Posted by jossc — 16 May 2007 at 2:51pm
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50 per cent of fresh fish sold in supermarkets comes from farms
One obvious response to the disappearance of wild fish from our seas is "Why don’t we replace them with farmed varieties. We do it with land animals, so why not fish?" Of course this is already happening – over 40 per cent of the world's fish production already comes from aquaculture, and 50 per cent of fish sold in UK supermarkets comes from farms. These pen-reared fish grow at a phenomenal rate. For example, wild cod double in size every year, but hatchery cod quadruple in the same period. Given that size determines reproductive rate, at first glance this could be a solution to repopulating wild stocks.
Posted by jossc — 14 May 2007 at 4:20pm
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Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog
Two pair trawlers we encountered yesterday admitted they were fishing for cod and told us confusingly fishy stories. One boat said it was catching lots of big cod, while the other reckoned they'd trawled loads of young fish. Either way they shouldn't be taking any – cod stocks are now only a fraction of what they were a decade or two ago.
It is clear that current management regimes are to blame for the widespread degradation of Europe’s seas. It is further widely accepted amongst many policy makers, scientists and others that we must therefore adopt a radical new approach to managing Europe’s seas – one that is precautionary in nature and has protection of the whole marine ecosystem as its primary objective. Such an ecosystem-based approach is vital if we are to ensure the health of our oceans for future generations.
Greenpeace volunteers have taken direct action for the second time in three days to halt North Sea trawlers fishing cod towards extinction.
At 8am this morning, 40 miles east of Unst, the most northerly point of the UK, a Greenpeace swimmer, clad in a survival suit and holding onto a buoy emblazoned with 'STOP BATTERING COD', positioned himself in front of the Scottish trawlers Carisanne II and Demares, who were fishing for cod by dragging a huge net between them. The trawlers then immediately stopped fishing and hauled their net.
Posted by Willie — 13 May 2007 at 11:00am
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Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog
We have a hitch-hiker on board: a small bird, which - from my frantic bird handbook thumbing - appears to be a juvenile stonechat or whinchat. Anyway, everyone's happy to have the tiny stowaway with us for a while although it may leave us when we get closer to land. For now, however, it's proving to be camera-shy and getting fed on breadcrumbs.
Posted by jossc — 12 May 2007 at 11:30am
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We're still out here in the North Sea talking to trawlermen to convince them to stop fishing cod to extinction, and taking action against those who just won't listen.
For a few days now, we've had no luck locating cod fishing vessels, but that finally changed last night when we came across a Scottish trawler fishing for cod 40 miles east of Unst, the most northerly point of the Shetland Isles. They were reluctant to talk to us, so we decided to wait until morning and pay them a visit.
Campaigners attempted to save North Sea cod from being pushed towards extinction plunged into the ocean 40 miles from land today and tried to stop a Scottish trawler by placing themselves in its course.
Posted by jossc — 9 May 2007 at 12:00am
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The weather gods are shaking their fists at us again, forcing the Artic Sunrise to seek shelter in one of the three large bays of Stronsay in the Orkney Isles. Which is bad news for our mission, but good news for the 'twitchers' amongst the crew as the island abounds with birdlife and we've arrived here smack in the middle of the breeding season. Large colonies of gannets and fulmars live on the cliffs to the south and west, and there's also a loch and marshes which are havens for ducks and waders including the rare pintail (perhaps only 50 breeding pairs in Britain). And there are land (as opposed to sea) birds here too - swallows flew overhead as we lowered our anchor chain yesterday evening.
Posted by Willie — 8 May 2007 at 11:05am
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Follow the crew of the Arctic Sunrise on their campaign for Marine Reserves in our North Sea Tour blog
We've had 'weather' out at sea, so again we've sought some shelter of the remote island of Fetlar. It's both reassuring to be near land when the wind's blowing, and frustrating when we can't set foot on it. I think many people on board would love to go for a nice long walk that didn't involve stairs or a handrail.
