As you can see this man is cyanide fishing, spraying cyanide on the coral. Note the dead coral in the background.
-What does driftnet fishing do to the environment?
Driftnet fishing (aka. walls of death) is the most destructive fishing method towards killing animals. Dolphins, Whales, turtles, sharks and lots of other animals are killed. In one season the French driftnet fleet was estimated to have killed 1,700 dolphins and more than 82,000 blue sharks. “Greenpeace” divers examined a driftnet 80 miles long deployed by Japanese in the Pacific Ocean, they found 8 dolphins and a rare bottlenose whale entangled in the nets as well as many sunfish, various species of shark and billfish.
5,000 to 6,000 dolphins are estimated to been killed in a three-month season from one Japanese driftnet fleet. The next year the Japanese were back in the Pacific Ocean to deploy 2,500 miles worth of driftnet. They killed and estimated 750,000 seabirds and 120,000 dolphins, whales and seals.
The European Union’s fishing fleet is trying to phase out driftnet fishing. Figures have been released showing that the numbers of boats from France, Ireland and the United Kingdom have shrunk from 76 vessels in 1995 to 65 in 1999. The rules on phasing out driftnets were introduced the past years. The France who have the most driftnet ships have cut down from 60 to 41 over 5 years. Irelands fleet fell from over 30 to 18, while the UK’s dropped from 12 to six.
New driftnets have been tested in New Zealand and are due to be introduced to the UK by the end of November. Hopefully these nets will cut down the numbers of bycatch. E.g. Dolphins, porpoises, Whales. Etc. These nets have holes and hatches meant for letting bycatch slip through the net while the targeted fish left in the net. We will soon see if they make any improvements for figures of bycatch.
Which types of fish are most under threat?
-Cod, Haddock and whiting
Cod is now and endangered species because its numbers are very low and in the next few years will die out if we don’t stop fishing them before they can breed. It takes 4-5 years before cod become se_xually mature. It will take more than 5 years for cod to multiply to the numbers they were before the numbers started to decrease.
-Monkfish
Monkfish do not se_xually mature until they are around 9-11 years old. They are bottom dwelling fish and can grow up to 4 feet long but are mostly caught before that time in which they would be about 2 feet in size.
-Deep-sea fish
Deep-sea fish have a very slow pace of life as some species can live up to 150 years old. This is why we need to stop fishing at these depths. Because deep-sea fish don’t reach se_xual maturity until they reach the age of 30 or more therefore cannot multiply to secure the future of their kind. This means low numbers of certain species could take ten times longer to return to normal.
Some very common fish are now considered to have sustainable populations, so will die out if we don’t take care of the ocean and the life it contains. “ We must consider deep-sea sticks as non-renewable resources.”
“Rubio’s”, the restaurant
“Rubio’s” is a restaurant company. They have 106 restaurants in California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Colorado. They raised $22,000for the sea of Cortez International Preservation Foundation by selling beanbag fish of their customers. I think it’s really good that this chain of restaurants is actually thinking about the oceans and caring about them. We need a lot more of this kind of work done to save the creatures of the ocean.
The trawlers point of view
I e-mailed a trawling fisherman
Section 1 is the e-mail I sent the fisherman and section 2 is the e-amil he sent back.
(1)
Hello,
I am doing a project on how fishing harms the environment. I have got the environmentalists view on fishing and now I am searching for the fisherman's side of fishing.
Do you have any fishing quotas or restrictions for fishing?
If you could just tell me your side of things or give me some suggestions on where I could find some information I would be very grateful.
Thank you,
Fin Belcher
(2)
Hello
The bottom line, despite what else you will be told is that Spanish and
French fishermen encouraged by their respective governments fish for juvenile fish, protected species and fish that are about to or just have spawned. They totally disregard any quotas any closed areas or any other restrictions that the environmentalists recommend or impose. The British fishing industry, has in spite of or maybe even because of this governments grovelling refusal to actively help its fellow countrymen, been reduced to virtually nothing. As the British leave their traditional fishing grounds (which they have looked after for over a hundred years) they are replaced by these foreign vessels who have no interest what so ever in conservation.
