Showing posts with label fisheries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fisheries. Show all posts
Sunday, April 6, 2008
West Coast Salmon Fishery Collapsing
US mulls Pacific salmon fishing ban
By Rajesh Mirchandani
BBC News, California and Oregon
Thursday, 3 April 2008 12:03 UK
The US government will decide next week whether to issue a complete season-long ban on salmon fishing off the Pacific coast of the US.
The proposal comes in response to a drastic collapse in fish stocks.
But fishermen's groups say it will devastate their industry and cost the local economy billions of dollars.
With a light hand on the steering wheel, captain Phil Bentivegna guides his boat, Butchie B, out of San Francisco harbour.
He has worked on the ocean for 41 years, many of them in his current role, running charter tours for sports fishing enthusiasts.
We pass dozens of other such boats, testament to this important part of San Francisco's tourist infrastructure.
But the fishing tour business is quiet these days. In fact, Mr Bentivegna tells me: "Last year was probably the slowest year I have ever had for catching salmon." Read On
Monday, February 18, 2008
Crisis in the Deep Blue: The State of Earth's Largest Natural Resource
Soon, Nemo won't be the only fish we can't find
By Ridwan Hossain
A crisis is slowly looming deep underneath more than 139 million square miles of the Earth's surface, a crisis so serious that it could affect food supplies around the globe and lead to the extinction of many of the world's species. However, it is not a crisis that most people would even notice, as it takes place in the great vastness of the ocean. Despite consumers' unfettered access to Fish-o-Filet sandwiches and sushi restaurants, many fish species are in danger of extinction due to excessive harvesting, threatening the biodiversity of the ocean environment. Entire underwater ecological systems are at risk because of dangerous human activities in the oceans, including the destruction of coral reefs in many parts of the world.
read on
By Ridwan Hossain
A crisis is slowly looming deep underneath more than 139 million square miles of the Earth's surface, a crisis so serious that it could affect food supplies around the globe and lead to the extinction of many of the world's species. However, it is not a crisis that most people would even notice, as it takes place in the great vastness of the ocean. Despite consumers' unfettered access to Fish-o-Filet sandwiches and sushi restaurants, many fish species are in danger of extinction due to excessive harvesting, threatening the biodiversity of the ocean environment. Entire underwater ecological systems are at risk because of dangerous human activities in the oceans, including the destruction of coral reefs in many parts of the world.
read on
California salmon collapse roils West Coast fishing industry
By TERENCE CHEA Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 02/02/2008 08:52:19 AM PST
SAN FRANCISCO—Humboldt County fisherman Dave Bitts is bracing for another lean year after the sudden collapse of California's most important salmon run.
Like many West Coast fisherman, Bitts depends on wild "king" salmon for up to two-thirds of his income. Now, he doesn't know how he's going to pay his bills.
"We've never been in this situation before," said the 59-year-old Bitts. "It's my bread-and-butter, as it is for all my pals. And this year, it appears our bread-and-butter is not there."
Federal fishery regulators said this past week that the number of chinook salmon returning to the Sacramento River and its tributaries last fall was astonishingly low. That could trigger severe fishing restrictions and economic hardship for fishermen and related businesses from Central California to the Canadian border.
Restaurants and consumers will have to pay high prices or do without the prized wild salmon, and the crash could force the state to change the way it manages its increasingly precious water.
"This is an economic rumbling that will go right through every coastal community," said Rep. Mike Thompson of California's North Coast. "It's not just the commercial fishermen that are economically harmed; there are all kinds of businesses that depend on the fishery."
Experts are unclear about what caused the collapse, but many fishermen are blaming an increase in the amount of water being pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
to drought-stricken farms and cities to the south.
read on
Article Launched: 02/02/2008 08:52:19 AM PST
SAN FRANCISCO—Humboldt County fisherman Dave Bitts is bracing for another lean year after the sudden collapse of California's most important salmon run.
Like many West Coast fisherman, Bitts depends on wild "king" salmon for up to two-thirds of his income. Now, he doesn't know how he's going to pay his bills.
"We've never been in this situation before," said the 59-year-old Bitts. "It's my bread-and-butter, as it is for all my pals. And this year, it appears our bread-and-butter is not there."
Federal fishery regulators said this past week that the number of chinook salmon returning to the Sacramento River and its tributaries last fall was astonishingly low. That could trigger severe fishing restrictions and economic hardship for fishermen and related businesses from Central California to the Canadian border.
Restaurants and consumers will have to pay high prices or do without the prized wild salmon, and the crash could force the state to change the way it manages its increasingly precious water.
"This is an economic rumbling that will go right through every coastal community," said Rep. Mike Thompson of California's North Coast. "It's not just the commercial fishermen that are economically harmed; there are all kinds of businesses that depend on the fishery."
Experts are unclear about what caused the collapse, but many fishermen are blaming an increase in the amount of water being pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
to drought-stricken farms and cities to the south.
read on
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Bluefin Tuna: Going, Going, Gone
By Jim Motavalli
“High fishing pressure preceded the species’ virtual disappearance from the area, and that apparently played a key role,” says Dr. MacKenzie, who also cites the targeting of juvenile tuna, and the introduction of many foreign fishing fleets. “We hope our work will inspire a more precautionary approach to the management of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic,” he says.
Atlantic Bluefin tuna, rigorously pursued because of the high prices they command as sushi on the Japanese market, are being pushed to near-extinction from Holland to northern Norway, according to a new report in the journal Fisheries Research (see “Saving the Seas,” feature, July/August 2005).
The research, conducted by Dr. Brian MacKenzie of the Technical University of Denmark and the late Dr. Ransom Myers of Canada’s Dalhousie University, found that the waters of northern Europe teemed with bluefin tuna in the summer season from at least 1912 until 1950. But increases in the number of fishing boats and more technologically sophisticated fishing gear led to a crash in the 1960s. There has been no recovery in the 40 years since.
“High fishing pressure preceded the species’ virtual disappearance from the area, and that apparently played a key role,” says Dr. MacKenzie, who also cites the targeting of juvenile tuna, and the introduction of many foreign fishing fleets. “We hope our work will inspire a more precautionary approach to the management of bluefin tuna in the Atlantic,” he says.
Sharks disappearing as fin chopping rises
Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:54am EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Populations of tiger, bull, dusky and other sea sharks have plummeted by more than 95 percent since the 1970s as fisherman kill the animals for their fins or when they scoop other fish from the ocean, according to an expert from the World Conservation Union, or IUCN.
At particular risk is the scalloped hammerhead shark, whose young swim mostly in shallow waters along shores all over the world to avoid predators.
The scalloped hammerhead will be listed on the 2008 IUCN Red List as globally "endangered" due to overfishing and high demand for its valuable fins in the shark fin trade, said Julia Baum, a member of the IUCN's shark specialist group.
"As a result of high and mostly unrestricted fishing pressure, many sharks are now considered to be at risk of extinction," Baum said in a statement.
read on
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Populations of tiger, bull, dusky and other sea sharks have plummeted by more than 95 percent since the 1970s as fisherman kill the animals for their fins or when they scoop other fish from the ocean, according to an expert from the World Conservation Union, or IUCN.At particular risk is the scalloped hammerhead shark, whose young swim mostly in shallow waters along shores all over the world to avoid predators.
The scalloped hammerhead will be listed on the 2008 IUCN Red List as globally "endangered" due to overfishing and high demand for its valuable fins in the shark fin trade, said Julia Baum, a member of the IUCN's shark specialist group.
"As a result of high and mostly unrestricted fishing pressure, many sharks are now considered to be at risk of extinction," Baum said in a statement.
read on
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