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An undersea art gallery that ensnares illegal trawlers
- troymc 4y agoHere's the website of La Casa dei Pesci: https://www.casadeipesci.it/ https://www.casadeipesci.it/
- elnatro 4y agoThe fish house in English.
- wffurr 4y agoWhat's the impact on climate change of just enforcing the laws already on the books against bottom trawling and such?
- jstanley 4y agoAre you suggesting that instead of coming up with ways to catch criminals, we should just catch criminals?
- wffurr 4y agoOn a purely climate ROI perspective, what's the potential benefit for investing in ways to catch criminals and reduce corruption in ways that benefit the climate vs other climate mitigation and adaption strategies? I don't recall ever seeing this addresses in any of the climate coverage I've read, but it seems like an interesting angle. Of course there are other benefits to the rule of law as well.
- ambicapter 4y agoThis seems like a genius idea that I want to get involved in. Are there any projects like this in the northeastern US?
- shagie 4y agoI am not aware of any... though I do know that some of the largest marble quarries in the world are in New England. http://www.vermontquarries.com/danby-quarry http://www.vermontquarries.com/danby-quarry And then there's also large granite quarries... like the Rock of Ages. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/rock-of-ages-granite-quarry https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/rock-of-ages-granite-qua...
- a_shovel 4y agoIf the goal was solely to ensnare trawler nets, then it could probably be done a lot more efficiently by just sinking some concrete blocks. But by putting sculptures down there instead, it gets media attention and public interest as well, which leads to funding to continue the project.
- kawsper 4y agoThat's what Greenpeace is doing in the UK: https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/live-greenpeace-boulders-brighton-fishing/ https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/live-greenpeace-boulders-...
- overlordalex 4y agoHuh, seemed pretty effective at first glance. It also lead me down a wiki rabbit hole from the dogger bank to similar nearby features, which came full circle with the Cleaver Bank where Greenpeace also sunk some boulders. Except apparently they were removed by the fishers... The Cleaver bank is in 2015 considered for protection as a Marine protected area. The Greenpeace organisation considered the actions of the Dutch government in this direction too slow and sunk some large boulders on the seabed in May 2015 to increase the nature value.[7] Dutch fishers lifted the boulders on 16 June 2015, because they were afraid the boulders would damage their fishing gear.[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaver_Bank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleaver_Bank
- christkv 4y agoThe illegal trawling on the African coast by Chinese trawlers are destroying the livelihood in many African countries. I wish the EU would work with those nations affected to intercept and arrest those boats.
- krisoft 4y agoSo Chinese ships are doing something at the coast of African countries and somehow you want the EU to do something about that? How does that compute?
- ornornor 4y agoAnd that’s why it’s called tragedy of the commons.
- stuaxo 4y agoAn article on the original "tragedy of the commons" http://links.org.au/debunking-tragedy-commons http://links.org.au/debunking-tragedy-commons
- ornornor 4y agoThis argues that the only alternative is privatization. I don’t think that’s true. The issue here is that land that no one has authority over means that there is also no enforcement and that it’s a race to the bottom as to who will manage to exploit it to the point where it is destroyed and useless to anyone anymore. And why wouldn’t you, morals aside? It’s basically free resources for the exploiter with externalities shared by everyone. It doesn’t mean the solution is private ownership. Look at national parks, they’re publicly owned but they’re not a no man’s land so a government has authority to enforce conservation rules there and punish those who pollute/damage the park. That’s what parent comment was perfectly illustrating: “not EU waters, not EU trawlers, why even lift a finger if Africa is too corrupt or financially unable to protect these ecosystems and the Chinese too cynical to refrain themselves?”
- dementis 4y agoThis reminded me of a burial trend I heard about in Florida to help build artificial reefs. Burial at sea is legal in the US(with restrictions) but the Mediterranean has a ton of ecological restrictions and a quick google search doesn't reveal if burial at sea is legal within those protected waters. https://www.cremation.com/cremation-memorialization/eternal-reefs/ https://www.cremation.com/cremation-memorialization/eternal-...
- chrisweekly 4y agoI saw this on Patagonia's youtube channel... what a great idea.
- olivermarks 4y agoIt's a cute arty way to draw attention to a huge problem, but lax legislation and penalties are the real culprit here. Net inspection and huge fines would make industrial scale strip mine fishing economically very risky. Again, the issue is that no one can police the offshore globalists who hide behind a veneer of philanthropy, woke virtue signaling and greenwashing.
- ajmurmann 4y agoWhy are you blaming globalism for this? I'd argue that a lack of globalism is at fault here. Fishing in international waters is a problem that can only be solved by the global community. The problem here is that corporations and monetary interests act globally and always will while governments aren't.
- kuhewa 4y agoVery few places outside of national EEZs where boulders would affect IUU fishing. Not much bottom trawling of sensitive areas other than a few seamounts. You have a point about intl management of high seas resources but globalism can result in sanctioned pillaging of nationally sovereign waters. Like "coastal African country, we (the EU) won't buy your peanuts if you don't give us rights to trawl, even though we aren't doing the scientific monitoring required to maintain sustainability for you like we would in our national waters we've already exhausted"
- rthomas6 4y agoNo, this is incorrect. They already do regulate it. It is already illegal. The problem is the regulations and penalties are pretty hard to enforce when any ship in the world can go anywhere else. Italy can pass all the regulations it likes, and a Chinese ship full of somewhat desperate people can illegally fish there anyway with whatever equipment they brought with them, until the ship gets individually caught. And please note: Italy's coastline is ... Big. Really big.
- olivermarks 4y ago->No, this is incorrect. They already do regulate it. It is already illegal/ Who regulates 'it'? My point was that ships can fish anywhere but if all nation states enforced tight laws about nets the economic penalties would greatly lessen the practice.
- Nursie 4y agoThis sounds like a great project. It has been a consistent disappointment to me over the years that the EU failed to act to restrict these practices effectively. It’s always the poor, poor fishermen who need their livelihoods protecting, never mind that their livelihoods are under threat from their own actions.
- gumby 4y agoGreat project. But it makes me think that just dumping some tank traps down there (Three steel bars welded normal to each other) would work well to snag and tear nets and, if they don't encounter a net, support some sea life.
- ragingroosevelt 4y agoWhere's the news-worthy-ness in that, though? I get the sense that a large point of this isn't functional but rather to cause people to talk and think about it.
- gumby 4y agoOh, I think the art makes it a great project (I should have been less pithy and more fulsome in my praise in the first sentence) for the vert reason you give. I just meant it inspires me to think of a cheap and easy way to go "monkey wrench gang" in other places. In fact governments could even do this in places where they are trying to restore fisheries.
- kuhewa 4y agoIt will tear a net but either tear through or be lifted when the net is hauled. Seiners and trawlers are used to constantly repairing nets in between shots, it's not a huge deal. OTOH snagging on a boulder is very disruptive to fishing and is quite dangerous, can result in wholesale loss of the gear and threaten the vessel. That will actually cause fishers to think twice.
- tmnvix 4y agoFor anyone interested in seeing a short documentary about this, DW covered it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-SPiCVTKiY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-SPiCVTKiY
- labster 4y agoThere are going to be some very confused archaeologists in the future.
- ackbar03 4y agoThey should scale this to other regions
- josephcsible 4y agoWhy are people so okay with this particular brand of vigilantism when they're not okay with it in general (e.g., self-help evictions)?
- aaron695 4y ago
- dredmorbius 4y agoAn adaptation of monkeywrenching and tree-spiking concepts.