Monday, October 16, 2006

Japan Proves Tories Wrong

Canada refuses to support the deep sea trawler ban not because of fisher interests, but because of processors who buy their stock from these bulldozers of the sea. As reported here both Hearn and his Newfoundland counterpart say that the deep sea trawlers have done limited damage to fish stocks. For them there is lots of sea left to hoover.

So explain this then...

Japan Admits Exceeding Bluefin Tuna Quota; 'An Horrendous Overcatch'

The Japanese overcatch was uncovered by Australian industry figures who scrutinised publicly available market documents. On a 6000 tonne national annual quota, Japan had been taking between 12,000 and 20,000 tonnes - severely damaging the fishery.

A report by the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin found Japan illegally caught up to $6 billion worth of fish.

If Japan had stuck to its quota, the fish stock would now be five times larger. Japan's quota has been halved to 3000 tonnes a year.


Or this.....Tiny, innumerable, threatened

Now, a new generation of technologically sophisticated factory trawlers has arrived, using vacuuming pumps to suck huge quantities of krill continuously out of the water.One such vessel is expected to take in 100,000 metric tons of krill during the 2005-2006 southern summer fishing season, and may be capable of "hoovering up" as much as 120,000 metric tons each season. Other ships of similar capacity are bound to appear, ultimately threatening the health of the entire ecosystem, unless careful safeguards are quickly put in place.


If we had a deep sea trawler ban then nonee of this would not have happened.

In 2004, the General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution urging nations to consider temporary bans on bottom trawling. Japan, Iceland, Spain and other nations whose fishing fleets do much of the world's bottom trawling opposed a larger moratorium.


See:

Bottom Feeders


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