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!

Shenanigans on the high seas

There's an interesting article (it may require a login) in last week's Economist about the Polestar, a tramper that carries fish without using sea containers, that was detained by Moroccan armed forces at the request of several European governments. It was on a blacklist of ships known to be involved in illegal fishing. It had picked up a consignment of Pollock from one of the world's few certified sustainable fisheries, off the coast of Alaska, that was destined for Europe. The cargo has been allowed to proceed on a legal ship but the Polestar's fate is undecided.

The worry is that cargoes that come from Marine Stewardship Council certified fish stocks, which companies like WalMart and Unilever are increasingly committed to using (see the links for details of their schemes), can become contaminated with illegally fished cargoes. Until the entire supply chain can be validated as clean then the world's fish stocks will remain under threat. And as the above article pointed out, the business of international shipping is notoriously lawless.

EU fisharies policy

There's an interesting article by Charles Clover in today's Daily Telegraph about the latest EU fisharies policy. Charles Clover wrote an excellent, but depressing, book about the state of global fishing called "The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and what We Eat" which I read a couple of years back and I keep an eye out for his articles.

Here what he says today:

- EU voted to allow fishing of endangered bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic at twice the quota level scientists say will lead to a collapse of stocks.

- Britain and Ireland voted against and were unhappy that Italy and France who are estimated to have overfished their quotas by 30% in the last two years were not forced to pay this back.

- French and Itailian fishermen are using illegal drift nets to catch tuna. Drift net fishing can lead to the death of dolphins and turtles.

- According to the WWF, the fisheries should be closed in June and the minimum landing size reduced to 30kg.

So after the razzamatazz of the Global warming spectacular last week at the G8, the EU is back to the dirty business of petty national advantage being considered more important than the long term survival and viability of our fisheries.