Fishing
:
Lots of creatures live off fish – including me and my
seabird friends. Until recently, people shared some of the fish with the rest
of us because they only had simple ways of catching them: lines and hooks or
hand nets. Then came fossil fuels and modern technology which meant people could
build powerful boats (called trawlers) and spot fish shoals (using sonar – a
way of 'seeing' underwater with sound, just as dolphins do). Then they could
just sweep them up out of the sea by the millions of tons. Another disaster
for us animals who depended on the fish for our food because soon there were
none left in some of the once-rich fishing grounds. And
people haven’t learned from their mistakes. Having ruined some of the best
fishing grounds, they’re now doing the same with the remaining ones [3]. If
that wasn’t bad enough, humans are now catching the tiny creatures (krill) that
the
fish and some whales in the great southern oceans depend on to live. Krill eat
tiny floating plants (phytoplankton) and are a basic part of the food chain
in these oceans. California has become the first state in the USA to ban this
krill
fishing.
Modern industrial fishing
is on quite a different scale to someone with a net or a rod and line [1]:
- Longlines
can be eighty miles long with thousands of baited hooks. They often
catch seabirds like albatrosses. At least 100,000 of these endangered
seabirds die every year because of longline fishing. [2]
- driftnets
can be forty miles long
-
trawlnets are large enough to hold twelve Boeing 747 jetliners
- In
1990, high seas drift nets caught 42 million animals other than fish. Catching
these animals was accidental and includes diving seabirds (like me) and mammals
like dolphins. This is called 'by-catch' and includes many small fishes (up
to one third of the total catch) which aren't wanted and are thrown back...
but too late for by this time, almost all are dead
1. Seaweb: World's
Imperiled Fish
2. "Birds nosedive", New Scientist vol 184 issue 2473 - 13 November
2004, page 4. Also New Scientist, 24/11/98, 13
3. New Scientist, 31/3/01, 19 - "Gotta catch them all". The Europeans
want to increase their catch from the ocean off West Africa by 60%. This is
one of the world's last great fishing grounds but already the fish are in serious
decline. I'm afraid it just shows people never learn by their mistakes... well,
not where there's money involved anyway.