This week in ocean news

Rogue flying fish and the 'big, blue rubbish bin'

Posted by Andrew Sharpless (Guest Contributor) at 1:32 PM on 01 Dec 2007

Read more about: oceans | fishing | wildlife | whaling

Ireland was poised to ask the European Union to permanently ban deep-sea fishing off the country's Atlantic coast to protect coldwater coral reefs ...

... the E.U. completed negotiations with non-E.U. member state Norway for 2008, allowing Norway and the E.U. to increase their North Sea cod catch by 11 percent in exchange for the E.U. reducing its cod discards, or unwanted bycatch, to 10 percent ...

... a marine scientist called for a worldwide oceans monitoring system, including tagged marine creatures and robot submarines, in order to protect humanity from an ocean-based disaster ...

... Hawaii's Aquatics Resources Division proposed new limits on commercial deep-sea fishing ...

... in Brussels, a hundred Polish fishermen protested a freeze on Baltic cod fishing ...

... the National Organics Standards Board met to discuss whether farmed fish could ever earn the USDA's "organic" label ...

... scientists at the All-Russian Research Institute of Fish Industry and Oceanography suggested using Antarctic toothfish to study the geology of the sea floor. The toothfish swallow stones indisciminately, and no one knows why ...

... a video was shown in the trial of a fishing vessel skipper who ordered fish dumped in the "big blue rubbish bin" -- the ocean -- after a processing plant could not handle the 311 tons of fish. A fed-up factory supervisor shot the video ...

... despite worldwide controversy, Japan's annual whale hunt -- including humpbacks for the first time in 40 years -- was set to go ahead. "We cannot change the program abruptly," said a member of the Japanese cabinet ...

... dolphins were sighted for the first time in 30 years near the Kanwar coast of India ...

... and a helmsman in the Barcelona World Race was struck by a flying fish.

For story: This week in ocean news
10 Comments | Post a Comment

Sail, Wooden Boats, Hemp lines....

Those should be the only allowed technologies on marine harvest vessels. The existing fishing fleet can convert to using kite sails to tow hydraulic turbine generators and make methanol from hydrogen and sewege sludge or any other handy carbon sources. 2H2O+C+Energy=H3COH+O

If we keep pulling every fish from the sea with steel hulls, diesel engines and nylon gear there will be nothing in the seas left but jellyfish and plastic bags.

The existing fleet would be perfect for harvesting upper level winds with kites. The kite drags the boat and the boat tows gensets. Electricity could be used to crack water to hydrogen and store it as methanol. Off the shelf gear all the way around.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 2:47 PM on 01 Dec 2007

Dude, a sailboat

Funny, the guy on the last bullet about getting hit by a Flying Fish during a Barcelona sailing race. Yu should have been tipped off that this was a very fast sailboat because he said he was going 20 knots, which is considered "screaming" in any sailboat unless you have an extreme catamaran. I would suspect something like a 12-meter or "sled," both designed to the point of failure and are frequently dismasted. Perhaps 1-10 million dollars each.

Tell you what, make the laws so sailboats can catch more fish than a power boat or factory ship. That would be cool.

Onward through the fog

by Sam Wells at 10:05 PM on 01 Dec 2007

bloody speciesism!

Alex Thomson has this unenlightened reaction to colliding with a flying fish, near the Cape Verde Islands I think:

<<
The projectile was in fact a flying fish, which is an ugly, smelly fish with wings that allow it to glide across the ocean swell. Those of you who have sailed in the tropics will know that these little creatures can be quite a menace to an unsuspecting helmsman! I can't say I like the little pests, but it is quite impressive to watch them scatter across the waves as you sail through a school of them. Roland `Bilou' Jourdain, onboard Veolia, is quite partial to a bit of flying fish and eats them raw with a little lemon juice. Now, I am not a huge fan of the freeze dried food that we eat while offshore, but the thought of eating flying fish instead makes it taste a whole lot better!
>>

"Ugly"?! "Smelly"?! "Little pests"?! But eating them raw with a little lemon juice makes them all better?!

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 4:39 AM on 02 Dec 2007

more speciesism

On studying the stones swallowed by Antarctic toothfish:

<<
Now, geologists will disembowel fish for the benefit of science, not only for their own good.
>>

Ha ha ha.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 4:46 AM on 02 Dec 2007

Are metres and yards interchangeable?

From the article on the Irish trying to protect their coral reefs from bottom trawlers (another disastrous-fishing-methods story, by the way):

<<
The reefs, 500 metres (yards) under water in four areas of Atlantic Ocean
>>

But it is more like 540 yards, isn't it.

Do we observe this disgracefully sloppy tendency, to claim that 1 metre = 1 yard, becoming increasingly widespread?

One might think that getting the numbers just right would be a matter of some importance to anyone descending to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. We all recall, don't we, how someone's failure to juggle metres and yards resulted in the loss of an exploratory mission to Mars, a couple of years ago.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 5:05 AM on 02 Dec 2007

OK, Mr. Rudd, your move.

<<
"Japan's research whaling is conducted after consultations with various countries," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, when asked about continuing Australian opposition. "We cannot change the program abruptly."

The hunt, which is now underway, has drawn criticism from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union.

Australia has been among the most vocal opponents of Japan's whaling program, and Machimura said that policy was unlikely to change after the Labor Party marked a sweeping election victory on Saturday.
>>

Yes, we in Gristmill have heard about this sweeping election victory. So now we eagerly await news of the many pro-environment things that Kevin Rudd's government will accomplish.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 5:11 AM on 02 Dec 2007

still more speciesism?

<<
Dolphins sighted off Karwar coast

Fishermen were delighted when they spotted a group of dolphins dancing near Karwar coast after a gap of 30 years. Groups of dolphins were seen playing near Devbagh, Kumbaghad and Devaghad islands on Tuesday, reports DHNS from Karwar.
>>

Yes, it is very good news. But why exactly were the fishermen delighted? Or is the answer to that question something we would not like to hear?

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 5:15 AM on 02 Dec 2007

Marine Reserves Earn Twice As Much

The news that coastal villages in Asia that had created no-take zones for fishing had double the income of villages that didn't, shows that it's not just the fish that benefit from marine conservation.

For more go to News at http://www.blueplanetsociety.org

by Blueplanet at 6:32 AM on 02 Dec 2007

photos of dead animals

Hello Blue Planet person,
your images of dead cetaceans, sea turtles and pelagic birds caught or entangled in nets or on hooks, are powerful, and also the many images of caught sharks.

Best wishes to you all, in getting out the message on the advantages of regulated and reduced fishing, including reformed methods, as well as the more profound message that fishing is a form of hunting wildlife, and that marine animals caught for food must be treated with the same respect and reservation that we treat terrestrial wildlife.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 11:18 AM on 02 Dec 2007

specie-ism

That comment about the toothfish cracked me up, too. I think the article is basically a mirror of a press release by the All-Russian Research Institute of Fish Industry and Oceanography, hence the jingoistic (toward the fish at least) language.

In addition to learning about some ocean news around the world, to me it's fascinating to think about how ocean issues are covered. I'm glad to see the Grist community has such critical readers in it.

Oceana: Protecting the world's oceans.

by suzannah at 5:24 PM on 02 Dec 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

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