Scientists see unreported fish traps from space
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Not much can hide from Google Earth including, it turns out, clandestine fishing traps along the Persian Gulfs remotest stretches.
A team of University of British Columbia scientists has used Google Earth data on the Persian Gulf to report that fish traps called weirs could be catching up to six times more fish than the official reported number of weir trap catches in the region. Their research, part of the Sea Around Us Project and published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science, is the first to use satellite data to report on overfishing.
These results, which speak to the unreliability of officially reported fisheries statistics, provide the first example of fisheries catch estimates from space, write the authors, in the paper, and point to the potential for remote-sensing approaches to validate catch statistics and fisheries operations in general.
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Though the seven countries have legislated fishing in the gulf since 1960, poor oversight of the industry has let most fish stocks there to become depleted, and using satellite data to monitor weir fishing could help push for more sustainable practices in the Persian Gulf, the authors write in the paper.
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Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/1127/Scientists-see-unreported-fish-traps-from-space
loudsue
(14,087 posts)The earth's population is growing exponentially, and it is not sustainable. Quality of life is already dropping in a big way for most of the wildlife, and a great deal of the not-so-wild life.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Especially in first-world nations. You and I are roughly equivalent to twelve people each, as is every other American.
RC
(25,592 posts)We all contribute to the depletion of the wildlife we use for food and the wildlife that are dependent on that same food for their own survival.
The only thing between us and mass starvation on a global scale, is the oil we use for... Almost everything.
Xithras
(16,191 posts)While you're numbers are correct when it comes to general consumption of "goods", the consumption of food is much narrower.
According to the WHO, the average human being consumes 2803 calories a day. In developing countries, the number is a lower 2681 calories a day. If you want to narrow it to sub-Saharan Africa, the most calorie poor part of the world, the number drops to 2195 calories a day. In industrialized western countries, the number is a higher 3380 calories a day.
While this may sound like a lot, it means that residents of industrialized nations only consume 25% more food calories than the typical person in a poorer part of the world, and 53% more than the most desperate. It's a sizable difference, but it's a far cry from the 1200% that your post suggests.
The real impact of the difference doesn't become apparent until you also understand that only 14.6% of the worlds population lives in those developed countries. That 14.6% of the human population consuming 20% more calories than the global average increases the global caloric intake by only 2.9%.
In 1914 the population of the world was roughly 1.8 billion. Today it is roughly 7 billion. Over the past century our population has increase 388%, and the amount of food that we extract from our ecosystem...whether we're talking about fish in the sea or crops on the ground...has also increased by 388% by simple necessity. Of that 388%, less than 3% are attributable to the eating habits of industrialized nations.
It's an overpopulation problem, not an inequity problem. Every human mouth increases our daily caloric demand on our ecosystem. Globally, to reduce the environmental damage caused by calorie extraction by 20%, you would need to reduce the average human caloric intake by 20%, or to 2242 calories a day. This means that every human on the planet would be consuming roughly the same calories as those currently living in sub-Saharan Africa..practically starvation rations. And that only reduces our demand, which we've increased 388% in the past century, by a paltry 20%!
There are too many mouths to feed, and not enough planet to feed us with...unless we completely screw the ecosystem and turn the entire planet into a massive system of industrialized farms.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)How many food calories do we throw into the garbage? Both in terms of actually throwing away food, and in terms of waste in production - the acreage of cattle that could be growing crops, the amount of by-catch we throw overboard, etc.
Fish poaching with weirs on the Persian gulf is less of an issue than 24 /7 year-round trawling for Red Lobster and Purina cat chow, I'm almost certain.
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)I've seen in awhile. Well said. Seems to me you're playing with a full dome.
Posteritatis
(18,807 posts)CrispyQ
(36,478 posts)progressoid
(49,991 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,269 posts)"How does it taste ?"
"Meh, it varies from person to person."
A Simple Game
(9,214 posts)AAO
(3,300 posts)SCVDem
(5,103 posts)Let them eat green!
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)Sognefjord
(229 posts)Doremus
(7,261 posts)grilled onions
(1,957 posts)The original fish fries gave you got a single plate of your choice of fish.It was a night of fun for many and the casual atmosphere allowed the diner to appreciate the fish that gave it's all to the consumer.
Along came the Friday night all you can eat fish fry. Quantity seemed to be more important than quality.
Seafood, always, the more elite end of ocean fare was something people ordered in small quantities because it was expensive. The seafood buffet created a monster. A portion of the diners took more relish in seeing how many plates they could stack with crab legs,shrimp and oysters. This is happening at a time when the oceans are being over fished and pollution and industrial accidents are also destroying oceans creatures. Fishing boats are having to go deeper and farther out to get their catch and how many illegal creatures of the deep are getting wrangled in those nets now that the boats are places they never were before?
We need to think about our eating habits. We need to start thinking about the impact we are making with food choices and the destruction of our waterways as well as our land.
NickB79
(19,253 posts)Fish only became available to the masses for cheap when it became economically feasible to transport it for days without it rotting in the back of the truck/ship/railcar.
dembotoz
(16,808 posts)as long as they did not have missiles on them