What if everyone spearfished?

[Griff]

The thread about Jackass has got me thinking about the sustainability of our sport. i think that everyone here is pretty much in agreement with the fact that if the current rate at which life is removed from the sea is kept up then we will have a very empty sea. the fact that commercial operations far outweigh all recreational fishing activities is an argument that i have often used in my defence when people say that i'm "raping" the sea.
its the old, "well what difference would it make anyway?" argument.

I'm now thinking that if the only way you wanted to eat fish, was to get it yourself, then there would be no problems with sustainability of marine resources, and especially spearfishing, where there is very little by-catch.

the big problem is that there isnt enough food farmed to keep the world going...:hmm

 

[ptrapp]

You have a point Griff, if everyone would go spearfishing for his own fish, the problem of overfishing would shift to overspearfishing, logically.

But not everybody will go spearfishing instead of buying their fish at the fishmonger's. And even if they do, there won't be a change towards fish populations (grosso modo), because professional fishers will sell less because of a lower demand.

Originally posted by Griff
the big problem is that there isnt enough food farmed to keep the world going...:hmm

Yep, a guy called Malthus came allready up with this some hundred years ago. Although lately there comes more evidence that he might have been wrong, because of a stabilization of the world population (predicted at 2100) and extreme increases of agricultural efficiency.

But I don't think we should devote too much time on this aspect on this forum, it's a story that's not close related to spearfishing.

Greetings,

Philip Trappeniers

 

[Spearooo]

I think about the same thing all the time. I mean if everyperson that ate chicken had to buy them from a chicken hunter then chicken would have been long gone. same for cows, duck and anyother food. Sustainability is the key For every pound of wild caught shrimp that goes to market six pounds of deAD SEA LIFE IS TOSSED OVERBOARD FROM THE SHRIMP BOAT DEAD. every time I say that it makes me feel sick. I know aquaculture has its flaws but I refuse to purchase any wild caught fish anywhere in the hopes that all the netters go out of bussines or turn to fish farming instead. I never shot more than i will need for me and my family and never molest non target or undersize fish.
here in Florida many species that were once plentiful were practically wiped out by netters and long liners I mean olmost exticnt and them came the gloriuos net and long line bann that is still full of loop holes but has done wonders for the fish stocks and i my opinion should become international law. this sound extreme but so does fishing the oceans clean. Imagine how great fishing would be if it was reserved for recreational and and artisenal practices and the commercial ton takers dedicated themselves to farming fish. The fishing would probably be as good as it was a hunred years ago in a single decade. just a thought. I hope we can stop the wholesale destruction of entire ecosystems in the name of profits it just ain't sustainable and that means if the fish go we will soon follow.
just my 2 cents

 

[laminar]

Fish Farming?

I wish there was an easy solution to the whole "animals we've reduced to a mere fraction of their ancient plentitude and now we don't know what to do" problem.

I don't know if fish farming is the answer. You've got to feed them antibiotics, just like cattle, they get diseases living in close quarters (domestication is responsible for many diseases that now afflict humans), and the contaminated waste from a fish farm, including infestations of sea lice (recently discovered here in British Columbia), goes out into the ocean.

Personally, I think the solution is to change our attitude to food and things in general. As a society, we seem to want everything 'now!' We are not prepared to wait for a vegetable to be in season, or for the salmon to come back to the rivers, or even to catch something and kill it/prepare it ourselves.

Eating clean, fresh fish is now a luxury that cannot be sustained the way we're going.

I say concentrate on improving soil quality, more diversity in natural organics foods, let the oceans recover and then treat fresh fish as things to be enjoyed but prized and not taken for granted. I would trade canned tuna on the shelves for a wonderful fresh fish feast every two weeks. I think it's worth it in the long run--and besides it makes it that much more special.

Just my 5cents (canadian).

Pete
Vancouver, BC

 

[Griff]

hi ptrapp, welcome to the forums. i think that this topic is related to spearfishing. what we (as in mankind) are doing at the moment to the fish stocks is affecting the current situation, never mind the future of our sport. i wonder what the fishermen of yesteryear would say of today's fishing.

Laminar, eating fresh fish is a luxury, but are there people who would starve without it? (the question isnt rhetorical). the only seafood i ever eat is what i catch myself, and thats not very much. fish isnt such a big part of our diet here, but are there places where you eat fish every single day of your life?

i have absolutely no idea of what fish farming involves, but it makes sense to assume that the same problems associated with land methods would apply, as laminar said. are these problems just something we will be forced to deal with one day, just like we have been forced to deal with current farming's problems.

i know a lot of stories of commercial trawlers cleaning an area out.
what if this technique was adapted. the continental shelf is devided into zones and sold to commercial operations, sort of like farms without fences. only you are then allowed to harvest these area's. it would then be in your interest to look after your "farm" and not strip it bare, because you rely on that[place to deliver the next day. not just clean out an area and move to the next like what seems to happen these days. whats more is that you would protect the area from poaching etc.
there would have to be very strict control on pelagic fishing though. :hmm

and so what would happen to spearfishing? we pay a farmer to fish his area, and pay per pound the fish we catch. this doesnt sound like a good setup, but the same thing has happened to terrestrial hunting.

quite a sad outlook.