With New England Cod, Flounder Stocks Collapsing, Quota Cuts Of 80% Expected Today

[hatrack]

Researchers are just beginning to understand how the vast Gulf of Maine is responding to global warming and exactly what will happen to fragile fish populations. They acknowledge they don’t know whether prized cod and flounder stocks will ever rebound — and if they don’t, what species will take their place.

“While we are not blaming fishermen, this is not good news,’’ said John Bullard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regional chief. “We can control overfishing — it’s hard but we can do it — but how do you control this?” The only option, Bullard and other regulators say, is to dramatically restrict fishing to give the bottom-hugging fish any hope of a comeback.


The New England Fishery Management Council could vote Thursday on cutting catch quotas by up to nearly 80 percent for some stocks of cod, as well as cuts to other species. To ease the pain, the council, a governmental body made up fishermen, industry representatives, state officials, and environmentalists, will also decide whether to open more than 5,000 square miles of conservation area now closed to most fishermen.

EDIT

While many fishermen are angry, others are resigned — because like the scientists, they can’t find the fish, either. Eight months into the fishing year, the entire fleet has caught just 44 percent of this year’s cod quota. “I don’t know where the fish are,’’ said Jim Ford, an East Kingston, N.H., fisherman who catches cod out of Gloucester and Newburyport. Temperature gear on his net that drags along the sea floor is recording temperatures of 50.5 degrees. “That is almost unheard of, we should be in the mid-40s,’’ Ford said. “It is too warm.”

EDIT

http://bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2012/12/20/with-drastic-fishing-cuts-expected-thursday-blame-for-disappearing-cod-shifts-ocean/OydWAwHlQcZwWxL6eIXzSI/story.html

[Esse Quam Videri]

1. Wow.

I guess one way to deal is to keep denying global warming and find something else to blame.

[TalkingDog]

2. Running out of food & only 2 recs? I guess folks on here know where their next meal is coming from.

n/t

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. I'm very sorry for the fishing industry in New England, but what's gone is gone.

What we as a nation should do is shut off the fishing areas under our control so outside fleets don't take what is left: killing off a species.

How that can be accomplished remains to be seen, but the sea isn't endless. neither is the planet's ability to cope with humanity in such numbers.

[CRH]

4. It is happening everywhere, ...

Graph at the link extrapolates to a 2045 global collapse of fisheries.

http://planetindistress.com/tag/fisheries-depletion/

Global fisheries are severely stressed, with some two-thirds over-fished and the remaining third depleted.  According to the FAO study that backed the above graph, global fisheries will be entirely depleted by about 2045.  The problem is that the loss of fisheries is progressing more rapidly than the above graph (from 2006) indicates.  The below maps, from WWF’s 2012 “Living Planet Report” give some sense of momentum:

MAP

MAP

It is interesting to note that total global wild fish catches have been in a slow decline since about 1990, despite the fact that billions and billions have yearly been spent on longer-range boats, upgraded gear (nets) that allow deeper-then-ever catches and sophisticated electronics that allow boats to pinpoint schools of fish.  The level of catch is so unsustainable that the crash, when it comes, will be very steep.  The advent of this crash is being rushed by the warming of the oceans and, in particular, by the acidification of the oceans.

The loss of sea-based protein is a very, very big deal indeed.  About one billion people rely on the sea as their primary source of protein.  The loss of sea protein will mean increasing famine, increasing malnutrition, increasing forced migration, and, in particular, increased societal conflict and war.

end edit

[Mojorabbit]

5. Stone Crab catch has hit bottom here in Fl

I was going to post a link to the local paper re this but google seems to not be working.

[Mojorabbit]

6. Here is the same article re stone crab

Harvests since shortly after the season opening Oct. 15 have been "as bad as I can remember during my 45 years in the business," Graves said. "It's just bleak."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/stone-crab-season-failing-florida-keys_n_2331348.html

another snip
Fishermen and researchers are baffled.

"Blame it on global warming, blame it on BP [Deepwater Horizon oil spill], blame it on Mother Nature," Graves said. "Everybody's got an idea but nobody can say why. It's probably a combination of a bunch of things."

News reports from stone-crab fleets farther up the Florida Gulf Coast suggest an octopus population explosion. Crabs are a favorite food of octopus, which are smart enough to get into traps.

"We've seen more octopus in the 6- to 8-pound range, which is abnormal," Graves said. State experts have suggested warm winters may have triggered the octopus boom.

[Speck Tater]

7. I'm reminded of...

...the Easter Islander who cut down the last tree on the island and said "It's not my fault."

I don't understand how people can persist in believing that they can protect their livelihood by destroying their livelihood.

I suppose they will keep fishing until there are no fish left, and THEN they will start worrying about it.