Overfishing of Cod predates trawlers

[Jaffa]

Old records show overfishing of Cod predates mechanisation of the fishing fleet...

 

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7051144/

 

 

quote:

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Once a dominant species, the volume of cod on the Scotian Shelf has plunged 96 percent since the 1850s,” the scientists at the University of New Hampshire said in the report published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology.

 

Just 16 of the pre-Civil War schooners, based in the port of Beverly near Boston, would be needed to haul in all the adult cod now swimming on the Scotian Shelf, they said.

 

Sign of global decline?

And the scientists said the findings may indicate that overfishing around the world in recent decades has slashed many other fish stocks even further below their historical peaks than commonly believed.

 

 

“People tend to look only at recent data when they are looking at rebuilding stocks,” said Andy Rosenberg, dean at the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture at the University of New Hampshire and a leader of the report.

 

“But that ignores the historical data -- cod has been exploited for thousands of years,” he told Reuters.

 

Debate about restoring fish stocks often focuses on revival to levels within living memory -- like the 1970s or 1980s, he said. But those levels may also be severely depleted from the era before a mechanization of fishing.

 

Looking at the records

Off Nova Scotia in June 1852, for instance, one crew of eight under skipper George Gould landed 1,000 cod using hand lines with two hooks apiece, the report said.

 

Within just a few years, a widening use of lines with hundreds of hooks curbed catches off Nova Scotia. Another captain, Gilbert Weston, wrote in his log that he caught just 130 cod on May 23, 1859, while using 1,000 hooks.

 

North Atlantic cod has since been overfished around the ocean -- by nations including the United States and Canada and Iceland, Norway, Britain and Russia. The cod has become a symbol of the decline of many commercial fish species.

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Leon, do you happen to have any links to the original research?

 

Furhter bad news is that the only paper I,ve seen that looked at the effect of fishing on genetic variability (through the study of an unfished and recently exploited fish stock), showed that most variability was lost at the start of the fishery! Thereafter it was a long slow loss; wonder what all this means for management now.. :confused: Head ache time..

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Read a confusing article in my friends Daily Mail today.

 

Stating how polluted rivers were poisoning sea fish (cod)and causing them to change sex. :confused:

 

It just shows how well they looked at the report.

[Leon Roskilly]

Jaffa:

Leon, do you happen to have any links to the original research?

I'd guess that you'd need to suscribe here:

 

 

http://www.frontiersinecology.org/

 

 

(see: http://www.frontiersinecology.org/current_...ontents2005.pdf )

 

Tight Lines - leon

 

[ 02. March 2005, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: Leon Roskilly ]

[Jaffa]

Thanks Leon. Tried that one but retreated as soon as I saw the need to subscribe! Perhaps it will be more widely published soon.

 

Ken Im pretty disillusioned with what our papers report as "fact", even the so called "quality" papers. As you say often seems like the journalist has not even read the research either that or, what is it the Americans say ? "blood sells" or something like that. They love using words like sex, poison, slaughter etc etc

 

About the only two papers I've found that have serious fisheries articles are the Shetland Times and Aberdeen Press and Journal. When I was a fishery officer we often heard about changes in regulation from the P&J before MAFF/DAFS got around to telling us !!

[Tom Pinborough]

Hi ya

have a read of cod by Mark Kurlansky isbn 0-09-926870-1, gives a very good history of cod , goes right back to when the basque fisherman fish sailed to the grand banks before cabot got there.

 

cheers

Tom

[Jaffa]

Hi Tom, read that book a few years back; it was fascinating. I had'nt really grasped the sheer scale of the fishery back then though.

 

BTW another cracking book I've read was "Beautiful Swimmers", all about the Chesapeake Bay Blue crab fishery - great for those with an unhealthy interest in peeler crabs . The same author did one about a trip on a Grandbanks trip on a cod trawler too.

[wurzel]

Hello a newbie here.

 

It sounds like they had good and bad periods back

in the 1800's the same as now, pahaps over fishing is a bit of a myth and cod stocks have always fluctuated naturally even before modern trawlers were ever invented.

 

I had better tell that I am a commercial fisherman as well as a keen angler. I might have slightly different veiws than most anglers as I see both sides of the coin.

 

Could some body explain how to include attachments please.

[Jaffa]

Hi Wurzel, welcome to AN.

 

I don't think theres any doubt we have been responsible for most of the damage through overfishing, all I think it indicates is that that damage started a long time back.

 

I'd agree that the current problems in the North Sea have a lot to do with changing sea conditions , but overall, over its range as a whole its been one long slow hammering of the cod.

 

For attachments etc press the "post reply" button at the bottom of the topic , and that takes you to a screen with more options than the "Quick reply".

 

BTW what kind of commercial fishing do?

 

Cheers, Chris.

[wurzel]

Hello Jaffa (Chris)

 

I'm not so sure about the overfishing bit.There is no doubt that heavy fishing pressure has an effect on stocks, in localized areas, and the grand banks are a localized area of the Atlantic Ocean,Cod fishing has been banned at the grand Banks for over 10 years, there are no shortage of cod north or at times east of the banks so you would think cod should have repopulated the banks, they say there is a big increaced in dog fish on the grounds, this indicates an increace in water temperature, are there many dog fish on the Greenland or Icelandic grounds? I bet there are plenty on grouds in the gulf of Mexico.

 

You agree that the problems in the North Sea have a lot to do with changing sea conditions, so why not the Grand Banks,

 

I have an interesting file on climate and effects on fish stocks,by some Norwegian scientists, I still have not been able work out how to attach it to this post,( being a computer dunce) if you email me I can email it back to you if you wanted.

 

I used to longline for cod but due to changing sea conditions I mainly fish for dover soles, we can catch soles all year round these days,and a few bass useing drift nets and some times trolling lures,

[big_cod]

i get tottaly ****** of when people keep mentioning globel warming is a factor with the cod if you d seen as much hammering of cod stocks as i have up here in the northeast your eyes would pop out of your head,trawlers landing 1000ss boxes of cod day in day out and they wonder where its all gone, a man with a wooden head can see whats happened jaffa its interesting you say you were a fisheries officer how long ago matey the one in whitby i nicknamed him lord lucan because when the trawlers were landing boxes +boxes black fish he was nowhere to be seen there is a word for it, in your pocket comes to mind but you are not supposed to say that just heard the other day one whitby boat was trawling the pipe line in the oil fields of shetland got 400 boxes of coalie in one hall some of these fish were 2-3 stone fish one of the guys of the boat showed me a photo which he took with his phone the net was busting full as you would say, 10 years ago this was cod but they overfished it and the coalie will go the same way