Two fishy tales

Two articles from this week's Economist magazine. The first article "Shellfish desires" is about a new type of dredge for trawler nets which does far less damage to the seabed than traditional dredges, which do terrible damage to seabed ecosystems.

Trawling, which is the most widespread form of fishing dredges the seabed by raking it to dislodge the intended catch into a cloud that is captured by the trailing net. Unfortunately, it also throws up coral, sponges, seaweeds as well as other fish, crustaceans and molluscs. This plant life forms the ecosystem of the seabed rather like the plants in a forest. Trawling is the equivalent of clear-cutting trees.

The article tells of a new invention by Cliff Goudey of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) which has a series of gentle jets which dislodge just the fish without damaging the seabed itself. Initial trials, catching scallops off the Isle of Man, against a traditional dredge showed less damage to the seabed and to the catch making it a more efficient method than the traditional one. So look out for "coral-safe scallops".

The second article is about the arguments for giving up eating fish altogether from the Economists Green correspondent in his Green.view on-line column. Alas, I have to agree with what he says but I don't think I could ever persuade the wife to do it!