Sustainable fishing

[petemc]

The production of animal/fish protein is the only way forward and like it or not the most effiecent of all when production per unit area is taken into account is Aquaculture. Thats why the Chinese produce more fish than anyone else

I think you'll find that the reason that the Chinese produce more fish than anyone else is the same as the reason they produce more of everything than anyone else. There is zero regulation of industrial activity. There is no regard for human life or health let alone workers rights. There is serial bribery with regards to the application of regulations and the environment is of zero importance. 16,00 dead pigs in a river supplying drinking water. Not being able to walk outside because of air pollution and if you want to read about Chinese aquaculture look at last months 'TIme' magazine or read this http://comparative-politics.nmhblogs.or ... h-farming/

[Caz-Galway]

Sorry made a mess of that post with the Quotes. Heres the post with no references to previous posts

Maybe I'm getting confused in what your saying. In your previous post I read it as that Plant protein alone could feed the world. Thats simply not possible. Animal protien and a lot of fish protein comes from animals and fish converting vegetable matter into protein such as Grass into meat.

If you look at the FAO website you can find the different yields/efficiency of various animals for production per unit area.

Some examples of fish production from the developing world are for Pangasius, a type of freshwater catfish, is 200kg per cubic meter. For Tilapia I am not quite sure of the densities so I wont quote them but its possible to get 4 harvests per year out of a given area. Other high density farmed fish are the various Carp species. No land animal protein can come close to that, even using intensive farming methods. Ive quoted freshwater fish species as freshwater is a very important resource that people forget about in food development especially in the developing world.

Your absoloutely right about this except in one point. Countrys like China are trying to produce enough food to keep humans alive, any way they can.

Caz

[hugo]

All good points, Caz. Also, the fact that the Chinese or anyone else do aquaculture badly does not make the aquaculture in itself bad, only the current implementation of it. What I was bemoaning earlier was that not enough research seems to be going into sensible directions: i.e. inland, freshwater species that dont need many times their weight in sea fish to get to market size. Most current development is on so-called prime species such as salmon and bass. These were apparently chosen because at the outset, the wild fish commanded high prices. Now because of industrial mass production, the price has collapsed - I can buy a whole farmed salmon at my local fishmonger for €10, whereas a wild one would cost over ten times that. So the industry has defeated itself by its own success. Time to change tack.

On feeding the planet with vegetable protein only: there's as much chance of getting humanity to give up meat and fish as there is of getting Big Trawling to tie up its boats and take up catch-and-return angling instead.

[Dicenintra]

A pelagic vessel fishes only 6 months max and turns over more than €6 million annually with minimal crew. Try doing that on an angling boat!

[John D]

Nice post Stan.

Let us all keep dreaming and hoping because without hopes and dreams we all might as well give up. Keep educating people and raising awareness about the sorry state our fisheries are in to whoever you can and wherever you can!

I personally believe the biggest problem is the world's giant unsustainable population of 7 billion - which is also expected to grow to 9 billion in the next 40 to 50 years!!!! I think we should all put our Durex on!!!

John Q said "...The "discard ban" is now only for controlled (quota) species because that is what the commercial sector wanted all along....". This probably explains why they're trying to include bass as a quota managed species now!?!?

John D.

[corbyeire]

ill say it again, if the worlds population only consumed the net requirements for existence in terms of nutrition the land based plant productivity would fulfil that no problem

as you said hugo humanity wont give meat protein up "we take what we can when we can - tomorrow never comes" thats why 1 billion starve every day - very simple

im glad the freshwater species have been brought up - the coralled fish in the trial system up at newport was very successful - but was catchment specific and maybe very unmanageable/congtroversial

[hugo]

im glad the freshwater species have been brought up - the coralled fish in the trial system up at newport was very successful - but was catchment specific and maybe very unmanageable/congtroversial

Havent heard about this before - what's the project? Any link?