Community | September 10, 2009 | 36 comments

How long until there are no fish to eat?

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/science/10fish.html?no_interstitial

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Progresshiv
The world's oceans cannot supply us with limitless food, and recent studies of the supply of Hoki, a staple in McDonald's filet-o-fish sandwich, show that it is dwindling fast. At what point will we realize that there is an end to abundance?
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36 comments // How long until there are no fish to eat?

  • Khat_Baker
  • maof4brats
  • eden49
  • dmandel
  • dmandel
  • Progresshiv
    • 0
      Progresshiv  

    • Thank you, Tommic. I live at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, and during my 59-year lifetime, salmon stocks have been decimated by overfishing and by the placement of hydroelectric dams on the river. Decades of efforts to reverse the extinction trend have not been fruitful, and the river is now no more than a series of too-warm-to-support-salmon lakes which stretch from the Pacific Ocean to British Columbia.

      It is typical worldwide for too many people to be unaware of (and uninvolved in) the sources of their food and of the planet's health. In 50 years people will look back at us and ask why we allowed the ecosystem to crash, when measures such as the ones you suggest could have helped.

    • 2 years ago
  • tommic
    • 0
      tommic  

    • Overfishing of the oceans will destroy the remaining fisheries in just a few more decades if nothing is done to preserve the resources they provide. Fisherman are responsible for the oceans stocks that remain today from their own mismanagement of the ocean fisheries over the last one hundred years. Now what is required first is domestic legislation that will shut down more fishing grounds than we have already and severely limit catches with a newly declared five hundred mile limit from our shores. Second our government must pursue and convene a global conference on preserving the ocean food resources with the intention of international agreements limiting fishing and halting fishing in breeding grounds that now get cleanly raped by ocean trawlers. Without these measures the continued depletion of worldwide fish stocks will accelerate and the oceans will be fished out in thirty years.

      thomas mcmahon
      tommic
      tommic856@verizon.net

    • 2 years ago
  • Agent_Alpha
  • jklgarcia2001
  • thecoyote23
  • sicksadworld
    • 0
      sicksadworld  

    • Oh, please. Everyone has been saying the world is going to end since the start of time. When there are no fish left, then the entire human population as a whole will die slowly from starvation, of course.
      It's as if fish is the ONLY thing humans consume.....

    • 2 years ago
  • bailey78
  • nealbenton4
    • 0
      nealbenton4  

    • we are the care takers of this world farming is a good idea but people get ichy for the all mighty doller and want is realy importan love and happyness it kind of reminds me of the end of the movie the trash party is over time to clean up and take care

    • 2 years ago
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  

    • How about passing legislation to build an aquaculture
      fish farm in every town in the USA ? We should also have legislation to build a public electric car recharging station right next to it. That way, 21st century minded people can travel to their recharging station, and buy frozen fish at their town mart to make it more energy efficient. The global food security act might need to be amended to preserve all the species of fish that exist(and not simply potatoes) so that marine fish hatcheries can exist on land. Starting with cod fish. I'd realy hate to think that Monsanto had engineered that law to accomodate their own greedy motive for world food domination. They're mindless monkeys who'd fuck with the air & water if they thought thery could convert those elements into money. Too bad we couldn't serve Monsanto's idiots with a plate of C notes, and some salt & pepper then tell them to dig in. Then it would finaly dawn on them that duh, they can't eat money.

    • 2 years ago
  • Hunnter
    • 0
      Hunnter  
    • PressCore:

      I couldn't agree more with you.

      More local farms need to be created to cut down on distribution costs and increase numbers.

      And something needs to be done about all the food we throw away.
      Melt it down and re-use it somewhere else like on farms, farming has bad effects on land as well, look at many deserts we have created...
      And a good chunk of the food is still quite edible, even though they look "off".
      Quite a lot could be turned in to drinks/sauces/powders and held in fridges, instantly increases the life of it about 5 times over.

    • 2 years ago
  • MoonLoon
    • 0
      MoonLoon  
    • PressCore:

      Just what we need , more legislation! How about creating a reduction in taxes for fish farming cooperatives? When the market will support more "fish farming" there will be some business people ready to invest! Of course they will be "legislated" into bankruptcy by politicians.

    • 2 years ago
  • 24French
  • Hunnter
  • MoonLoon
    • 0
      MoonLoon  
    • 24French:

      I friggin hate KFC. Slow service, bad food, and ignorant staff, in Louisiana. Canada KFC served good food, nice staff, and friendly service! Maybe KFC needs to vet their franchisees!!!

    • 2 years ago
  • derk
  • jkudurog
    • 0
      jkudurog  

    • I realize that we must carefully balance consumption vs. replenishment. To say that the ocean wasn't put there for us to eat out of it is recockulous. Have you people ever heard of the food chain?

    • 2 years ago
  • MoonLoon
  • masterzip
  • animalia_libero
  • MoonLoon
  • bc_f
    • bc_f [removed]  
    • This comment was removed as a violation of community guidelines.
  • neonbunny
  • outtheinside
  • hpseaton
  • MoonLoon
    • 0
      MoonLoon  
    • bc_f:

      We certainly cannot drink it! So if we cannot eat it what is its relevance to us? Genesis 1:26 states that we will be masters over all life on Earth, including the fish of the sea.

    • 2 years ago
  • GrinningSatyr
    • 0
      GrinningSatyr  
    • bc_f:

      First of all, being masters of the sea doesn't imply that we can abuse it and empty it to fuel our whims, besides which, even if we do, it still hurts us in the end.

      Secondly, who says we have to do things according to the Bible, of all things?

    • 2 years ago
  • MoonLoon
  • GrinningSatyr
    • 0
      GrinningSatyr  
    • bc_f:

      I take most comments on their face value.

      I suppose if I had looked at your other comments before replying to this one, I could've seen you were joking...but how else am I supposed to know you're being ironic?

      There are plenty of people here who would say it without a trace of irony or humor. Sorry about that.

    • 2 years ago
  • Varex_Sythe
    • 0
      Varex_Sythe  

    • When there is no more, and we're all dying of starvation.

      Maybe people realize it and hope that cloning technology will be able to fill in the gap that will be left behind by our over farming of fish and other animals for food.

    • 2 years ago
  • Hunnter
    • 0
      Hunnter  
    • Varex_Sythe:

      And this is how the cookie crumbles.
      We are the same as bacteria.
      They grow and expand so quickly that they end up killing themselves.
      We are currently about 50-70% to full death, depending on who you talk to.
      But the time it takes to get to 100% will depend on the next few decades and how we will deal with increasing prices for fuels, worse weather, worse relations between countries.
      It could end up leading to the greatest evolution in human history (society-wise, not genes) or ultimately lead to our demise..

      I know where i will be, hidden underground.
      Now i feel like playing Fallout3.

    • 2 years ago
  • EdMcFunkin
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