future of seafood?

gogofast

gogofast

Addicted Member
i'm pretty sure everyone is aware of not only the issues of radiation contamination of the pacific ocean, but the acidification process that's been happening for years now. living here in the northwest, maybe we're little more sensitive to these issues. i work with a lot of people involved in seafood industry and often hear alarming statistics and other information that's quite hard to believe sometimes. we're beginning to really feel the economical impact now.

i just wanted to see what people thought about these issues. are you worried? are you eating less seafood? do you think we're misinformed?
 
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Unfortunately people would need to look for a new line of work if the world wants fish stocks to recover. (Not the answer many wish to hear)

Take care,

Rob
 
Not so. The Atlantic codfish was nearly extinct twenty years ago. Careful conservation by commercial fishermen have brought it back to the point where they're still scarce, but no longer endangered.
 
I have drastically cut back on my seafood consumption, which has been challenging for me because I am otherwise a strict vegetarian (though not vegan). I've cut back for two main reasons: 1) the state of ocean fisheries is abysmal. The fishing stocks are so depleted that I fear that the entire ocean ecosystem is on the verge of collapse, which would spell disaster for a lot more than the out-of-work fishermen. 2) there is so much pollution in the water (radioactivity as well as chemical and heavy metal pollution) that eating fish is no longer the healthy thing to do. Farmed fish are even worse, and don't get me started on the impending introduction of GMO salmon.

Of all this, it is the overfishing that has me most concerned.
 
gogofast said:
i'm pretty sure everyone is aware of not only the issues of radiation contamination of the pacific ocean...
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If so, everyone is wrong.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-...tive-fukushima-fish-us-dont-be-scientists-say

You probably get more radiation in your unventilated basement mancave in over half the country than you would from eating Pacific seafood once a week.

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Robinhawaii said:
Unfortunately people would need to look for a new line of work if the world wants fish stocks to recover. (Not the answer many wish to hear)

Take care,

Rob[/QUOTE


Recover? I doubt that we would see anything like this happening in my opinion. Some countries wouldn't participate and any type of recover attempt. The big concern right now should be Fukushima.
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wrbear said:
Robinhawaii said:
Unfortunately people would need to look for a new line of work if the world wants fish stocks to recover. (Not the answer many wish to hear)

Take care,

Rob[/QUOTE


Recover? I doubt that we would see anything like this happening in my opinion. Some countries wouldn't participate and any type of recover attempt. The big concern right now should be Fukushima.
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I agree, Fukushima is a huge problem that remains hidden by the corporate media mafia.
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The threat of overfishing far exceeds the dangers posed to ocean fisheries by Fukushima. Not even close, actually.
 
My gut feel is that Finnbow is correct regarding the impact of the radioactivity in the ocean, however the impact of Fukushima on the people of Japan and the enormity of the issues involved in getting the thing under control should be front and center. This is especially important in light of the continued push for nuclear power generation despite the extreme dangers involved. I recall having discussions here and at PoliticalChat while the events were unfolding, and the mantra of "it's impossible..." was continuously heard from the pro-nuke folks. The reality is probably worse than even the biggest pessimist had feared.
 
JonL said:
My gut feel is that Finnbow is correct regarding the impact of the radioactivity in the ocean, however the impact of Fukushima on the people of Japan and the enormity of the issues involved in getting the thing under control should be front and center....
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Indeed. My post was in reaction to the hair-on-fire nature of the OP regarding the impact of Fukushima on the US West Coast seafood.

FWIW, modern science understands more about the toxicity of ionizing radiation than virtually any other industrial substance/byproduct. We have been studying Japanese bomb survivors, South Pacific Island residents, downwinders from Hanford and the Nevada test site, and uranium miners for over a half century. In contrast, we know very little or nothing about the toxicity of thousands of industrial chemicals. For example, we know next to nothing about the toxicity of the chemical spilled recently in West Virginia's Elk River.

It's real easy to fire people up about radiation because it's invisible, can be made into big bombs, and the general public (outside the scientific community) understand so little about it.
 
Ocean acidification is positively correlated to CO2. No doubt, industry has contributed to the current spike but haven't historical CO2 levels been much higher for much longer periods of time? What happened with ocean acidification then? I think the planet has a way of dealing with CO2 and ocean acidification. We could trigger the next Ice Age much faster than intended. The last Ice Age ended not too long ago and when it returns and it will, the planet will restore the balance.
 
I just heard on the radio tonight, a small fish company in Vancouver had some independent tests done on Salmon and it came back A-OK. I'm more worried about GMO's, industrial chemicals, antibiotics, etc. poisoning my food supply than a I am a little radiation from Japan.

Interesting story about the recent chemical spill in VA. Nobody even knew what levels of exposure were acceptable in drinking water. Yet they gave the go-ahead that it was safe to drink?
 
hypertone said:
I just heard on the radio tonight, a small fish company in Vancouver had some independent tests done on Salmon and it came back A-OK. I'm more worried about GMO's, industrial chemicals, antibiotics, etc. poisoning my food supply than a I am a little radiation from Japan.

Interesting story about the recent chemical spill in VA. Nobody even knew what levels of exposure were acceptable in drinking water. Yet they gave the go-ahead that it was safe to drink?
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The same applies to tens of thousands of other industrial chemicals. There is a certain rationale for not having established a threshold limit in drinking water for chemicals that have no business whatsoever in drinking water. There are 85,000 industrial chemicals in use and it would impossible to come up with a number that has any real meaning. Accordingly, many such limits are pretty much arbitrary and set by educated guesswork. FWIW, there have only been 5 substances banned due to health or environmental concerns -polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin, hexavalent chromium, asbestos and chlorofluorocarbons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/sunday-review/think-those-chemicals-have-been-tested.html
 
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As a consumer and a chef, radiation of seafood is the least of my worries. I'm more concerned about the supply and sustainability.
 
Wasn't it Norway that shut off certain parts of their waters for 20 years from industrial fishing to see what happened?

What happened is that the numbers of fish skyrocketed.

Seems we could farm raise fish in a more productive manner. Doesn't tilapia reproduce at an amazing rate? How about finding a way to cook those damn asian carp? Cause tilapia is a carp, I think.

Anyway, in 3 billion years, the Andromeda Galaxy will be here, and then things will get interesting.
 
finnbow said:
The same applies to tens of thousands of other industrial chemicals. There is a certain rationale for not having established a threshold limit in drinking water for chemicals that have no business whatsoever in drinking water. There are 85,000 industrial chemicals in use and it would impossible to come up with a number that has any real meaning. Accordingly, many such limits are pretty much arbitrary and set by educated guesswork. FWIW, there have only been 5 substances banned due to health or environmental concerns -polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin, hexavalent chromium, asbestos and chlorofluorocarbons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/sunday-review/think-those-chemicals-have-been-tested.html
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Corexit? (sp)....how many gallons got pumped into the gulf of mexico? where did it go? What was it? The crab i ate last week was fresh caught and tasty! Salmon too...
There is no away, humans should be a bit more careful, IMHO.
 
We gots plenty of Asian Carp invading the Great Lakes region, you all are welcome to the little bastards...

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.dew.
 
Probably most will be farm raised soon. Around here just about all our talapia. swai, flounder, bass, perch, shrimp, etc.....are farm raised.
 
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