Marine Life On Your Plate
Chalupa Chupacabra
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 01:12:50 -0500
From: vega...@earthlink.net
Subject: what we are doing to our marine world
Peter Benchley missed the real answer: stop eating animals, all animals.
Susan
>What Will Be the Catch of the Day?
>
>TIME Magazine
>November 8, 1999
>
>Visions 21
>Health and Environment
>
>What Will Be the Catch of the Day?
>Human appetites have devastated the marine world, but at last we're
searching
>for ways to protect the ocean's bounty
>By Peter Benchley
>
>If we continue, at our present rate, to strip-mine the sea of its
living
>resources, 25 years from now we'll be lucky to find a seafood menu that
>offers a rock sandwich with a side order of kelp. Consider the
swordfish:
>angler's prize, gourmet's delight, fisherman's livelihood. In the
mid-60's,
>when I was in my mid-20's, I caught a swordfish off Long Island. I
wasn't
>trying to; it took bait meant for sharks. The fish was weirdly,
atypically
>lethargic. It didn't struggle much, didn't leap at all, just tugged
for a
>while, then gave up.
>
>It died quietly, and I watched (with some, but not enough, regret) its
>gleaming gun-metal skin fade swiftly to death's dull gray. It wasn't a
>particularly big swordfish; it weighed only 246 pounds. A big
swordfish
>would weigh more than half a ton.
>
>Had I been able to know back then that what I had just caught was one
of
the
>last stragglers of a vanishing species-that within 35 years a 247-pound
>Atlantic broadbill swordfish would be as rare as a tyrannosaur-I would
have
>set it free, administered CPR or, if all attempts at resuscitation had
>failed, I would at least have had the carcass of the mighty fish gilded
and
>sent to the Smithsonian.
>
>Today the average Atlantic swordfish caught weighs 90 pounds, and the
figure
>drops by a pound or two every year. Because swordfish don't breed
until
the
>female is five years old and weighs 150 pounds, we're killing and
eating
the
>teenagers before they can reproduce. And though the U.S. is trying, at
>least, to lead a campaign to stop the slaughter, the effort is too
little,
>too late. Swordfish, like tuna and the other pelagic (open-ocean)
fish,
roam
>far from American jurisdiction. There have been reliable reports of
>commercial fishermen in the Mediterranean routinely landing swordfish
>weighing between 10 and 15 pounds-the babies, less than a year old.
>
>Granted, swordfish are an especially vulnerable target, being prized as
both
>game fish and food fish. But they're hardly the only victims of the
current
>global lunacy, of which the motto seems to be: if it swims, hook it,
stab
>it, poison it or blow it up.
>
>Consider too the sharks: apex predators, lords of the food chain,
>inspiration for scary stories. A few years ago, I dived off the coast
of
>Costa Rica in a marine preserve where, supposedly, all life was
protected.
>Every day, looking down, I saw the sea bottom carpeted with the corpses
of
>whitetip reef sharks, grotesquely stripped of their fins by poachers
who
had
>slashed them off to sell to the soup markets of Asia and had cast the
living
>animals back into the sea to die. Around the world, the numbers of
some
>shark species have declined as much as 80%. Some may already be
practically
>extinct; the survivors in the current generation may be too few to
replace
>themselves.
>
>Modern technology has given us the tools to extinguish entire fish
>populations, and because man is a can-do critter, that's what we're
doing.
>After climbing steadily for the past 50 years, the worldwide catch of
seafood
>has begun to drop. We're fishing out the oceans, at the same time that
the
>need for seafood is soaring. Of the 6 billion of us on the planet, 1
billion
>rely on fish as their primary source of protein.
>
>Daily, weapons of mass destruction are deployed in seas the world over:
long
>lines spanning up to 80 miles, dangling scores of thousands of baited
hooks;
>enormous nets, nearly invisible in water. These indiscriminate killers
drown
>everything, including birds and mammals, that takes the bait or
blunders
into
>the mesh. The unwanted-a quarter of everything caught-is discarded,
left
to
>rot, or, sometimes, taken aboard to be ground into meal and fertilizer.
