Corpusfishing.com

ltorna1 · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 3240

True, the ocean is 70% of the earth, but less than 10% of the ocean holds 90 % of its biomass. And that 10% of the ocean is the continental shelf/ledge, mostly within 30m of the surface. So instead of compare the ocean to the land. Compare the continental shelf to the harvestable land. We have cows because we breed them. We have crops because we grow them. We have millions of bison because we....wait....no we don't....we just took and took and now they are gone. Much more apparent on the land where we can see our destruction.

The ocean isn't bottomless. The ocean's food supply isn't endless. That's not a hoax.
There is no shortage at the moment because we simply fish down the food chain, removing apex preds first and move on to the next. We exploit one fishery and move on to another so there is "no shortage". Read about it in some peer reviewed journals. Look at the raw data. (Don't read their interpretations too much, make your own). It ain't pretty.

Not trying to hug a tree or anything here, just trying to illuminate some points.
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5moreminutes · Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 7:31 am Post subject:

I saw a show awhile back where some national organization banned commercial fishing near an island because of the people that lived there. The people on the island depended on the fish for food. One sweep with a commercial vessel crippled their fishing for months. Big deal when your limited on your capabilities. Good read.
The by-catch is the most alarming because why waste "good" fish.
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Ray · Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:31 am Post subject:

Laguna Nuclear · Pony Mullet Joined: 03 Jul 2008 Posts: 81

Bison ain't a good example bud, they were slaughtered for there skins. If in the early founding of this country someone wanted to sell bison meat like we do beef, then the bison would have been raised to produce in order to SUPPLY meat to the general public, like we do cattle. But for what ever reason, no one MADE a market for that!

Fish are the only food group that we have that produces millions of eggs a year! Bison and cattle produce 1 or 2 a year.

I to sometimes wonder why we aren't running out of food because the entire world is fully populated, but we ain't. Africa seems to be the only place on earth that isn't smart enough to cultivate!

Whether you believe this or not, the God of the bible has proclaimed that he is responsible for feeding us, and that he has reserved a day in which he will destroy the earth, 2 Peter ch 3. The key pronoun is " HE " will destroy it, not us. Because the world is fully populated, Jesus coming is probably pretty darn close!

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ltorna1 · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 3240

the reason why I used bison is exactly what you said, because we never raised them or bread them, we had no interest, we just slaughtered and didn't repopulate (like we do with fish). Take an ecology class and learn about the number of eggs and population size. A million eggs doesnt mean a million offspring. Humans, for example, have nearly 100% survival rate per fertilized egg through maturity. In the ocean, nearly everything has millions of eggs, and most don't get fertilized, or reach past larval stage, let alone sexual maturity. Number of eggs is irrelevant.

ANd for your Bible quote, I am not going to delve into personal beliefs anymore than tis (because we could go on forever):

I am not going to rely on Him to feed me,
or Him to pick up my trash,
or Him to manage my fisheries,
or Him to pay my bills
or Him to fix the economy
or Him to fix the environment
or Him to fix the world.
A little personal responsibility goes a long way.
According to the books I read, even if your God has a day picked out for the end of the world, it looks as if we migt beat him to it.

But either way, good discussion, and I guess the moral of the story is, None of us are commercial fishermen, so all we can do is be responsible sport fishermen and do our best to preserve the amazing resources we still have.
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Laguna Nuclear · Pony Mullet Joined: 03 Jul 2008 Posts: 81

I realize the fisherman on this board are sportfisherman and mostly dispise commercial fishing. but i'm going to stick up for them. I can't speak for any lawless commercial guys around the planet, but lets put this back on a smaller scale, our own back yard.

common sense tells me it's a hoax, just like global warming has just been proven to be a hoax in the last 2 weeks.

my first agruement was that recreation fisherman are most likely pulling out more redfish and trout these days, than any commercial fishing did back in the 70's on troutlines, or gill nets, ( cause of the number of fisherman now days ). now I agree that gill nets probably did the most damage in hauling out thousands of pounds of fish per week allong the gulf coast, but now the gill nets have been replaced by fisherman in the hundreds of thousands. ( i believe there is a tpw cencus somewheres on license holders )

I have heard the stories of how fisherman would go out and barely catch anything because gill nets where everywhere, I just think they were not very acurate.

I agree though, gill nets are effective, and needed to end.

But, after all the gill nets, freezes, red tide, brown tide, by catches, gut hooked dead fish out there, our fishery has lasted in abundance.

but here is what replaced the gill nets, hundreds of thousand of fisherman along the gulf coast, and no one is going CRAP! WERE OUT OF FISH.

Commercial fisherman are still allowed to fish for drum, and no one is complaining about the drum population going to crap! If I heard Art correctly, there are only 75 commercial finfish licenses in the state of Texas, compared to how many recreational fisherman?

your probably chomp'in at the bit to talk about flounder, but I'll get there soon'er or later. the Drum are still a factor.

all in all itorna, this is a good conversation, keep it up.

topdog15 · Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:29 pm Post subject:

Tyler · Site Admin Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 12865

The article talks about longliners not about all forms of commercial fishing.

landlocked beachbum · Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2009 9:00 pm Post subject:

ltorna1 · Full Grown Flour Bluffian Joined: 17 Apr 2009 Posts: 3240

good point tyler. Longlining is almost exclusively for offshore pelagics, and it its defense, its physical effect on the ecosystem is minimal compared to trawls and dredging. The same can be said for gillnets, the main issue is bycatch, not habitat destruction.

And actually, I am going to stay away from flounder discussions, at least in Texas. I could talk about east coast flounder fisheries till your ears bleed, but its complicated in Texas by the fact that we are on the southern-most tip of the flounders distribution, and other environmental factors may be contributing other than fishing pressure, such as fluctuations in water temperature. There are experts here at TAMUCC on the flounder fishery, and I will not claim to be one. Same for black drum, I am new to the Gulf fisheries in general, so I am just going on my knowledge of commercial fishering as a whole. But I have seen the damage of longlining on the east coast and how it can impact a tuna fishery. Its sad.
And when I say sad, I am not just talking about sad pictures of dolphins and seaturtles dead on fishing lines, although those are the images that are frequently used to demonize the industry. But how about miles and miles of dead bluesharks, most of which may go unreported, that are left as floating carcasses because they have no food value.

Bogus.
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