Sea bottom, sea bottom, talk about mudtrails, China's got 'em.
May 12, 2007 9:17 AM Subscribe
Satellite images reveal shrimp trawlers' turbulent trails. Vessels turn firm sea bottoms into ooze, destroying habitats. [Via Gristmill.]
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.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 9:44 AM on May 12, 2007
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.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 9:44 AM on May 12, 2007
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."
posted by Rufus T. Firefly at 9:59 AM on May 12, 2007
"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."
posted by Rufus T. Firefly at 9:59 AM on May 12, 2007
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.
posted by Iron Rat at 10:20 AM on May 12, 2007
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.
posted by Iron Rat at 10:20 AM on May 12, 2007
80% of the bees dying off + killing the ocean. Looks like it's going to be a Soylent Green kinda future.
posted by yeloson at 10:37 AM on May 12, 2007
posted by yeloson at 10:37 AM on May 12, 2007
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).
posted by Staggering Jack at 10:52 AM on May 12, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by Staggering Jack at 10:52 AM on May 12, 2007 [1 favorite]
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
posted by From Bklyn at 11:11 AM on May 12, 2007
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.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 11:40 AM on May 12, 2007
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.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 11:40 AM on May 12, 2007
"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.
posted by HuronBob at 12:40 PM on May 12, 2007
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.
posted by HuronBob at 12:40 PM on May 12, 2007
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.
posted by From Bklyn at 11:46 AM on May 13, 2007
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posted by Popular Ethics at 9:41 AM on May 12, 2007