"The ocean is broken" - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

cmac2012 · #1 10-23-2013, 01:02 AM

Shocking stuff but not exactly news, unfortunately. There have been warnings about this for years.

The ocean is broken

Quote:

It was the silence that made this voyage different from all of those before it.

Not the absence of sound, exactly.

The wind still whipped the sails and whistled in the rigging. The waves still sloshed against the fibreglass hull.

And there were plenty of other noises: muffled thuds and bumps and scrapes as the boat knocked against pieces of debris.

What was missing was the cries of the seabirds which, on all previous similar voyages, had surrounded the boat.

The birds were missing because the fish were missing.

Exactly 10 years before, when Newcastle yachtsman Ivan Macfadyen had sailed exactly the same course from Melbourne to Osaka, all he'd had to do to catch a fish from the ocean between Brisbane and Japan was throw out a baited line.

"There was not one of the 28 days on that portion of the trip when we didn't catch a good-sized fish to cook up and eat with some rice," Macfadyen recalled.

But this time, on that whole long leg of sea journey, the total catch was two.

No fish. No birds. Hardly a sign of life at all.

spdrun · #2 10-23-2013, 01:20 AM

Good argument for worldwide mandatory human sterilization after the first sprog is pooped out. To hell with ZPG, let's go for NPG!

cmac2012 · #3 10-23-2013, 01:25 AM

That'll never fly. And it's one of the first lines out of the enviro-damage-deniers: that eco-nuts hate people and want to get rid of them.

It's amazing but the world of 1492 was peopled with large groups of semi-primitive people and only barely modern tech even in Europe but the natural world was rich in ways we can only dream about now. The oceans are sort of a 'tragedy of the commons,' in that it's real hard to zone off no fish zones to serve as nurseries for the fished parts of the ocean, one idea that makes sense.

MTUpower · #4 10-23-2013, 08:32 AM

While the commercial fishing destruction of fish stocks is horrible, one experience does not make a watertight argument. Many many times people who fish will not catch anything- but that by no means can be extrapolated to say there are no fish.

My very good friend this year sailed from hawaii to cali and said there was plenty of life; none less than he's seen the times he's done so.

cmac2012 · #5 10-23-2013, 01:27 PM

No one claimed there are no fish in the sea. But I don't think this fellow's experience is meaningless. Large scale, wholesale fish extraction continues apace. Bottom trawling still goes on. Hard to see things getting better before they get worse.

Wholesale extraction of sharks is is almost certainly leading to an increase in seals and sea lions which will eat more fish that sharks ever dreamed of eating. Overfishing and warming seas have led to a rise in jellyfish which imperil commercially attractive fish species. Overfishing is leading to an explosion of Humboldt squid populations which can lead to further decline in desirable species. It's a vicious circle. We big brained humans are too effective for our own good. Not sure what the answers are but pretending there is no problem is not one of them.

t walgamuth · #6 10-23-2013, 01:49 PM

This is one of those topics that I just choose not to think about since I don't feel I can do anything about it. I would tend to favor a candidate who was in favor of working on the problem.

spdrun · #7 10-23-2013, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

This is one of those topics that I just choose not to think about since I don't feel I can do anything about it. I would tend to favor a candidate who was in favor of working on the problem.

Problem is the the problem isn't visible enough to be on anyone's (other than fishermen's, sailors', and serious environmentalists') radar. I wish that the US had a Green Party that wasn't a bad joke.

MTUpower · #8 10-23-2013, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

No one claimed there are no fish in the sea. But I don't think this fellow's experience is meaningless. Large scale, wholesale fish extraction continues apace. Bottom trawling still goes on. Hard to see things getting better before they get worse.

Wholesale extraction of sharks is is almost certainly leading to an increase in seals and sea lions which will eat more fish that sharks ever dreamed of eating. Overfishing and warming seas have led to a rise in jellyfish which imperil commercially attractive fish species. Overfishing is leading to an explosion of Humboldt squid populations which can lead to further decline in desirable species. It's a vicious circle. We big brained humans are too effective for our own good. Not sure what the answers are but pretending there is no problem is not one of them.

The writer said
"But this time, on that whole long leg of sea journey, the total catch was two.

No fish. No birds. Hardly a sign of life at all."

While this may be shocking to land lubbers, to those on the ocean on a regular basis it is not. In addition it is one person's account, not to say he is not accurate, but it's a survey of one.
The route he took was where I lived for nearly ten years. Above New Guinea is Palau and to the east is Yap. Above them east on the way to Japan is the Mariana Islands and a nearly mirroring reef system well off to the west. Since the Mariana Islands of Guam and the CNMI are US Insular areas there is no large scale fishing fleets in the almost 500 miles up the chain and 200 miles on either side. Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia do have large scale fleets, plus Palau has illegal boats by the thousands from the PI and other Asian nations.
Being involved in the fisheries there I tend to ignore sensationalist accounts as this is. However that does not mean the fight to stop those commercial fishing fleets should not be taken lightly.

MTI · #9 10-23-2013, 02:09 PM

Better find recipes for Asian carp and Tiger shrimps . . .

cmac2012 · #10 10-23-2013, 02:28 PM

Not to mention Humboldt squid.

Odd critters those - they only live for about a year and a half or so. Word is you'd almost rather encounter sharks than a bunch of those, if you were in the water that is.

sloride · #11 10-23-2013, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTI

Better find recipes for Asian carp and Tiger shrimps . . .

You left out Zebra Mussel's Rockefeller.

cmac2012 · #12 10-24-2013, 12:55 AM

On a related note, who woulda thought: Yao Ming actually having some success in China in a campaign, with others, of publicizing the ultimate folly of shark fin soup:

Y! SPORTS

cmac2012 · #13 10-24-2013, 12:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sloride

You left out Zebra Mussel's Rockefeller.

Zebra Mussels own a Rockefeller?

link · #14 10-24-2013, 08:12 AM

When I’m in town, one of my regular walks is along a vast stretch of water front that reports from about 100 years ago show that the area was overwhelmed with shellfish along the shorelines and sea life just off shore. In the day one only needed to walk the beach to pick up enough food for a life time.

Now, all one sees are a few broken shells.

While there are still fish to be harvested, in a generation I shudder to think of what the oceans will become. We’ve pretty much mortally wounded the ocean, and things such as low oxygen zones, thousands of plastic bags per mile, and endless rivers of filth being pumped into the ocean every day show no signs of ever letting up. People are too often very bad conservationist.

Botnst · #15 10-24-2013, 01:58 PM

For those interested in how we got here (from a perspective very critical of fisheries modeling) I highly recommend a book, "Useless Arithmetic" by Mr & Mrs Orrin Pilkey.

Blurb from Amazon: Noted coastal geologist Orrin Pilkey and environmental scientist Linda Pilkey-Jarvis show that the quantitative mathematical models policy makers and government administrators use to form environmental policies are seriously flawed. Based on unrealistic and sometimes false assumptions, these models often yield answers that support unwise policies.