Are you Ready for this Jelly…..fish

Roscoff Harbour

The depletion of worldwide fish stocks and rising global demand is a major concern. In this post we look at a bit of history and a future with possibly no fish …..

Gone Fishing

There was a time, when the sea seemed so bountiful that it would be unthinkable that the ocean could possibly become a sterile environment free of any lifeforms.

 As the amount of fish stocks dwindle, the ante is upped and measures unheard of, are now seen to be practicable and reasonable to sustain this rich source of protein, food and wealth.

Historically these measures have included warships patrolling fishing grounds, firing warning shots across the bows of civilian fishing vessels to protect a species of fish, Partly to ensure a countries right to have cod with chips if that is the consumers choice.

Exclusion zones now stretch up to 200 miles from land, yet protecting commercial interests and maximising the catch lead onto the collapse of fish stocks. The fish we consume now comes from lower down the food chain and more often than not was historically considered by catch and thrown back into the sea. We are at a point where there is now market for such species. 

These are two of the factors which are the driving force behind the booming aquaculture industry that has made huge inroads into sustaining certain species of fish to satiate the ever growing consumer demand.

The rapid growth of fish farming goes some way to reliving the ever growing pressure on wild fish stocks, but is it the total solution?

Enough for everyone

The thought that the worlds oceans belonged to everyone and every nation, like a common heritage was held to be true and until the early 19th century, the seas were bountiful and the supply seemed inexhaustible. 

This changed in 1882 with the introduction of the worlds first three mile limit, called the North Sea Fisheries Convention, it was signed by five nations, Britain, France, Denmark, Netherlands and Germany. As the years went by other nations such as Canada and the United States put their own territorial limits on their fishing grounds. 

As technology progressed countries such as the United States in 1945, claimed not only the sea but the ocean bed below as territory. This was mainly to protect future mineral wealth but it also emphasised that the fishing industry was becoming a more important political issue.

All washed up

Bigger, Better, Faster

Steam trawlers replaced sail in the 19th century and after World War I trawlers with diesel engines and powered winches which replaced steam. Every innovation lead to increased time at sea and the size of the catch. Therefore as the vessels became larger and evermore expensive to run, in turn the catch had to be greater to sustain the fleet. 

By 1968 up to two thousand boats were catching 810,000 metric tonnes of cod per annum off Newfoundland. This number does not include the by catch which was simply thrown back into the sea. Following year upon year of larger catches a 3 mile limit was now not enough to protect national fishing fleets from other nations vessels and in 1977 Canada and the United States instituted a 200 mile limit of national waters.

By 1992 the overfishing precipice had been reached, the Canadian Government announced a two year cod moratorium, it was estimated that there were only 22,000 tonnes of cod left in Newfoundland fisheries. 

Since the 1950’s the industrialisation of the fishing industry shows how the application of both science and technology can affect a species chances of survival.

As the industry developed in importance politically and commercially, the pressure for ever greater catches grew but in 1992 the line had been crossed and the effects became all to real.

One of the largest loss of jobs in Canadian history occurred when 30,000 jobs were lost in the fishing industry as cod stocks collapsed. This shows the human cost as well as  that which a wild species pays when multi national companies, demands from consumers and international fisheries policies are allowed to police themselves.

“One of the worlds greatest sustainable protein resources that should be able to maintain annual landings of more than 400,000 metric tonnes has been allowed to decline into virtual oblivion” (Steele D.H et al.1992)

Through careful stewardship and enforced protection stocks may recover to a sustainable level, here lies the irony, as protection is now needed to sustain stock levels whereas previously protection was required to allow wholesale annihilation of fisheries the world over.

Eat your way down the seabed

In 1950 the United Nations founded the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) which publishes a list of global catches. 

In 2001 Professor D. Pauly, University of British Columbia examined the lists and discovered that all showed an increase in catches, despite evidence from the FAO that this included fish from stocks that were known to have collapsed. This increase continued until it was discovered that Chinese fishery officials had deliberately over estimated their catch. 

After correcting this in 2001, it was discovered that globally fish stocks had been in decline since 1988. Actually fish catches had been slowly declining at a rate of 0.66 million tonnes per year.

Jellyfish or stress free Tuna?

Fish at the top of the trophic level are more endangered and therefore protected with moratoriums and reduced quotas. the result of this is having to eat fish lower down the food pyramid. 

This was thought to be a positive move, moreover due to a lack of apex predators at the higher trophic levels, the next level of fish would flourish.