>
>We know we have already wiped out-and by that I mean driven nearly to
>commercial extinction or, in a few cases, the brink of biological
>extinction-more than 100 popular species of food fish, including Nassau
>groupers, Chilean sea bass, orange roughy and cod. What we don't know,
what
>we'll never know, is how many undiscovered species have been eradicated
along
>the way. What creatures, great and small, might have contained genetic
or
>chemical secrets that could have saved lives or improved them,
conquered
>diseases or averted them?
>
>The seas make up 95% of the planet's biosphere-the realm where all
living
>things exist-and we are stripping and poisoning it, depriving it of its
>ability to sustain life. Jacques-Yves Cousteau once predicted that
unless
>we-not the editorial or royal we but the universal we-changed our ways
and
>stopped treating the oceans as an infinite resource and a bottomless
dump,
>there would someday come a moment of no recovery. Overwhelmed at last,
the
>resilient seas would no longer be able to cleanse or restock
themselves.
> From that moment on, the ocean-and with them nearly all life on
earth-would
>embark upon a slow, irreversible descent into the darkness.
>
>Is that it, then? Are we there? Have we slipped, silently and
unaware,
into
>our death spiral?
>
>No one can know. Perhaps our grandchildren, or their grandchildren,
will
>know. But I, for one, decline to accept the end of the oceans, for to
do
so
>would be to accept the end of humanity. I see signs that we are
starting
to
>alter our course-laboriously, yes, barely perceptibly, like a
supertanker
>beginning a slow turn in a heavy sea, but changing direction
nevertheless.
>
>More and more nations are establishing marine reserves, where sea
creatures
>of all sorts and sizes can mate and bear their young free from the
menace
of
>man. Just as important, funds are being found for enforcement of
limits,
>restrictions and bans. Personnel are being hired and trained; boats
and
>planes are being deployed to monitor compliance.
>
>As rivers are cleaned up, dams removed, pollutants flushed away, salmon
are
>returning to waters everywhere from California to Germany, where no
salmon
>had been caught since 1947.
>
>Aquaculture-fish farming-has established beachheads from Maine to the
>tropics, from the South Pacific to the North Sea. Raising fish in
enclosed
>pens is a complex and controversial process that can pose enormous
>environmental problems, but if done right, it holds great promise for
feeding
>millions of people and providing vast numbers of jobs.
>
>Where fishing in the wild has been banned outright, fish stocks are
starting
>to come back. Where "street-sweeper" trawls that devastate the seabed
have
>been prohibited, nurseries and habitats are beginning to recover.
>
>Still, the days of abundance are gone. The image of cheap and
wholesome
>seafood available to everyone is fading into memory and myth. Already
a
>single tuna can cost more than most automobiles. Soon some oysters may
be
as
>rare and costly as pearls.
>
>I often wish that back in the halcyon 60's, I had had the wit to
release my
>swordfish. Its kind will not come our way again.
>
>Known for the novels and screenplays that have spawned such movies as
"Jaws"
>and the TV series "Peter Benchley's Amazon," the author has narrated
dozens
>of films on ocean conservation.
>
>Facts and Figures
>
>Chilean sea bass-this menu favorite could be commercially extinct
within
>three years.
>
>Orange roughy-native to the coastal waters of Australia and New
Zealand, it
>has gone through an 80% decline since the mid-1980's.
>
>Atlantic cod-the Canadian spawning stock has dropped from 1.6 million
to
>22,000.
>
>North Atlantic swordfish-the taking of juveniles has cut populations
70%.
>
>Short-nosed sturgeon-found in the Eastern U.S. and Canada, it has been
>endangered since 1967.
>
>Two of every three swordfish caught in the U.S. have not had a chance
to
>breed.
>
>95% of the sharks landed are killed for their fins alone; the rest of
the
>fish is discarded.
>
>
>_________________
>
>