Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumSardine population plummets along U.S. West Coast — AP: Collapse of species feared
By ENENews
Orange County Register, November 3, 2013: A steep decline in West Coast sardine populations prompted regulators on Sunday to approve sharp limits on commercial fishing for the species in 2014. At a public meeting, the Pacific Fishery Management Council set a catch limit guideline of [...] less than half the limit for the previous year. [...]
Fishery Nation, November 3, 2013: Pacific Fishery Management Council deep cuts for Sardines [...] The decline in West Coast sardine populations saw regulators on Sunday approve sharp cuts on commercial fishing for the species in 2014. [...]
AP, October 29, 2013: Conservation groups fear sardines declining on West Coast, call for halt to fishing species [...] Concerned sardine numbers may be starting to collapse, conservation groups are calling on federal fishery managers to halt West Coast commercial sardine fishing [...]
Truthdig, October 21, 2013: Canadian Pacific Fishermen Catch No Sardines in 2013 [...] Commercial fishermen off the coast of British Columbia came home this fall without having caught a single sardine, an outcome that suggests a $32 million fishery has collapsed. [...] Theyve given up looking, pulled the plug, confirmed Lorne Clayton, executive director of the Canadian Pacific Sardine Association. [...] Aside from the apparent displacement of humpback whales, a report in The Vancouver Sun said nothing about the effects of the disappearance on the ecosystem.
See also: 'Troubling Mystery': Complete collapse of sardine population on West Coast of Canada around Vancouver -- Official: It's 'unexpected' -- Expert: Humpback whales rarely seen, they're telling us something changed... nobody knows what's going on
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gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)Not sure if Fukushima is the cause of this, but we will see massive repercussions due the amount of radioactive waste that is barreling into the ocean.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)The Pacific is 4,900 miles across. The radioactive water being released is trivial compared to the amount of water in the Pacific. Even at the high end of projections, Fukushima will have minimal effects on life on our coasts.
The University of Hawaii measured radioactivity (Cs137 and Cs134) off of their shores. It was immeasurable. So no worries about Fukushima with respect to our fisheries. Or many other of the things people are blaming on Fukushima these days.
Over fishing and climate change, acidification are more likely causes.
Fukushima is a devastating disaster. But it's not some magical thing. The release of radioactive water will not go beyond local effects. The Pacific is too large for it to have large effects. In fact, it wont even be small; it will have little or no effects. People should be thankful for that.
If you're worried don't eat Japanese fish, or those at the top of the food chain (e.g., tuna).
GeorgeGist
(25,323 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.
Why would anybody want to portray Fukushima worse than it already is?
Alas, it is not, on the whole, having much effect on Pacific sea life. At least not outside Fukushima shores. You are aware that the Pacific Ocean is the largest on earth, aren't you? It's 4,900 miles across, for Christ sakes.
But people can (and will) believe what they want. It doesn't make it fact.
Thanks for your response.
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...to boys and girls who don't cleanup after themselves.
- They're not allowed to have, nor to keep nice things.
Phlem
(6,323 posts)This was inevitable. I guess no one can appreciate the devastation with a collapse in the food chain. What happens when this starts happening once a week?
Can I get off this ship of fools? NO!?
fuck.
-p
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)Phlem
(6,323 posts)I'm kind of a science geek but the human race has gone through many extinction events. I'm sure you've heard of the *out of Africa* theory where contemporary hominids spread across the globe starting in Africa. what you haven't heard is the extinction event prior to that. From Scientific American an article relates to an ice age where man existed in a narrow band along the south of Africa. The harsh environment left around 500 or so hominids living in caves to survive. Their main and sounds like "only" source of food came from the sea. Nothing I repeat Nothing could survive in the open.
And here we are today, descendants of those few hominids who made it through the extinction period, only now we have no ocean to feed from.
again can I get a life preserver or something! How's about an umbrella, I can turn that upside down and maybe float for a second. Balloons anyone!? I'll pass on the cement shoes but how about some buoyancy so we can all stay afloat as a species in harmony.
-p
Deep13
(39,154 posts)NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)I'd think they'd be somewhat similar. This is quite concerning, especially with the other news
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...is the species-specificness of these mass die-offs. Unlike clearly man-made kills from pollution where we kill everything in sight, these die-offs are most often explained as ''normal'' environmental impacts, due to salinity, temperature, etc. And yet no one can say why when this occurs other species often go unaffected. Species that eat the same or similar foods, inhabit the same areas and interact with the other flora and fauna of their environments similarly, and yet the die-offs will many times only happen to specific species as in this case. Just sardines. Just starfish. Just baby sea lions. Just grunts. Just orange-tipped black birds.
- Over and over again, it's the same phenomenon.....
kristopher
(29,798 posts)Those are not really interchangeable expressions. You can infer a collapse of a fishery by the extinction of a species, but you can't extrapolate the collapse of a species from the fact that the boats didn't catch anything.
I have no idea what caused the decline in catch, but my first thought was that they might be looking at where the fish used to be before a warming world encouraged them to migrate.
Interesting post, thanks for putting it up.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)It has led to the collapse of fish populations throughout the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overfishing
kristopher
(29,798 posts)The annual stats on boats and harvests are watched closely by economists and will generally tell you there is a problem before the kind of disappearance being reported actually occurs.
The lack of warning along with the lack of whale sightings just sets off a bit of a warning. We are seeing a lot of climate related wildlife migrations on land; it seems likely it could happening in the marine environment also.
msongs
(67,441 posts)...well I kind of gave up on the sardines three years ago when I learned that America's last sardine cannery (and my favorite brand) was closing.
And I gave up red meat in 2012 and haven't felt better. Besides, the future of ''red'' meat doesn't appeal to me in the least.
- I'm still eating fish on occasion, but everyone waits until I Geiger it first! Seriously.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)Rachel Carson's probably rolling over in her grave.
The earth has had it with stupid humans!