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Fishmeal catch 'hits UK seabirds' (1 Viewer)

Chris Monk

Well-known member
From the BBC news web site:

Fishmeal catch 'hits UK seabirds'

By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent

UK seabirds' breeding attempts in 2004 have been disastrous, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says, with industrial fishing largely to blame.

In a report the RSPB says 2004 has been the most catastrophic breeding season on record for seabirds along UK coasts.

It says industrial fishing to supply fish meal and oil is barely sustainable and imperils the whole marine food web.

The RSPB says climate change is making matters worse, with some industrial fish species starving as the seas warm.

Total failure

Industrial fishing catches millions of tonnes of small fish which congregate in dense shoals - species like sandeels, sprats and anchovies - to turn into meal and oil, much of it to feed farmed fish.

The fish caught are a key part of the marine food chain, but the RSPB says we know little about the effects of industrial fishing.

The sandeels lack plankton, which are being scuppered by rising sea temperatures

Dr Euan Dunn, RSPB
But it is worried: "The UK has suffered serious seabird disasters this year already. In Shetland and Orkney, entire colonies of birds failed to produce any young because of severe food shortages.

"On top of that, hundreds of seabirds have been washing ashore having perished at sea. Again, lack of food is thought to be one of the reasons."

The report, Assessment Of The Sustainability Of Industrial Fisheries Producing Fish Meal And Fish Oil, was compiled for the RSPB by Poseidon Aquatic Resource Management Ltd and the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

It investigated the sustainability of two of the world's largest fisheries, the Peruvian anchovy industry and the North Sea sandeel fishery.

It concluded that industrial fisheries globally are failing to meet crucial criteria for sustainability, with the sandeel fishery deficient on around 60% of the criteria tested.

The RSPB wants more research into the interplay between the fisheries and the marine environment, better stock assessment, regulation, and more efficient management of the industry.

Dr Euan Dunn, RSPB's head of marine policy, said: "Industrial fishing is straining the bounds of sustainability and simply can't keep up with the enormous future growth in demand for fish feed we anticipate from aquaculture.

"This report demonstrates the urgent need to relieve this 'fish gap' pressure by seeking alternatives to fish meal and oil, such as the development of vegetable substitutes and better recovery of waste from fish caught for human consumption."

Running low

Between 17.9 and 39.5m tonnes of fish are estimated to be discarded globally each year by commercial fisheries.


A lucky kittiwake chick (Image: Chris Gomersall/rspb-images.com)
One fish in four worldwide is caught for non-human consumption. World production of fish meal averaged 6.3m tonnes from 1997 to 2000.

Dr Dunn told BBC News Online: "The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation thinks fish farming will use 50% of the meal and 80% of the oil from the industrial catch by 2010. Industrial fishing will fail to yield enough oil for aquaculture within 25 years.

"This year the European fleet was given a quota of 800,000 tonnes of North Sea sandeels, and managed to catch not much more than 300,000 tonnes.

Strengthening link

"The sandeels lack plankton, which are being scuppered by rising sea temperatures. Not only are the plankton species changing, but their seasonal cycle is out of sync with the fish.

"The evidence of a relationship between temperature rise and sandeel survival is becoming very strong indeed.

"The evidence is stronger in the southern parts of the North Sea - climate change is fundamentally altering the food chain.

"We desperately need alternatives to industrial fishing, because we're going to be quite dependent on aquaculture for the next few decades."
 
I see it as beginning of HUGE thing, which will completely change food industry and conservation during the next years.

People realise that oceans cannot be treated as a happy free hunting ground. Whales are gone, big fish is almost gone, small fish are about going, some fish are farmed. Oceans must be managed, supervised and protected just as the lands are now. This is a change of thinking - fish can not be just fished out. Wild stock need to be regulated and treated to allow sufficent breeding. Bycatch has to be minimised and utilised. Fish farms need to be regulated - food, breeding, escapes, waste disposal - like farms on land.

Some fishermen must feel now like the last hunter-gatherers who saw last wooly mammoths dying and first farms appearing. Conservation organisations must ensure that interests of wildlife is cared - even if they often don't know what are really needs of ocean species.

Sorry for such a philosophical tirade. But Kittiwakes and Sandeels are just little wheels in machine of ocean which we thinker with.

:) :) :)
 
jurek said:
Fish farms need to be regulated - food, breeding, escapes, waste disposal - like farms on land.
Except that on land-based farms, it doesn't take a single pound of beef, chicken or pork to feed farm-raised cattle, poultry and pigs. It takes 6-7 pounds of fresh fish to convert into 1 pound of pellets for feeding farm-raised fish. Regulations won't correct this huge imbalance.

Fish farming, IMHO, is an irrational "solution" to dwindling fish stocks, not to mention whether it's even a healthy food resource for humans over the long-term with all the fungicides, anti-algals, steroids, and artificial coloring fish farmers must use to get their fish to market. Not to further mention it produces fish that are mushy, not firm, and tasteless (comparing Atlantic farmed salmon to wild Alaskan salmon).
 
We agree that fish farms now are horrible. They need clear law on what feed can be used, which chemicals are banned etc.

Maybe I'm over-optimistic, but I feel that fish farms in future might adapt and take pressure off wild sea life, like farming replaced hunting. But if they cannot improve, they naturally should be closed.

Brr.. I enjoyed farm salmon. Then I read that only one meal per month is safe because of chemicals. Brr. Wild salmon was unobtainable in Poland. :(
 
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