When a level is suppressed or removed, this increased the amount of previously suppressed species such as prawns, jellyfish, starfish and squid becoming more fecund. This unexpected result led to greater numbers of low trophic crustaceans and not greater numbers of fish for humankind.

An apex predator such as Bluefin Tuna, (4.3) is an endangered species and to eat the very best tuna it is preferable to eat it fresh as possible.

This can be done through the fish receiving acupuncture. 

A technique called Kaimin Katsugyo which translates from Japanese as “live fish sleeping soundly” also claims to help the quality of the fish.

This method involves placing needles into certain parts of the live fish, This paralyses the fish and it falls into a suspended state. The fish is brain dead but continues to breathe weakly. The fish dies during transit after 12 hours but the flesh still behaves as if the fish was alive.

We are now catching the so many fish that we are at the point were we are eating our way down to the seabed, the few prize fish that remain as shown with the tuna are treated with greater reverence.

The implications of overfishing are also compounded by factors not related to fishing. Several species reported to be depleted by the FAO, have a history affecting their reproduction levels. This can be species which have territory taken over by invasive species, suffer from low fecundity, parasitic infections and are slow growing.

 All of which makes them more less resilient, therefore open to external pressures such as fishing. The need to responsibly manage the harvest from the sea has never been greater but for some species it will be to late. Chefs and consumers will have to try new species,  some will be unfamiliar but for those who can afford the high end source of protein you may just eat the best bluefin tuna fish, one that has been transported globally and arrives in peak condition. You may also find yourself eating species much further down the food chain. Sea cucumber or dried jellyfish anyone……

Visit the Marine Stewardship Council for more info. Link listed below in Further Info

Aquaculture, The future re-visited?

It is thought that aquaculture could be the future of marine harvesting and this could arrest the global decline in stocks. From 1000 B.C early Chinese society farmed and harvested fish. Since then through trial and error improvements and the species able to farmed have increased.

The threat of food security to a nation released the potential of aquaculture after World War II, various experiments were undertaken to produce better fish eggs and fish. 

These included salmon pens in enclosed lochs, inland trout lakes and unbelievably the heated waste water of a nuclear power station at Hunterson ,Ayrshire for flat fish!

This area has proved to be highly profitable, from small scale operations to global companies now operating thousands of fish farms. It seems a positive outcome but the environmental disaster that hit wild fish stocks is also starting to affect farmed fish stocks as parasites and natural pollutants poison our oceans.

SM46 Day Boat, Worthing

Environmental Costs

Wild salmon for example are an apex predator, trophic level (3.7) they eat a variety of small fish, plankton and prawns. Aquaculture salmon also has a varied diet, this is given in the form of pellets and contains ‘poultry meal’ which is then coated in fish protein 

High trophic level fish require more feed to develop this in turn means more waste will be released in the sea, this is especially bad when you have a high concentration of fish farms in one area and can lead to parasitic fish and high levels of toxic waste in one area .

The blue revolution as it is known has delivered the promise of sustainable fish at a cheap price to the consumer but the environmental cost has yet to be fully realised. It cannot make sense to have a dwindling stock of wild fish and to feed 3.9 pounds of it to produce one pound of farmed salmon.

The complexity of marine ecosystems has yet to be fully understood but science is gaining more of complete picture of the relationships between various parts of the web of life in the ocean and with much tighter controls are needed in the farmed sector as they are in the oceans we could have left the past and sustained the future.

The development of fishing from small boats to the super trawlers we see today has brought great wealth to many and allowed companies from all nations to become global in their operations. The application of new technologies has outstripped natures capability to replenish and provide, it looks very bleak for future generations.

This former rich pool of protein resource has be plundered and the political grandstanding of two hundred mile limits and moratoriums to protect national interests seem to be drops in the ocean, in the future if you told someone that you used to eat cod every week, would they believe you?

The fact that this was allowed to happen and we knew it was happening does not bode well and as shocking and amazing as that is, we are still n the process of emptying the worlds oceans, Such is our rapacious appetite. 

The possible solution of aquaculture appears to counter balance the loss of wild fish but the proviso needs to be, that we must have a better understanding of our actions before we lose this opportunity to redress the damage we have done, if we do not do this it seems that aquaculture appears to have the answers but not to all of the questions.

Further Reading

https://www.msc.org

https://sustainablefisheries-uw.org/fact-check/fishing-the-food-chain/

https://britishseafishing.co.uk/atlantic-dawn-the-ship-from-hell/

https://tarasgrescoe.com/bottomfeeder/about_bottomfeeder.html