The Last Fish

Shawn Dell Joyce
Mon, 03 Mar 2014 21:00:00 -0800
Lifestyle

Ocean fish are the last wild creatures that people hunt on a large scale. We used to think of the ocean's bounty as endless until recently, when we have discovered its limits. Between 1950 and 1994, ocean fishermen increased their catch 400 percent by doubling the number of boats and using more effective fishing gear, according to Seafood Watch from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.

In 1989, the world's catch leveled off at just over 82 million metric tons of fish per year. We have reached "peak fish" and no amount of boats will help us catch more fish. Today, only 10 percent of all large fish — both open ocean species including tuna, swordfish, marlin and large groundfish such as cod, halibut, skates and flounder — are left in the sea, according to research published in National Geographic.

"From giant blue marlin to mighty bluefin tuna, and from tropical groupers to Antarctic cod, industrial fishing has scoured the global ocean. There is no blue frontier left," lead author Ransom Myers told National Geographic. "Since 1950, with the onset of industrialized fisheries, we have rapidly reduced the resource base to less than 10 percent — not just in some areas, not just for some stocks, but for entire communities of these large fish species from the tropics to the poles."
Updated: Tue Mar 04, 2014

Ocean fish are the last wild creatures that people hunt on a large scale. We used to think of the ocean's bounty as endless until recently, when we have discovered its limits. Between 1950 and 1994, ocean fishermen increased their catch 400 percent by doubling the number of boats and using more effective fishing gear, according to Seafood Watch from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.

In 1989, the world's catch leveled off at just over 82 million metric tons of fish per year. We have reached "peak fish" and no amount of boats will help us catch more fish. Today, only 10 percent of all large fish — both open ocean species including tuna, swordfish, marlin and large groundfish such as cod, halibut, skates and flounder — are left in the sea, according to research published in National Geographic.

"From giant blue marlin to mighty bluefin tuna, and from tropical groupers to Antarctic cod, industrial fishing has scoured the global ocean. There is no blue frontier left," lead author Ransom Myers told National Geographic. "Since 1950, with the onset of industrialized fisheries, we have rapidly reduced the resource base to less than 10 percent — not just in some areas, not just for some stocks, but for entire communities of these large fish species from the tropics to the poles."

"The impact we have had on ocean ecosystems has been vastly underestimated," said co-author Boris Worm. "These are the megafauna, the big predators of the sea, and the species we most value. Their depletion not only threatens the future of these fish and the fishers that depend on them, it could also bring about a complete re-organization of ocean ecosystems, with unknown global consequences."

Marine biologist Sylvia Earle says, "I don't blame the fishermen for this, we, the consumers, have done this because we have a taste for fish and 'delicacies' such as shark-fin soup. Our demand for seafood appears to be insatiable ... driven by high-end appetites. I've always believed that even when there is only one bluefin tuna left in the sea someone will pay a million dollars to be able to eat it."

Some seafood can be sustainably farmed. Clams are raised in special beds on sandy shores, where their harvest does little to disturb the ecosystem. Oysters and mussels are often raised in bags or cages suspended off the seafloor, doing little damage as they're harvested. Many farmed fish, such as salmon, are grown in net pens, like cattle in a feedlot. This is as environmentally damaging in the ocean as cattle feed lots are on land. Additionally, Mangrove forests have been cut down and replaced with temporary shrimp farms that supply shrimp to Europe, Japan and America until the water becomes polluted.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and founder of the Wallkill River School in Orange County, N.Y. You can contact her at ShawnDellJoyce@gmail.com.

To find out more about Shawn Dell Joyce and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.