I was at a new fish shop, that’s fish and chips not decorative fish for an aquarium, the other day and I said to my partner Rob...”What if we ever run out of fish?”
It got me thinking for years the oceans have just been a dumping
ground. It’s not just the tons and tons of plastic that’s floating around in the
vast oceans of the world, that continues to be dumped, but all the living
creatures that eat the plastic thinking it’s food. Fish feed on the micro
plastic pieces as it breaks down into smaller pieces then we eat the fish!
Turtles and whales eat plastic bags because they look like squid or jellyfish.
Then there’s the over fishing!
There was a programme on TV last night on Netflix called SEASPIRACY I
advise anyone with a ounce of interest, or a thought for the future for their
children or grand children, to watch it.
One fact emerged that hit me was in the north sea where they fish for
halibut...a popular fish to eat in northern climes. In the 1800’s a typical
fishing boat could catch 1-2 tons per day...now a whole fleet of trawlers would
catch two tons per year! Does that make any sense to anyone who thinks that fish
will always be there for us to plunder at will?
Long line fishing where baited hooks are trailed behind ships for
kilometres, many kilometres, catching anything...even birds...and discarding
what’s no good not required.
Shark populations being decimated by Asian
fishermen just for their fins for shark fin soup! They cut the fins off live
sharks and just dump them back in the ocean to die.
The “by catch” from trawlers of fish that’s either too small or the wrong
species and just left for dead.
Then there’s the tons and tons of plastic netting that fisherman discard,
dumped, in the oceans of the world to just float around trapping any number of
unsuspecting species. It really makes changing from plastic straws to paper
straws to be so miniscule. In fact, as the programme stated, 0.03% of plastic
straws are the problem. Discarded plastic nets are a huge THE most important
environmental problem!
Is so called sustainable fishing...sustainable? It's questionable where this programme was
concerned. No experts called on
for an interview seemed to give a satisfactory answer.
I always buy dolphin free tuna..but this again seems questionable. I find it all very confusing.
We saw Dolphins being slaughtered in huge numbers in Taiji, Japan, as some
form of “pest control” it seems they called it. If we kill them first attitude
there’s more fish for us. It’s depressing I know and I really couldn't stomach
watching it until the end. I guess that makes me weak but hey I’ve always sort
of known what goes on; this programme only confirmed it! Just a feeling of
helplessness. I lay there awake thinking about it afterwards!
I buy the farmed Salmon but now I’m really not even sure about that. We
have farmed Barramundi here in Australia but often I have heard farmed
Barramundi from Asian countries is sold in our restaurants because it is cheaper
and the water quality where they are bred in vast numbers is doubtful to say the
least.
The real kicker for me was the way we are going by around the year 2048 the
oceans will be not just be over fished but decimated of fish. Even if that date
is wrong, as some experts say it is, you can see the direction we're heading.
Maybe next time we order the ever present, and I know delicious, fish and
chips from our local shop we should just think.
I wish I knew the answer...but I don’t...
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