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I just saw the movie 'The End Of The Line', by director Rupert Murray based on the writings of Charles Clover. Imagine a world without fish, a very real possibility by 2048, if fishery activities are continued in the way they are now. Find out more at: http://endoftheline.com and watch this trailer on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWB8KJ1a ... r_embedded

20:48..... is that just before 9 p.m.?......... seriously tho', when i was a trawler engineer in the 70's/8o's, it was quite apparent that something had to be done to conserve fish-stocks. I do believe that this has been achieved now. If we maintain these levels, then all should be o.k.

pumpy wrote:If we maintain these levels, then all should be o.k.

Yikes! The agencies that monitor these things all say that there is no fish stock anywhere in the world that is not being over-fished. I don't think we can maintain current consumption levels of any resource, especially not fish.

Hi Keith, here in the U.K., the restrictions are so strictly maintained, that they are definately working. I hope that this is the case for you in Canada...... ( but then, you probably don't have Spanish trawlers coming over abusing the rules!!!!!)

pumpy wrote:Hi Keith, here in the U.K., the restrictions are so strictly maintained, that they are definately working. I hope that this is the case for you in Canada...... ( but then, you probably don't have Spanish trawlers coming over abusing the rules!!!!!)

In 1885 the Grand Banks were considered to be such that the fish would last indefinitely if managed properly. Now 2010 no cod, and other species are endangered.

The St. Lawrence river was a colossal sewer for industrial waste, and the gulf became and is uninhabitable for many species.

Today the Gulf of Mexico is an oil spill disaster of a magnitude unimaginable, and the Gulf Fisheries are seriously in jeopardy.

Old Indian saying, "White man will not be happy until he has cut down the last tree, and killed the last animal."

Enjoy it while you can, It aint going to last.

pumpy wrote:Hi Keith, here in the U.K., the restrictions are so strictly maintained, that they are definately working. I hope that this is the case for you in Canada...... ( but then, you probably don't have Spanish trawlers coming over abusing the rules!!!!!)

Well, good for you Brits if that is indeed true. Though, I wouldn't want to celebrate until I'd seen the numbers.

It seems to be working, tho' stocks will never be up to the levels of 30-yrs ago...... maybe we'll stop fishing when there's nothing left to fish for!!

I'm not totally in the know on this one - but I'm fairly sure that Pumpy (nice bloke that he is) may be painting a slightly optimistic picture. Sure, British waters still have plenty of fish - but we Brits think that the only edible fish are cod, haddock and plaice, and they are still being seriously overfished. We've been warned several times now that to guarantee future stocks, we'd have to have a zero catch policy for those species for a couple of years (at which point the quota was cut by 50% ). The last time we did have a zero catch plan in action was for herring - it worked, the stocks were replenished. But by that time the Brits had forgotten that they used to eat herring, so there's no great demand now.

What does hold out some promise is the talk of reserved areas - absolutely no-take zones - which serve as nurseries for the rest of the waters. One or two of those places already exist, and the local fishermen are already noticing a positive difference. Even so, the days of gigantic cod are over - it's being suggested that we've actually taken them out of the gene pool altogether.

Of course, Britain doesn't exist in isolation. The entire world should be taking a close look at its exploitation of what is, after all, a completely wild harvest.

Mike

Fishing, up here, is a huge topic - hits the news in one way or another most weeks. I agree to some extent with pumpy, in that the controls are having some effect.

The biggest problem is the way quotas are managed and the rules governing how the fishermen work. Loads of dead fish get returned to the sea because they can't control how much fish are in the nets but can only land a certain amount.

The fishermen are all happy to conserve stocks - it's their livelihood after all - and they argue for going out less often but bringing in their whole catch. That single action would make a huge difference to fish stocks but the powers that be can't/won't acknowledge it and change the ruling.