A year ago Lowestoft (my home port) had a fishing fleet, which brought 10 million pounds a year into the local economy, it employed indirectly 934 people. It now does not even exist and Spanish trawlers subsidised by the E.U will be trawling within yards of the coast dredging up the fry, young fish etc etc. The environmentalists, who I bet haven’t told you they too are financed by the E.U will bring out further laws and rules to be ignored as much as the old ones.
It really is dead simple...Too Little..Too Late.
Next time you buy a lump of fish in Sainsburys or Tescos that’s been dead six weeks before it arrived in the store and was caught off the coast of
Iceland, consider that only Norway and Iceland have sustainable fishing grounds, and that’s because they let no one else in.
Best of luck with your research
Kevin Bacon.
I am very glad he spent the time of writing me this e-mail. It says quite a lot. I didn’t know that Norway and Iceland were the only countries to have sustainable numbers of fish stocks nor did I know that France and Spain allegedly don’t keep to their regulations and quotas.
Are there any other threats to fish?
-Pollution
For the last 50 years we have seen a big increase into how much pollution we are putting in to the ocean. The majority of pollution comes from land-based sources, so affects a number of fish and shellfish. They spend at least some of their life near the coast (e.g. nursery grounds) and because of this get subjected to pollution. Climate change caused by pollution, is likely to affect enzyme systems so therefore suspending detoxification of contaminants by fish. Sewage often flowing into the sea from towns and cities causes algae to multiply in large numbers and block out the sun therefore killing coral.
-Human intrusion
Building sea defences and adding other things to make it better for humans affects the animals of the sea. E.g Sea turtles come back to their birthplace every year to lay their eggs but in America they have built some sea defences. Consequently the sand has been displaced from on front of the defences. This means when the turtles come back to lay their eggs they can’t because there is no sand and no way for them to climb the sea defences.
Results Of My Questionnaire:
I did 10 questionnaires. Here are the results.
The answer is Cyanide fishing.
The actual answer was either trawling or cyanide fishing I do not know for a fact which one but I would guess it to be trawling.
I suspect lots of people chose Dynamite fishing because they associate dynamite with destruction.
The answer was in fact 30-40.
Everyone I gave the questionnaire to, said that they cared about the animals in the ocean. Why don’t they do anything about it then?
It looks like 90% of the people I asked wanted bans on fishing. If this is true, why don’t we!! This could be wrong of course I could have done more questionnaires and it would have been more accurate.
What should we try to do to save the ocean?
If you care about the ocean you should be trying to help save it.
- Buy fish from a supplier who has not been catching unnecessary bycatch e.g. dolphins, whales, turtles. Etc
- Do not throw rubbish away on beaches or into the sea. (You wouldn’t do this anyway but especially not into the sea)
- Do not pollute the environment any more than you have to. (We don’t have control over how much big companies and big polluters are polluting the environment so we cant do much about it).
Evaluation:
I think all most of my research and how I collected it was good. I have a wide range of different types of research. In my opinion all of my research proves that we are damaging the environment and if we don’t stop the ocean will be a plain and barren place containing not much life at all. I did 2 questionnaires that I later found out were no use because some of the questions were biased, I also found out I had worded one of the questions wrong: - “Do you think we should keep fishing the sea until the ocean is destroyed?” The two people I handed the questionnaire answered it like I was meaning the sea was a gone and there was no ocean. Obviously what I meant was “do you think we should fish the sea until the ocean is virtually lifeless?”
Conclusion:
Which main types of fishing are there?
I have not said much about Dynamite fishing because it is not a fishing technique used to the extent that all the others are.
-What does trawling do to the environment?
Trawling dredges the seabed destroying the habitat for animals it also kills a lot of other animals not just the target animals.
-What does cyanide fishing do to the environment?
Cyanide fishing kills coral, which dies in 1-3 weeks after being subjected to cyanide, Its also kills some fish, depending on how much they are subjected to.
-What does driftnet fishing do to the environment?
Driftnet fishing kills lots and lots of non-targeted animals e.g. Whales, Dolphins, Swordfish, Turtles, Birds etc…
Are there any other threats to fish?
Yes there are:
Bibliography:
I got most of my information from the Internet but I also got some information from “the western news” Newspaper, some questionnaires and I also made a phone call to ‘Greenpeace’ and they sent me some booklets and flyers. I e-mailed a trawling fisherman.
Evaluation:
