Mass fish farming to counter "Mass Extinction by 2050: Ocean and Marine Life in Danger"

To counter mass extinction of marine life in planet earth's oceans, all we need to do is: farm various species of marine animals in massive numbers then repopulate the seven seas and the oceans!

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  A diver explores dead coral reefs in Gili Trawangan at Indonesia's Lombok island May 13, 2009. Southeast Asia's biologically diverse coral reefs will disappear by the end of this century, wiping out coastal economies and sparking civil unrest if climate change is not addressed, Photo: Reuters

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  A fisherman uses a bamboo pole to push dead fish into a cage after a massive fish kill on Taal Lake, in Talisay, Batangas, south of Manila May 29, 2011. About 500 metric tons (500,000 kilos) of fish, worth more than 50 million pesos, were seen floating in the waters of six towns surrounding Taal Lake over the past two days, a local mayor said. A local town agriculturist said the cause of the fish kill was a sudden climate change in the area. Photo: Reuters

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  A volunteer collects waste material floating on the water during a coastal clean-up drive in Manila Bay September 19, 2010. Dozens of volunteers joined the International Coastal Clean-up drive to remove debris and rubbish from shorelines, waterways and oceans for a cleaner marine environment. Photo: Reuters

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  A dead fish lies over the dry Guadiaro river in Spain's southern town of San Roque August 9, 2005. More than 5,000 fish have died near the luxury housing state of Sotogrande as a result of the drought in the country and the extraction of subterranean running waters to take care of golf courses, local environmental groups said. Photo: Reuters

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  A decomposed fish lies in the water as workers pick up oil balls from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in Waveland, Mississippi in this July 7, 2010 file photo. April 20, 2011 is the first anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion at BP's Macondo undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico. The accident killed 11 workers and triggered the United States' worst offshore oil spill, which was also the biggest ever accidental release of oil into an ocean. Photo: Reuters

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  A pelican coated in oil stands on the beach during stormy weather in Ship Island, Mississippi July 1, 2010. More than 10 weeks into the crisis, oil continued spewing into the Gulf, clean-up success remained limited and a proposal by the Obama administration to halt all deep-water drilling for the next six months remained in limbo. Photo: Reuters

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  A worker scoops oil from the oil spill site near Dalian Port, Liaoning province July 26, 2010. Dalian Port has resumed operations at two of its oil berths and its main 300,000 tonnage berth is expected to reopen soon, the company said on Sunday, after a fire at the port a week ago shut the berths down. Photo: Reuters

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  Crews conduct overflights of controlled burns taking place in the Gulf of Mexico, in this photograph taken on May 19, 2010 and released on May 20. During controlled burns, oil from the Deepwater Horizon incident is burned in an effort to reduce the amount of oil in the water. Photo: Reuters

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  A view shows crude oil in the sea near Dalian, Liaoning province July 18, 2010. An explosion hit an oil pipeline measuring 0.9 metres (2.9 feet) in diameter on Friday, triggering another explosion at an adjacent smaller pipeline near Dalian's Xingang Harbor, Xinhua News Agency reported. Photo: Reuters

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  A resident walks on the shore near the oil spill site at Dalian port, Liaoning province July 23, 2010. China's Xingang oil port has resumed some refined fuel loading for the domestic market, but fuel exports remain temporarily halted, industry officials said amid continuing efforts to clean up an oil spill at the country's major port of Dalian Photo: Reuters

The current rate of climate change, pollution, and overfishing can result in an expedited consequence for mankind and the world oceans.  According to a report by international scientists, the study results have concluded that the world's ocean and marine life are dangerously degrading at an astronomical rate.  If the pace maintains, the world can expect to see the end of marine life by 2050, within our lifetime.
One of the leading research director of the International Programme on the State of the Ocean from Oxford University, Alex Rogers spoke about the results from their research.
The results are shocking...We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime... [Marine] degradation is now happening at a faster rate than predicted.. (it's a) serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level, said Rogers.
The publication will try to spark talks about governing reforms on the oceans for future preservation.  The significant growth of the coral reef's destruction threatens marine life along with the research group's call to reduce contaminating oceans with chemicals, limit over fishing, and creating more protective habitats for marine life recovery.
Issues with increase carbon emission and use of fertilizers have been significant in damaging the oceans where fish and marine life have suffered.  A fifth of the world's population depends on fish as a source of protein and the over fishing activities, due to high demand, along with unsustainable fisheries are wiping out the number of marine life.
The IPSO's presentation will be in New York later this week as the United Nations will review the results and dangerous warnings in order to discuss future plans for the survival of our world's oceans.



Solution: Lab made coral reefs 3d printed in the ocean on a massive scale, understand?

Solution to fish problem? Fish flavored cultured meat!

Can we effectively stabilize the ocean's fish population through fish farms? Or do we have to slow the amount of fish being harvested and let them repopulate?

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Cebus_capucinus

10 points · 6 years ago · edited 6 years ago

The factors effecting the ocean's ecosystems are multifactorial and fish farming only attempts to solve one of those factors: over fishing. Just for background (I don't know how much you know).

Background

Fish are renewable resource so long as we don't take more then they be can replenish - in the same way trees are renewable resource so long as we plant new ones once we chop the old ones down. Currently for many fish stocks we are harvesting and consuming them at unsustainable rates - which means we potentially and likely will run out of certain fish species. (Example: Blue Fin Tuna). They are projected to become extinct within a few years due to overfishing. We aren't letting enough fish live in order for certain species to reproduce. (i.e. we are cutting down trees without planting new ones)

The problem with fish is that the older a fish gets the more fecund it is (the more offspring it produces) but we also like to consume these fish because they are the big meaty ones. We are essentially consuming the part of the life cycle that is most important to insure the continued reproduction of a fish species. If we catch all the old fish, then what tends to happen are there are not enough baby fish being born. The funny thing is with some fish species need a certain population density to breed. Meaning, they need some amount of breeding adults to produce enough eggs and sperm so that the densities are high enough that they actually get fertilized. If we mess up stocks enough, they never recover, because they are below the threshold of recovery. For example: Atlantic Cod.

No amount of new technology will allow us to extract more from 99% of the already over exploited populations. In many ways we have hit our peak extraction rate - basically we are maxing out on what we can take out of the oceans. Moreover, reducing fish population levels actually changes the structure of the food web - species like lobster, crab and jelly fish are increasing in numbers filling in the gaps left behind by reduced fish stocks. This is a double hit 1. It makes it harder for fish stocks to recover because the niches have been filled by other species. and 2. It makes it seem like its boom time for the lobster and crabbing industries...when really we should be extra cautious about not overexploiting them in the same way. We are fishing down the food web and destroying it in the process.

Its not all doom and gloom though: Of the stocks that are doing well its usually because they are too far out (meaning that the energy required to catch them - time to go out, time to pay fisherman, gas which all add up to $) is less then what you get when you sell them at market. To make up for this loss many governments subsidize the fishing industry, meaning they pay fisherman to go out an fish even if it costs more then its worth. Sometimes stocks are doing well because they are being protected and regulated. But this often is enough to ensure that the species is not overexploited the oceans are an interconnected ecosystem. Its not like land, where there are more or less separate areas. What happens in one end of the Atlantic effects the southern end, one side of the pacific the other. So that if stalks in general are declining the very fabric of the food web is weakening, if we reduce species to levels that are practically extinct for all intents and purposes this will negatively effect our "good" stocks.

Moreover, policies put into place to day to protect fish stocks are ineffective, and we are deluding ourselves if we think otherwise. Laws and quotas that one country sets may not be the same laws and quotas that another sets - yet the fish migrate throughout both regions and are being hit twice as hard. Some examples of regulatory processes include:

