7 ms·

"Fishing gear was the biggest culprit — involved in 55% of all entanglements." Is anything being done to address the fishing gear issue?

acdanger 7y ago
Eating less fish is something we could all start to do immediately.
- spurgu 7y ago
  Correct. Fishing gear amounts for the largest portion of plastic by volume in the oceans. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/great-pacific-garbage-patch-plastics-environment/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/great-pacific-ga...
- genericone 7y ago
  Replacing the commercial wild-caught fish with the more expensive farm-raised fish will bring the most roi if you enjoy fish.
  - Mediterraneo10 7y ago
    Farm-raised fish are often treated with antibiotics, which means you have less plastic pollution but more antibiotics-overuse problems.
  - nikofeyn 7y ago
    farm-raised fish cause plenty of havoc in the ocean.
    - Joakal 7y ago
      They could be on land: http://www.uarahfisheries.com.au/ http://www.uarahfisheries.com.au/
  - askvictor 7y ago
    OTOH farm raised fish are often quite detrimental to the environment in other ways - unless it's a sealed system (which is only practical for smaller fish), they add massive amounts of nutrients and pollution to the local environment. Also, many farmed fish are fed smaller fish, which are caught wild, and require some 3kg+ of feed fish to produce 1kg of farmed fish.
    - imtringued 7y ago
      This is a problem with pretty much every type of factory farming. Food can be cheaply imported from any country around the world but the animals still produce feces locally. The factory farm owners do not own any land to use this natural fertilizer on. Therefore it is either stored in lagoons or in case of aquafarms just sinks to the bottom of the water until years later it becomes impossible to farm fish anymore because of excessive algae blooms.
    - specialist 7y ago
      Fish farms are future superfund sites.
Joakal 7y ago
On a tangent, there's a lot of overfishing leading to depletion. Sooner or later, countries need to start banning big wild fishing. Another reason to ban is that it's hard to monitor catching practices. Some catching practices wipe out whole ecosystems in one sweep, including taking endangered fishes, seals, etc. The boats will know they will get in trouble for keeping it and will throw them back in water, but not all of them will be alive. https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-12-22/global-fish-stocks-under-threat-from-illegal-fishing/9276394 https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-12-22/global-fish-sto... On a side note: I wish the Australian government will have the balls to stop Japanese military from escorting Japanese whalers in Australian waters: https://www.news.com.au/world/japanese-navy-sent-to-assist-whaling-vessels-repel-protesters/news-story/9a16006ca5ff7d6b94f8b5c0e51db530 https://www.news.com.au/world/japanese-navy-sent-to-assist-w... Australia gets no royalty from whales hunted within its waters by Japanese government!
- steve19 7y ago
  If its outside Australia's EEZ there is nothing they can do legally. An illegal military confrontation is the last thing anyone needs. The whole South China Sea issue is over this right to navigate freely outside a EEZ (and that man made islands don't count towards an EEZ)
  - Joakal 7y ago
    Well, that sucks. Surely there's oil rigs, etc outside of EEZ, does that mean anyone can set it up without approvals?
    - steve19 7y ago
      Those are governed by international agreements and treaties, but if the Continental Shelf extends further than 200 NM (the EEZ) then states still have rights up to 350 NM for mineral and hydrocarbon extraction. I am not sure what happens further out than 350 NM but I am sure there is some UN agreement on that too. Not sure if any drilling takes place more than 350 NM.

acdanger 7y ago

Eating less fish is something we could all start to do immediately.

spurgu 7y ago
Correct. Fishing gear amounts for the largest portion of plastic by volume in the oceans. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/great-pacific-garbage-patch-plastics-environment/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/great-pacific-ga...
genericone 7y ago
Replacing the commercial wild-caught fish with the more expensive farm-raised fish will bring the most roi if you enjoy fish.
- Mediterraneo10 7y ago
  Farm-raised fish are often treated with antibiotics, which means you have less plastic pollution but more antibiotics-overuse problems.
- nikofeyn 7y ago
  farm-raised fish cause plenty of havoc in the ocean.
  - Joakal 7y ago
    They could be on land: http://www.uarahfisheries.com.au/ http://www.uarahfisheries.com.au/
- askvictor 7y ago
  OTOH farm raised fish are often quite detrimental to the environment in other ways - unless it's a sealed system (which is only practical for smaller fish), they add massive amounts of nutrients and pollution to the local environment. Also, many farmed fish are fed smaller fish, which are caught wild, and require some 3kg+ of feed fish to produce 1kg of farmed fish.
  - imtringued 7y ago
    This is a problem with pretty much every type of factory farming. Food can be cheaply imported from any country around the world but the animals still produce feces locally. The factory farm owners do not own any land to use this natural fertilizer on. Therefore it is either stored in lagoons or in case of aquafarms just sinks to the bottom of the water until years later it becomes impossible to farm fish anymore because of excessive algae blooms.
  - specialist 7y ago
    Fish farms are future superfund sites.

Joakal 7y ago

On a tangent, there's a lot of overfishing leading to depletion. Sooner or later, countries need to start banning big wild fishing. Another reason to ban is that it's hard to monitor catching practices. Some catching practices wipe out whole ecosystems in one sweep, including taking endangered fishes, seals, etc. The boats will know they will get in trouble for keeping it and will throw them back in water, but not all of them will be alive. https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-12-22/global-fish-stocks-under-threat-from-illegal-fishing/9276394 https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-12-22/global-fish-sto... On a side note: I wish the Australian government will have the balls to stop Japanese military from escorting Japanese whalers in Australian waters: https://www.news.com.au/world/japanese-navy-sent-to-assist-whaling-vessels-repel-protesters/news-story/9a16006ca5ff7d6b94f8b5c0e51db530 https://www.news.com.au/world/japanese-navy-sent-to-assist-w... Australia gets no royalty from whales hunted within its waters by Japanese government!

steve19 7y ago
If its outside Australia's EEZ there is nothing they can do legally. An illegal military confrontation is the last thing anyone needs. The whole South China Sea issue is over this right to navigate freely outside a EEZ (and that man made islands don't count towards an EEZ)
- Joakal 7y ago
  Well, that sucks. Surely there's oil rigs, etc outside of EEZ, does that mean anyone can set it up without approvals?
  - steve19 7y ago
    Those are governed by international agreements and treaties, but if the Continental Shelf extends further than 200 NM (the EEZ) then states still have rights up to 350 NM for mineral and hydrocarbon extraction. I am not sure what happens further out than 350 NM but I am sure there is some UN agreement on that too. Not sure if any drilling takes place more than 350 NM.