Conservation

Nick Victor Mr. Karis Global Dynamics IV October 9, 2011 Conservation Aquaculture is being neglected by fishermen, corporations, and everyday people. In order to preserve this underwater culture, we need to implement conservation. The main problems of conservation include bycatch, pollution, and effects of the food chain.  The fishing industry is killing much of the aquaculture in the ocean on accident. When fishing boats collect large amounts of their prey using huge nets, they also collect other species they are not fishing for. These extra fish species that are caught are called bycatch. In order to cut down on this bycatch, which is hurting certain fish species population, the government issued observers to join the fishing crews on their trips to the sea. These observers count the amount of bycatch that is captured and killed and make sure it is under a certain limit or the boat will be charged per bycatch (Fisheries). A solution is given by Lindsay by introducing the “tradable bycatch credits” system. This makes the bycatch worth a certain amount of credits which they would have to pay to those who don’t catch as much bycatch (Lindsay). This produces incentive to be more careful, which will help the aquatic environment all together. Observers help with the conservation process because they make the fishing boats be aware of the amount of bycatch they capture. Now, the government is putting together a program to make “electronic observers”. This project is creating a system that would record the catch and figure out what it weighs by using closed-circuit cameras on board. The cost is expected to be less than the observers’ salary. A weakness of the new system is that it is hard to distinguish the species of fish based solely on the film. For example, the winter flounder looks about the same to a summer flounder, so even film evidence cannot tell which is which. Most fishermen do not believe this system will work, and some do not even like the observer program at all and call it intrusive (Lindsay). Whether or not the fishermen agree with the system, the idea of conserving bycatch is crucial in saving the aquaculture of Europe.  Another issue of conservation is the water of the oceans. The water is taking on pollution and global warming, which is in turn affecting the aquaculture. Certain types of pollution affect the environment the most: plastic debris/ghost nets, land runoff/eutrophication, atmospheric pollution, and ship pollution. Plastic debris and ghost nets (fishing nets left in the ocean) can cause entanglement, suffocation, starvation, and ingestion. Longliners (fishing lines tens of miles long) entangle and kill thousands of turtles and an estimated 300,000 seabirds, pushing the albatross population toward extirpation (Agardy). This can be prevented by simply using circle hooks instead of J-hooks (Agardy). Plastic also photodegrades from exposure to the sun, and breaks down into smaller pieces. These small pieces are consumed by smaller species and the plastic enters the food chain from the bottom (Marine). Prevention of this type of pollution is simple, yet nearly impossible: Don’t litter. If people were to keep their trash in bins or recycle their plastic, none of this would happen. In the same sense, land runoff is the fertilizers from crops that enter the ocean. These pieces of fertilizer are consumed by the smaller species and work their way up the food chain (Marine). Pollution by ships can also be a burden on the aquatic environment. Ships pollute waterways and the oil spills can be toxic to marine life. The final main type of pollution that is affecting the aquatic environment is atmospheric pollution. Emissions of heat-trapping pollution such as carbon dioxide are leading to global warming which is changing the climate (NRDC). This climate changes directly affect the fish because they are adapted to a certain environment. If the environment changes, the adaptations are useless and the fish die. The high levels of carbon dioxide are acidifying the oceans which alter aquatic ecosystems and modify fish distributions. This will lead to a lack of sustainability in fisheries and will in turn affect Europe and their dependence on the fishing industry (Marine). Global warming is likely to create a disappearance of trout and salmon of up to 38% by 2090. Also, habitat loss for individual species could be as high as 42% by this time, if carbon dioxide emissions are not reduced (NRDC).  Most of these types of pollution seem easy to fix, but since the pollution sources are so dispersed, the solution is not so simple. Also, a lot of the pollution is structured into the economic systems we depend on. A recent survey of global ocean health showed that 41% of the ocean has been hurt by runoff, overfishing, and other pollution abuses (Marine).