1. Marine protected areas: are usually created in areas where they are of little ecological/monetary value. Sometimes they are put in areas where fish breed and this protects fish breeding habitat, and allow for the trageted fish stocks to recover and even 'spill over' into unprotected areas. But more often then not there is a very large list of other things that you can extract by various means from that place, in that they are not 100% no take zones. The protection offered by an MPA is only effective if the list of things you can extract isn't too long (preferably none) and only if this is enforced by law. The last I looked MPA's represented under 5% of the total world ocean surface. Moreover only a fraction of these are 100% no take zones, usually some sort of fishing or trapping can take place. This does not help migratory fish species or ones that breed in open water. As soon as they leave these protected areas they are allowed to be caught.
2. Max sustainable Yeild (MSY): fancy language for saying how much fish you should catch based on how big a stock is, how many fish are in each age-sex class (infant, juvenile, adult, old adult) and still make it sustainable. The biggest problem here is that there are hundreds of ways to calculate MSY and few of them actually agree with each other and most do not take into account that other predators in the sea (sharks, other fish) need to eat too. Moreover, calculating (estimating) how many fish are in each age-sex class correctly can be a nightmare - if you don't get the actually population numbers right how do you know how many you can fish?. Different countries set different limits, there is little agreeance. We also tend to think extracting 50-80% of a prey species (like fish) is sustainable, when in nature predators never exceed 20% of their prey stock, and usually they sit around 5-10%. So we are acting like 'super predators' and this is not sustainable. MSY and other calculations have proved questionable in the past, it is not a reliable way to fish sustainably.
3. Nobody is policing the oceans. So if I wanted to go out and fish the crap out of an endangered species I would have (relatively) no problem doing so. A good case: ban on whaling. Bad case: illegal whaling still continues.

More on Fish Farming

The good

• There are many kinds of fish farming which have different impacts on the environment and on the health of the fish we raise. Some are terrestrial
• Can relieve some pressure of over fishing associated with wild stocks but we really need more data on this
• Can target species you want to consume more effectively. There is a lot of by catch associated with fishing wild stocks. We are incredibly inefficient. Fish farms allow us to target species.

The Bad

• Can be a great source of disease. For example: fish lice in salmon. Because the fish farms are located near wild populations habitat the disease or the parasite can be transferred more easily to wild populations. "A 2008 meta-analysis of available data shows that salmon farming reduces the survival of associated wild salmon populations. This relationship has been shown to hold for Atlantic, steelhead, pink, chum, and coho salmon. The decrease in survival or abundance often exceeds 50 percent."
• Does not actually solve the overfishing problem because people like to eat higher up on the marine food web. I.E. you would rather eat a tuna then a jelly fish. Problem is that it takes small fish (like anchovies) to feed big fish. All we end up doing is overfishing the small guys (base of the food web) which really messes with the ecosystem and it does nothing to curb our appetite for large energetically and ecologically costly fish. More on fish feed or fish meal: "Aquaculture's heavy reliance on wild caught seed and broodstock is of increasing concern. Fishmeal and its source of raw materials and costs are highly debated by scientists and conservationists. Since fishmeal uses wild fish stock to feed farmed fish, this places direct pressure on fisheries resources. Indirect effects are also apparent such as diminishing wild fisheries, habitat modification and food web interactions."
• In some places there are not a lot of laws or regulations set up, the farmed fish you are getting could be unhealthy. Full of lice or additives like astaxanthin which dye farmed salmon pink.

• More on dye: I should note that wild salmon is pink because of its diet. In farms they do not get the same diet and so they are not as pink. People choose pink salmon because it looks better, so marketers add a synthetic compound to the salmon "feed" which makes them pink. Its not a dye injected into the salmon but it is still not "natural". More on dye.
• More on lice: "Large numbers of highly populated, open-net salmon farms can create exceptionally large concentrations of sea lice; when exposed in river estuaries containing large numbers of open-net farms, many young wild salmon are infected, and do not survive as a result"

• Under certain conditions it is as seen as in humane: "Secondly, farmed fish are kept in concentrations never seen in the wild.) with each fish occupying less room than the average bathtub". This leads to increased pollution and hurts fish when they are forced to rub up against one another. It also causes the animals to be stressed. Fish do feel pain and stress and so IMO it is inhuman to keep them in such cramped quarters. Serious regulation needs to be put in place like has been down for the cattle industry, poultry industry etc. (Not that those are perfect either).
• The use of antibiotics: "Because of parasite problems, some aquaculture operators frequently use strong antibiotic drugs to keep the fish alive (but many fish still die prematurely at rates of up to 30 percent[26]). In some cases, these drugs have entered the environment. Additionally, the residual presence of these drugs in human food products has become controversial."

