 'em.

Sea bottom, sea bottom, talk about mudtrails, China's got 'em.

homunculus — Sat, 12 May 2007 09:17:04 -0800

Satellite images reveal shrimp trawlers' turbulent trails. Vessels turn firm sea bottoms into ooze, destroying habitats. [Via Gristmill.]

By: Popular Ethics

Popular Ethics — Sat, 12 May 2007 09:41:26 -0800

Isn't this how we killed all the cod on the grand banks?

By: Benny Andajetz

Benny Andajetz — Sat, 12 May 2007 09:44:45 -0800

I grew up, and still live, around the ocean. I am a sport fisherman. I've worked on fishing boats. Like responsible forestry, responsible fishing is a great and renewable use of resources. Commercial factory fishing, as practiced today, is horrible and destructive. Fish stocks around the world are crashing. This is one of the most important issues of our time.

By: Rufus T. Firefly

Rufus T. Firefly — Sat, 12 May 2007 09:59:51 -0800

From the book 'The end of the line' by Charles Clover about how fish stocks have been decimated by industrial trawls since 1950... "Imagine what people would say if a band of hunters strung a mile of net between two immense all-terrain vehicles and dragged it at speed across the plains of Africa.... left behind is a strangely bedraggled landscape resembling a harrowed field... this efficient but highly unselective way of killing animals is known as trawling... it is practiced the world over every day, from the Barents Sea in the Arctic to the shores of Antarctica and from the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the central Pacific to the temperate waters off Cape Cod."

By: Iron Rat

Iron Rat — Sat, 12 May 2007 10:20:02 -0800

This is why I don't buy shrimp. Sweet tasty shrimp. Seriously though I live in a community that has a few shrimp trawlers and they really do mess up things down there by destroying structure and killing tons of bycatch.

By: yeloson

yeloson — Sat, 12 May 2007 10:37:43 -0800

80% of the bees dying off + killing the ocean. Looks like it's going to be a Soylent Green kinda future.

By: Staggering Jack

Staggering Jack — Sat, 12 May 2007 10:52:03 -0800

Last month's National Geographic had an article and, of course, great photos about the "global fishing crisis". Besides the main article, there was also a good article on New Zealand Marine Reserves (photos), and the impact of the fishing crash on Newfoundland (photos).

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Sat, 12 May 2007 11:11:29 -0800

It's too big and yet too far away. People will not understand until it costs thirty bucks for a package of frozen fish-sticks. And that's really too bad. Imagine if our government... never mind

By: bottlebrushtree

bottlebrushtree — Sat, 12 May 2007 11:40:43 -0800

I grew up on Long Island Sound. In my lifetime I saw the scallops disappear, the weakfish disappear, the pufferfish disappear, etc... Overfishing, farm runoff, the brown tide, etc... I hear that some of these fish may be coming back, but somehow I don't beleive it will ever be the same.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Sat, 12 May 2007 12:40:59 -0800

"It's too big and yet too far away. People will not understand until it costs thirty bucks for a package of frozen fish-sticks." I don't believe even that would make a difference. We have become herd animals, accepting every discomfort with hardly a whimper, right up to the point that the hammer crushes our skulls. Look at the price of gas, look at the dishonesty and crimes of our current administration, look at all the ways we destroy this world. We look the other way, we hope it ends, but, for the most part, we do nothing about it . We will be the next major extinct species, and it probably needs to happen to save the planet.

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Sun, 13 May 2007 11:46:26 -0800

See what I mean? Too big, too far away. Not even here on the blue is this a topic that people can or care to try to wrap their brains around. A shame, that. That shot of the shrimp trawlers cools the blood with celerity. There's a marked economic angle in the whole equation that is being totally ignored (not by this post, specifically, but in the discussion of fisheries). I finally found a link to this guy I heard about: intersting fish stuff. Nice post, sorry to see it hasn't been more widely read and/or commented on.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 25 May 2007 17:47:11 -0800

Cameras for dead fish? No deal.