Spiralling fuel costs ease pressure on fish - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

A264172 · #1 09-06-2008, 12:36 AM

Callum Roberts: Spiralling fuel costs ease pressure on fish
July 16th, 2008 by Callum Roberts

Recent hikes in oil prices are hitting the fishing industry where it hurts most: on the profit margin. In the process, some fish stocks are getting a much needed respite from intensive exploitation. Fishers in Europe have blockaded ports in recent weeks to protest at rising fuel costs, claiming that they can no longer make a living. This could well be true, because modern industrial fishing is one of the most fuel hungry means of producing food.

A few years ago, Peter Tyedmers of Dalhousie University in Canada looked at how much fuel was used to catch the fish we eat. His research produced figures that should startle any seafood lover. If cod, haddock or flounder find their way onto you plate, the fuel cost of catching them was a third to a half of the weight of your fillet. If line caught swordfish or tuna are your favourites, the fuel burnt to catch them was roughly equal to the weight of your fish portion. Not all fisheries are this bad. Small open water fishes caught using purse seines, giant nets set around shoals of fish, are the least fuel intensive fisheries. If you enjoy herring or capelin for example, the fuel burnt to catch them is only one or two percent of the weight of fish landed. But most of these species are fed to pigs, chickens or pen-raised fish like salmon, and are not eaten directly by us.

A more alarming finding of Tyedmers’ research is that fisheries today burn more fuel to catch less fish than they did in the past. As fish stocks fall, fishers must travel further and fish for longer to land smaller catches. Over the period 1986 to 1999, the fuel cost of catching haddock off eastern Canada doubled, for example. While many industries are today reducing their carbon footprint to combat climate change, the fishing industry’s thirst for petroleum grows.

For many years, governments around the world have propped up unsustainable levels of fishing with generous tax breaks on fuel. In Britain, fishers are charged only half the price the public pay for fuel. For decades environmentalists have called for subsidies to be scrapped because they encourage overfishing. Most governments have resisted, perhaps because they know that withdrawal of subsidies could drive people out of business. Rising fuel prices have now exposed an industry hooked on oil whose profits are dependent on taxpayer handouts. According to the University of British Columbia economist Rashid Sumaila, profit margins in deep-sea trawl fisheries are wholly dependent on fuel subsidies. The same is true for many other fisheries.

Protesting fishers in Europe want deeper tax breaks on fuel from their governments. But what they should really protest for is better management. In the North Atlantic, fish stocks are less than 10 percent of what they were a century ago and the fishing fleet is an estimated 40-50% larger than the remaining fish can support. As painful as spiralling fuel costs may be, it is perhaps the best medicine for an ailing industry. Fish may at last get a little breathing space to help them recover.

———-

Callum Roberts is Professor of Marine Conservation at the University of York in England and the author of The Unnatural History of the Sea. Click here to visit his website.

Tags: fish, food, oil

http://blog.islandpress.org/tag/food

Dee8go · #2 09-06-2008, 07:34 AM

It has mercury in it anyhow. . . . .

Scientists have now discovered that not only is every available type of food bad for your health, it's also too costly, and harmful to the environment.

Botnst · #3 09-06-2008, 09:33 AM

That sounds really interesting. I'll bet John Doe will like it next time he breezes through.

Purse seining for menhaden is a big industry down here. IMO it is as short-sighted overuse of the resource as buffalo hunting in the 1800's. Even worse, it is depleting a prime food source that many large predator fish and seabirds depend on. Not saying ecosystem collapse is imminent or inevitable, but we're on the same stupid path.

Dee8go · #4 09-06-2008, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Botnst

That sounds really interesting. I'll bet John Doe will like it next time he breezes through.

Purse seining for menhaden is a big industry down here. IMO it is as short-sighted overuse of the resource as buffalo hunting in the 1800's. Even worse, it is depleting a prime food source that many large predator fish and seabirds depend on. Not saying ecosystem collapse is imminent or inevitable, but we're on the same stupid path.

That has been a big problem in NC where I used to live. I think they nearly fished the menhaden completely out.

A264172 · #5 09-06-2008, 11:07 AM

I found this article while looking for info about the amount of fossil fuel used to create production in the modern market place, in order to make an argument about the success of economic systems being dependent on the availability of exploitable resources in another thread. But it was late and I couldn't bring it home. So, as not to loose the catch of my labors, I dropped it here as is.