No. That was a good link. I posted a different link with similar information earlier in the thread. I think it would be possible to find a hundred links to similar information.

The overfishing isn't going to stop till it's too late.

A group of my friends and I watched this documentary about 4 months ago....have you seen it?


http://endoftheline.com/film


it was an extremely disturbing film to watch....and unlike the hollywood/bollywood versions, it was an incredibly informative documentary.

Yes I did. In fact, this film is one of the reasons I started this thread. I have a lot of other information but mainly I was relying on the information I have picked up diving the oceans around the world. I am going to Turks/Caicos next month.

When I was at the Great Barrier Reef some years ago box jellyfish were taking over. I have discussed this problem with marine biologists all over the world.

It is a problem so serious, it takes your breath away.

When I was in Alaska, which is supposed to have one of the healthiest fisheries in the world, I talked to salmon fishermen who can no longer make a living. I also visited with native Inuit Indians who were putting nets up across streams which stopped every fish from reaching their spawning grounds.

It makes one sick.

i think I mentioned I spent a week on lady Musgrave island...a coral cay in the southern GBR...in january...

what blew me away was the depletion of fish stocks, and varieties.....far less of the smaller fish....from 10 years ago in May when I last spent a week on the island...and the health og the coral....


the health of the coral here, is in huge jepoardy after the insane floods we had all through queensland...(and are still having...)....so much pollutants were sent waaaay out to sea...and the impact of that on the Bunker group will show over the next few years...

the other thing impacting on the reefs here is ocean temps...rising...we've already lost a lot of soft corals around my home here...with the ocean temps being way up on previous years, and staying up way longer than is usual seasonally.

What also concerns me is with the rising air temps...the sands are hotter...which means the sea turtle nests are more vulnerable...not sure of the hatchling numbers this year...nor gestation times, as the numbers are still being catelogued.

Hello everyone. A good article and it really needs to be addressed to as many people as possible.

I wanted to add that there is some recovery in the most unlikely places.

Off the shores of Cuba there is recovery of fish loss, sea corrals, and special species (don't know the name now) that ensure that the sea stays healthy.

The reason why as biologists say is that the Castro Regime that has had a strict embargo for 50 years and longer ensured that the country stays poor and not so industrialized to keep the waters clean and growing. If the US wouldn't have used the embargo there would have been alot of business on the island to actually destroy precious life as we know it in the water and above. Many of the Everglade as of other birds and even the American Alligator have migrated to Cuba because of this reason.

The turtle population also is increasing as consevatists are finding ways to save them.

The island is unique for it hosts some of the smallest species in the world. The world's smallest humming bird, smallest frog, unique snails with colorful shells, and a host of other animals.

Some 20% of the island is protected by Castro's regime so no business can ever be created.

If this makes a significance difference to the world's oceans...probably not...but it sure brings a thought about how we as a people live and what drastic changes we would have to do just to ensure our seas are stable again.

I can't believe I missed this thread

Overfishing yes...BUT it's about time we stop using our oceans as toxic dump sites around the world.

Just last year
I was shocked and saddened to see so much dead coral diving in Belize
I was shocked and saddened to see NO FISH diving in the Mediterranean.

It's happening right here and now... no doubt about it!

A lot of the coral reefs are dead in the Caribbean. It is officially estimated that 1/3 of the world's coral reefs are dead now.

I saw a film a few years ago about small scale fishermen in Micronesia and Indonesia. The standard operating procedure was to throw a stick of dynamite into the coral. The coral was blown apart and they collected whatever fish were killed in the process. This technique has been used to the destruction of much of the reef system in the area, which is much of the reef system in the world.

I'd ask for the title but I'm still reeling from watching "The cove"



I met a local "hobby" fisherman in Greece last year. I spotted him the day earlier and wondered WTF he was doing. Our convo:

Me: Good day Sir! Do you eat the fish you catch?
Him: No the fish are too small to bother

Me: So you do this as a passtime?
Him: Yes it relaxes me

Me: Ever think of throwing the fish back in? catch & release?
Him: Meh!

Me: So you fish.... and when you catch one, you throw it in the rocks to die? But why????

Him: Because it's my right to fish and do whatever I want with em. You're not from around here are you... So why don't you mind your business?

Me: Because we happen to share the same planet? and just yesterday I was trying to enjoy the aquatic wildlife underwater and noticed there wasn't any.


The uneducated and stoopid will be the death of us all... I swear!

A little related history and information.


Ban Fishing With Dynamite, Cyanide
by Someshwar Singh

Wreaking havoc on coral reef systems to catch fish for the aquarium trade
Appearances can be deceptive. Who would believe that the enchanting fish shimmering their way through aquariums actually represent a tale of plunder and ruin. Or that certain gourmet fish spell certain ecological disaster. Dynamite and cyanide fishing is a cancer that is spreading relentlessly in the coastal regions of South-East Asia and the Asia Pacific waters.

Coral reefs become the first casualties as they are blasted into rubble by dynamite fishing, or are left intact but dead by cyanide poisoning. Even the spectacular coral reefs of the disputed Spratley Islands have not been spared. They are today referred to as "skeleton" reefs on account of the blast-damage suffered in recent years.

Over 30 per cent of the world's coral reefs are found in South-East Asia alone. The reef flora and fauna of the Indo-Pacific region are particularly rich, abounding with about 500 coral species and 2,000 fish species. The most diverse reefs lie in the area bounded by northern Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, where a single reef may have as many as 3,000 different species. Indonesia, with over 17,000 islands, is of critical importance as the center of coral reef ecosystem biodiversity.

But these are under severe threat now. Spurred by quick bucks, fisherfolk in South-East Asia are wreaking havoc on coral reef systems to catch fish for the aquarium trade and for food. Rising demand has encouraged unscrupulous traders to use often illegally-obtained sodium cyanide, chlorine, liquid surfactant, and explosives to harvest reef fish. Even though the use of cyanide may be illegal, as it is in the Philippines, it has not really prevented fishermen and traders from using it.

Reef fish is a delicacy among the increasingly rich Asian populations with a taste for seafood

In the past, marine reef fish were harvested by hand-held butterfly- type nets that were selective and not damaging to the environment. Today, however, fisherfolk are resorting to the more effective technique of cyanide poisoning. Dissolved in quart-sized plastic containers, sodium cyanide is used to stun hard-to-catch reef fish that seek cover in coral holes and crevices. The milky fluid causes the fish to lose their equilibrium, swim in crazy loops out of their coral refuge, and become easy targets.

The use of dynamite, on the other hand, actually kills most of the impacted fish so that they are used mainly for food. The supply of explosives does not appear to be a problem with fishermen sometimes actually retrieving unexploded bombs from the Second World War.

Unfortunately, the growing international demand for reef fish has only given a spurt to these disastrous practices. The aquarium trade caters to the pet industry in North America and Europe while reef fish is a delicacy among the increasingly rich Asian populations with a taste for seafood. The current boom in live fish commerce in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other centers of Chinese prosperity has only aggravated the problem.

In the Philippines alone, cyanide divers squirt an estimated 165 tons of dissolved poison on some 33 million coral heads annually. During the first eight months of 1995, a catch of 2,530 tons of live groupers and humphead wrasses worth over $180 million were exported to Hong Kong and Taiwan. Another 2,090 tons of decorative fish worth $800,000 were shipped to Europe and North America.

In Indonesia, there has been a proliferation of cyanide in local fisheries in Irian Jaya and Sulawesi, areas that are rich in global marine biodiversity. Misuse of cyanide in local fisheries is also spreading in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, the Maldives, Solomon Islands and other Pacific coastal states.

When used inside closed protected bays, explosives kill even juveniles in the spawning grounds

The impact of destructive fishing activities extends beyond merely the health of target species. Entire reef systems in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Caribbean are endangered. The Mediterranean region, particularly Greece and Turkey, are likewise plagued by the use of explosives in fishing. In Greece, although dynamite fishing is illegal, it is difficult to crack down on the dynamite supplies trade. When used inside closed protected bays, explosives cause intense damage as they kill even juveniles in the spawning grounds. Among the Mediterranean species thus affected are the red snapper (Dentex dentex) and the sea bream (Oblada melanura).

There is obviously much at a stake, making it imperative to find a solution quickly. "Alternatives to the use of cyanide need to be promoted urgently," says Carel Drijver, Manager, Development Cooperation at The World Wildlife Federation-Netherlands. "We would like to see the market and trade in reef fish put on a sustainable path. But that cannot happen unless the extremely harmful fishing practices are changed. Without coral reefs, their spawning ground, reef fish have a bleak future."

The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) has been trying actively to reverse this threat. It has been involved in coral reef protection in the South-East Asian region, and now plans to launch a major policy initiative that will focus on the international dimension of the dynamite and cyanide fishery in Indonesia. The objective is to get fishermen to use alternative, more sustainable, fishing techniques. WWF is also coordinating its effort by pooling together its expertise from the trade monitoring offices in the region and its networks in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Partnerships have been forged in particular with the International Marinelife Alliance in the Philippines and the Nature Conservancy.

Education and awareness are the key to the problem and need to be spread not only among fishermen actually engaged in cyanide and dynamite fishing, but other connected sectors like the fisheries trade and industry. Without that, there is little hope for the dying "rainforests of the sea."

Someshwar Singh is a Press Officer at WWF-International in Gland, Switzerland

Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the US and one of the largest in the world. It has the first recorded marine "dead zone".

While the bay's salinity is ideal for oysters, and the oyster fishery was at one time the bay's most commercially viable,[29] the population has in the last fifty years been devastated. Maryland once had roughly 200,000 acres (810 km2) of oyster reefs. Today it has about 36,000.[29] It has been estimated that in pre-colonial times, oysters could filter the entirety of the Bay in about 3.3 days; by 1988 this time had increased to 325 days.[30] The harvest's gross value decreased 88% from 1982 to 2007.[31] One report suggested the Bay had fewer oysters in 2008 than 25 years earlier.[3]

The primary problem is overharvesting. Lax government regulations allow anyone with a license to remove oysters from state-owned beds, and although limits are set, they are not strongly enforced.[29] The overharvesting of oysters has made it difficult for them to reproduce, which requires close proximity to one another. A second cause for the oyster depletion is that the drastic increase in human population caused a sharp increase in pollution flowing into the bay.[29]

The bay's oyster industry has also suffered from two diseases: MSX and Dermo.[32]

oh it goes in cycles anyway the oceans have died many times 99.9 percent or more of species that lived on earth are now extinct sort of like saying '' man to bad ole larry died'' when there are more people alive on earth right now than have ever died old species have to get out of the way for new ones too bad the dinasaurs died but we couldnt live now if they were here things are born to die

That is an absolute lie I was born and raised in Cordova Alaska lived there 41 years and know many high school kids who made 60-100 thousand last year seining pink salmon that had a record 40 million run return last year 2010 total B.S. just check it out online also when my dad started seining for pinks in Prince william Sound in the 60's the salmon run was 2 million pinks now it's 40 million go online right now and type on google How many salmon returned to Alaska in 2010? then type in how many salmon returned in 1950? you have never been there and didnt talk to any fishermen I know you are a liar and so will anyone else that just goes on line and checks what I said to check

First of all, I noted that Alaska is one of the healthiest fisheries anywhere, but it is not what it used to be. Second, the two and half month trip I took (one of several) working my way up to the Arctic from British Columbia covered almost every part of Alaska, but I spent most of my time along the coast. I did make frequent trips inland to fish for Kings along the Copper River and down around the Kenai.

The long trip up the Alaskan pipeline road had side trips to explore and the natives had nets strung completely across the streams not too far from their box traps. No spawning fish could get upstream. I spoke with a game warden who had an incredible amount of area to watch, who told me that the state was trying to work out a system to get local pilots to overfly the streams looking for full width net crossings but they are hard to see from the air and the state has little control over the Indians anyway.

When I got to Dead Horse, I ran into the local environmental official by accident and we had a long chat about Alaska in general and the oil companies specifically. He thought they (oil) were doing a good job.

I was also amazed at how many people, like you, are totally ignorant of what was going on in their own state and knew little history.

The Yukon river was closed in 2001 to Salmon fishing because the runs were so poor.

Alaska took control over the fishing from the Feds because federal policy in the 50s caused the fish stocks to be almost wiped out. The fish stocks crashed again in the nineties. The State has taken drastic measures to rebuild the fish stocks. My fishing license only allowed me to take one King Salmon.

Every word I wrote is true. You should learn a little about the problem before you shoot your mouth off.

Record fish catches? What a stupid lie. You should learn what kind of catches the rivers gave in the beginning.

I went to the Alaskan Fish and Game website to see what has been going on recently since it was just reported above that the salmon were at "record" levels.

This is their current view of the Yukon River, one of the largest and most famous.


The Alaska Board of Fisheries classified the Yukon River Chinook salmon stock as a stock of yield concern at the September 2000 work session. An action plan was developed by ADF&G and acted upon by the BOF in 2001. The stock of concern status for a yield concern was continued at the January 2004 BOF meeting.

Combined commercial and subsistence harvests show a substantial decrease in Chinook salmon yields in the Yukon River from the 10-year period (1989-1998) to the recent 5-year average (2002-2006). Although annual subsistence harvest continues to remain stable near 50,000 Chinook salmon, commercial harvests have decreased over 60% in recent years. ETC.

Salmon is one of the open ocean's great school fishes, like tuna. Salmon grow in the open ocean until adulthood and then swim upstream to the spot where they were born to spawn. Salmon are caught in the open ocean by factory ships, fishing boats, and fishermen. They are especially easy to catch, like tuna, when they are spawning. Obviously, if they are caught before laying eggs, no eggs get laid. Once they lay their eggs they die.

