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Post by ianh on Apr 12, 2010 11:42:34 GMT 1
Greenpeace have said that blue fin tuna are more endangered than rhino. We all know the state of cod, wild salmon etc. The Caribbean (and many other seas) are completely overfished. Fish farming is responsible for lots of environmental problems. I recently heard an American marine scientist state that she would now no longer eat any fish just as she wouldn't buy a tiger skin rug.
I love fish (and sea fishing) but have a dilemna.
What do you think?
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Post by scarlet on Apr 12, 2010 12:15:21 GMT 1
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Post by stavros on Apr 12, 2010 13:10:58 GMT 1
Georges and I were standing on a rock, fishing a bass run where there was always a chance of a fish or two on the rising tide. It was the late nineties, and yet again some enlightened fool in Paris was discussing fishing licences with quotas for rod fishermen, private citizens on rocks or beaches, or out at sea in small pleasure craft.
Out at sea, we watched two 'thonniers' with Bayonne registrations, pelagic fishing, with a huge net towed between the two, sweeping up all the fish that were in their path. They'd come up from the Atlantic to fish for bass in the English Channel. Before they'd even started their approach to Cherbourg, the crews were busily sorting the catch; about half went into ice in fish boxes, and the other half, under-sized, was thrown back into the sea. But here's the catch: the half that got thrown back was already dead, suffocated in the nets. This is inevitable when fish are dragged along in a net, unable to swim to move water through their gills.
The two boats just squeezed through the swing bridge to the fish basin by the auction sheds (thonniers are bigger than the local Cherbourg trawlers and long-line fishers) to land their catch at 'La Criée' for the morning auction. There was a glut of bass at the auction, such that the buyers who were there buying for Rungis and provincial markets were able to buy about half what was landed at just over the floor price. The other half was flogged off cheap for the fish-meal factories.
Bottom line is that only a quarter of what was taken from the sea went for human consumption, another quarter to be eventually incorporated into animal feed, and half was thrown back, dead.
Bass is a rapidly diminishing species, and Georges, who is quite sharp with statistics, estimated that those two sole vessels, during their ten day campaign off the Nord Cotentin coast, caught more bass than all the rod & line fishermen in France - Med, Atlantic, and Channel - in a whole year.
Georges was a three-ringer then, piloting a French Navy helicopter, and one of his roles was to video professional fishing vessels that might have been committing an offence... this on behalf of the "Affaires Maritimes". These worthies were always ready to fine a hobby fisherman for a bass that measured 31cm instead of 32cm, but rather less active with the professionals (until the Navy started supplying hard evidence).
And these incorruptible civil servants always had bass, or lobster, or... on their tables!
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Post by blu on Apr 12, 2010 16:11:43 GMT 1
Blue Fin is not the regular tuna that we eat from tins in the supermarket. It is mainly the Sushi restaurants that purchase this type of fish.
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Post by danceswithruskies on Apr 12, 2010 18:04:10 GMT 1
Used to catch lots of big yellowfin tuna from my fishing boats in Grenada and a lot of them went for export to America and some to Japan too... but most of the tinned tuna you buy in supermarkets and in tins are the smaller more numerous species of tuna like skipjack etc...
Now if I could just get a few tuna steaks like I used to bring home to eat!!! one of them would feed at least 10 people and some to spare ..yum yum ..
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Post by danceswithruskies on Apr 18, 2010 13:29:57 GMT 1
Just put your fingertips together and then make the arms into a circle--- yeap--like that and sometimes bigger and maybe about 6/10 cms thick... mmmmmmmm
sorry was chatting to my daughter about fishing and stuff and the thoughts of these LITTLE chomping steaks just came back to haunt me hahah
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