Here is the article on Fish Farming. Most of my information comes from salmon fish farming which is popular in BC, Canada.

And more on Salmon

How do we fix this problem?

1. Stop trawling
2. Stop using technology that takes fish at faster rates then they can reproduce
3. Ban and enforce fishing moratoriums on endangered fish species like the blue fin tuna. Enough is enough they are nearly gone already.
4. Create and enforce larger MPA areas that are 100% no take zones.
5. Stop the bombing of coral reefs for the exotic aquaria pet trade
6. Reverse global warming to reduce stresses on coral reefs from increased CO2 (acidity) and temperatures.
7. Stop large scale agricultural fertilizers from running off into the ocean and creating dead zones
8. Stop polluting: plastics, byproducts of industry, heavy metals etc are all making their way into the marine food ecosystem. Mercury levels in fish can be quite high.

More sources

WWF: Overfishing

Greenpeace: Overfishing

Overexploitation of the sea

Book: Unatural history of the Sea

Movie: End of the line

Movie: Sharkwater (may be graphic for some)

TL;DR: Fish farming if implemented correctly may help the problem of overfishing but we need tighter regulations on how and where it is done and how these farmed fish are fed. One solution may be to farm lower on the food web - farm anchovies instead of salmon. Fish farming will not solve all the ecological problems facing the marine ecosystems.

level 1

fishstick007

Oceanography | Marine Ecology1 point · 6 years ago

There are some good examples of sustainable fish farms though, particularly species such as tilapia or catfish as they feed lower on the food chain than other commonly farmed fish such as salmon.

One more thing we can do to reduce overfishing is the over-capitalization of fish fleets. Many fleets have too many fishing vessels and when fisheries stock collapse, the government ends up subsidizing fishing efforts. If we could work towards buying out fishing vessels rather than subsidizing fisheries, we would do a much better job letting fish repopulate.

Actually, another one is the issue of loss of habitat. Marine Protected Areas in key areas that protect all aspects of the food web are a key tool to help protect fish stocks.

level 1

[deleted]

0 points · 6 years ago

Yes we are overfishing, climate change is also wreaking fish stocks as is pollution.

Fish farms aren't magic bullets either. Basically The most easy to understand reason why we have screwed future generations

Over-fishing

Today fishing is a multi-million dollar industry with hi-tech facilities that enable fishermen to explore new shores and deeper waters. To keep up with the increasing demand, fishermen are capturing fish indiscriminately, including tons of unwanted species, and at a rate that is faster than fish can reproduce. This may seem like a profitable practice, but it has serious consequence and not only affects the balance of life in the oceans, but also the social and economic well-being of the coastal communities.

SOLUTION: CULTURED FISH MEAT PRODUCED IN LARGE SCALE, QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY TO COUNTER OVERFISHING

Marine Litter                                                                                                                        

Marine litter is human-created waste that has been discharged into the coastal or marine environment; it harms ocean ecosystems, wildlife, and humans. It can injure coral reefs and bottom dwelling species and entangle or drown ocean wildlife. Some marine animals ingest the litter and choke or starve. Medical waste, sharp objects, and large pieces of litter can pose a direct threat to humans too. Ocean pollution isn’t a problem limited to one country, or even one continent. It is clear that what happens in one city can have impacts across the globe.

SOLUTION: ALREADY PROVIDED IN THIS BLOG

 

Global Warming

Oceans are one of the areas most affected by global warming. Rising air temperatures affect the oceans both chemically and physically; water becomes less dense and the nutrient-filled cold layer drops at lower depths, out of reach for a large part of marine life that counts on these nutrients for survival. This phenomenon creates a drastic chain-effect impact on natural habitats as well as on food supply and, as it is inexorably growing, with time the consequence for many species will be extinction.

SOLUTION: GLOBAL WARMING AND GLOBAL FREEZE IS A CYCLICAL PROCESS YOU CANNOT ANYTHING ABOUT IT. IF MASS EXTINCTION IS ON THE WAY, NOTHING CAN BE DONE. AWAIT NEW SPECIES IN MILLIONS OF YEARS WE'LL BE GONE.