On my first trip to Alaska, I was going to take a charter boat out to go Halibut fishing but got food poisoning and couldn't go. The restaurants along Seward Sound had these huge (400 pound and up) halibut hanging on their walls caught by local fishermen. I talked to the charter boat fishermen along the docks and got the story that "all the big fish are gone." "Few catch a halibut bigger than about two hundred pounds anymore, and that is extremely rare.". I quizzed them about the fact that it is the big fish that do most of the breeding but got the response, "everyone wants a trophy". It used to be you could bring in all the halibut you could catch, then there were high limits, then there were lower limits.

Now, the huge halibut catch in Alaska is tapering off and the State is working with the feds (taking over for the feds) by enacting new limits on the fishing regulations.

Again, from the Alaskan Dept of Fish and Game website.

Finally, we come to the two big changes in store for the charter halibut fishery.

First, the council adopted a limited entry program for the charter fleets in areas 2C and 3A in March of 2007. The Secretary of Commerce approved the program and the National Marine Fisheries Service began accepting applications for permits in 2010. Permits are issued to businesses that documented bottomfishing effort in ADF&G logbooks in 2004 or 2005, and 2008. Permits will be transferable or non-transferable, depending on the documented number of trips taken. The program also provides for a limited number of permits to be issued to selected eligible communities in areas 2C and 3A. All permits include limits on the number of anglers that can keep halibut, called angler endorsements. The rules for determining angler endorsements went through some last-minute changes in 2010. If all goes as planned, starting in 2011 anglers fishing on charter vessels may not retain halibut unless the business operating the vessel possesses a federal charter halibut permit.

Second, the council also adopted a Catch Sharing Plan for areas 2C and 3A in October of 2008. The Catch Sharing Plan specifies exactly how the allowable harvest for the commercial and charter sectors will be allocated. It will also set charter halibut bag and size limits before the season begins according to specific rules, taking into account projected charter harvest under various regulations. Finally, it will allow charter operators to lease quota from the commercial fleet. This leasing option is designed to give anglers the opportunity to retain more or larger halibut than they might otherwise be entitled to under the normal charter regulations. For example, if the bag limit is set at one fish per day, a charter client fishing on a boat that leases commercial quota may pay a little extra in exchange for harvesting a second fish. That fish would still be counted against the commercial catch limit. The leasing option will not allow an angler on a charter boat to take any more halibut than an unguided angler, however. The plan will also not affect regulations for the unguided sport or subsistence sectors. According to Rachel Baker of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Juneau, “the plan is to have the Catch Sharing Plan regulations finalized some time in 2011 and, if approved by the Secretary of Commerce, implemented in 2012.”

Halibut allocation is clearly a complicated matter. What effects will limited entry and the Catch Sharing Plan have on the fisheries? No one can be sure, but for starters, there will likely be a reduction in the number of charter vessels available to take people fishing for halibut. A recent NMFS analysis estimated that at least 30% fewer vessels than were operating in 2008 will get halibut permits. Businesses that entered the fishery after 2005 will have to buy permits in order for their clients to keep halibut. Some ineligible businesses may instead choose to target salmon and other state managed species. The Catch Sharing Plan will stabilize the allocation of halibut between the commercial and charter sectors, and charter regulations will be set before the season starts and will not change inseason. Other possible effects of the plan are not known. As the smaller charter fleet approaches full capacity, charter prices may rise and anglers may have fewer choices when it comes to planning trips.

The Catch Sharing Plan was intended to be an interim solution to the allocation conflict between the commercial and charter sectors. The council also has long term plans to develop a permanent solution to this conflict. While no one is sure what that solution will look like, several ideas put forth include some form of compensated transfer of commercial quota share to the charter sector.

You can contact these agencies to keep abreast of developments in the assessment, management, and allocation of halibut:

International Pacific Halibut Commission (206) 634-1838
http://www.iphc.int
North Pacific Fishery Management Council (907) 271-2809
http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc
National Marine Fisheries Service, Sport Halibut Management

http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/sustainablefisheries/halibut/sport.htm

Scott Meyer is the statewide halibut and bottomfish coordinator for the Division of Sport Fish and is based in Homer.

The key phrase in the above boring discussion about fishing was "one fish per day".

Alaska and Texas have worked wonders to turn around overfishing in their small parts of the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxeGBLurzMo

hey i was thrown into the ocean by my sailboat on saturday.
i almost died. posidon said we're square now.

but if you're insistent on saving the ocean you might want to go help an organization that does that instead of talking about it to people who are only going to agree and disagree with a small added opinion.

You don't need to be on a skiff throwing rancid butter or rotten eggs at fishing vessels to have an opinion.

I support them ANY way I can.