Ocean bushmeat

Most of us have seen the pictures, some of the world's most endangered animals being sold in markets across Africa as bushmeat. Gorillas, chimps, monkeys, wild cats, no animal is safe from this destructive trade.

Logging in areas of pristine tropical forest has created a network of new roads which give hunters easy access to prey in parts of Africa that may previously have taken weeks to reach.

Suprisingly perhaps, a similar situation can be found in markets across the US, Europe and Asia. Instead of gorilla, chimp and serval you will find grouper, tuna and cod. Instead of logging companies you will find equally ruthless commercial fishing companies who's hunters are the bluewater trawlers and longliners.

How can you compare a grouper with a gorilla? Well according to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) there are three species of grouper that are critically endangered (calico, goliath and black) one level higher than the endangered mountain gorilla.

It seems that we are quite happy to tuck into an endangered marine animal whilst reeling in horror at the barbarity of the African bushmeat trade. Well, here's a warning. That monkfish you had for dinner last night is the bushmeat of the ocean, once plentiful, but now a rare and endangered wild animal.

Krill catching on

As populations of once plentiful pelagic fish become exhausted many of the boats equipped to fish for these species are unfortunately starting to turn their attention to krill. Krill are a shrimp like animal that are said to represent the largest biomass on earth and are key to the health of the marine environment.

Krill fishing briefly peaked in the 1980's when the Soviet Union caught 500,000 tonnes per year but declined significantly with the fall of communism. However with severely over-exploited fish stocks and an increasing demand for fish oils and feed for the aquaculture industry the krill fishery is expected to boom in the next few years.

Companies like Aker BioMarine are developing new technology that can deliver a stream of live krill onto a vessel and is converting more vessels for krill catching, alongside its existing Saga Sea. The company says it will be able to catch 200,000 tonnes of krill a year in the near future and it is reckoned that catches could rise to one percent of the total biomass of krill, or five million tonnes a year if the total was 500 million tonnes.

Scientists say little is known about krill stocks and as a keystone marine species - they are the favoured food of whales, penguins, fish and seabirds - large scale exploitation could have dire consequences for the entire marine ecosystem.

Where have all the sandeels gone?

Most people accept that the North Sea has been subjected to the most appalling overfishing. Whitefish stocks, such as cod and haddock, have collapsed and the mackerel and herring fisheries are all but commercially extinct.

Under normal circumstances the removal of whole rafts of large predatory fish would allow room for species such as sandeel, the favoured prey species of these fish, to increase their numbers dramatically, but this is not the case.

And why is this? The sandeel fishery has now become by far the biggest single-species fishery in the North Sea, with landings accounting for one-third of all fish landed. The vast majority of this catch is landed and processed in Denmark. Such fundamental changes in the fabric of the marine ecosystem are what ecologists refer to as 'fishing down the food web'.

Since 1977, total yearly North Sea sandeel catches have fluctuated around 600,000-800,000 tonnes, but since 2003 catches have crashed dramatically to between 200,000-300,000 tonnes. The collapse of the fishery was particularly severe in the Norwegian economical zone with a 95% reduction in landings in 2005.

You will not have eaten a sandeel knowingly (unwittingly perhaps as a fish-oil supplement), so what exactly are sandeels used for? The sandeel is an exceptionally oily fish and is harvested for the rapidly expanding fish-oil and fish-meal industries and used in everything from food for farmed salmon to animal feed and health supplements. At one stage sandeels were even used to fuel Danish power stations. And demand is set to increase.

Recent forecasts by the FAO (UN Food & Agriculture Organisation) indicate that aquaculture and its insatiable appetite for fish-oil, will dominate world fish supplies by 2030, fuelling pressure for a high level of industrial sandeel fishing in the North Sea. It takes, for example, 4kg of wild caught sandeel to produce 1kg of farmed salmon.

This does not bode well for the marine species in the North Sea that depend on sandeels for food. Many scientists and ecologists believe that the recent disastrous breeding seasons for many of Europe's seabird colonies can be directly linked to the industrial fishing of sandeels in the North Sea.

As early as 1997, two respected Danish fisheries scientists - Henrik Gislason and Eskild Kirkegaard - were highly critical of the North Sea sandeel fishery, and they concluded that "it cannot be ruled out that (sandeel) fishing could adversely effect the breeding success of the birds. It would therefore be precautionary to close areas to fishing until more is known about sandeel stock structure and interactions between sandeels and seabirds". And a report published by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES) suggests that "the amount of industrial fish species taken by fishermen in the North Sea appears to leave little for seabirds and marine mammals".

It would not be unreasonable then to suggest that the overfishing of sandeel stocks may represent the single greatest threat to seabirds in the North Sea, especially in the breeding season when seabirds forage close to their colonies.

And it is not only the seabirds that are suffering. Studies into the diet of common dolphins, grey seals and harbour porpoises in Scottish waters have shown that they feed mainly on sandeels in the spring and early summer. The affects on these species if they cannot find sandeels to eat at this time of year can be disastrous. For example, spring is a critical time for dolphins and porpoises in terms of energy requirements. Some of the lowest sea temperatures occur in the North Sea in March, putting a great strain on dolphins and porpoises as they require the thickest blubber layer to limit heat loss at this time. In addition young animals are weaned and become independent foragers in spring, placing them at the mercy of changes in sandeel availability.

Ironically the long-term overfishing of sandeels in the North Sea may also inhibit a return to the former healthy status of predatory fish stocks such as cod and haddock, as these stocks can only recover if there are sufficient prey fish for them to feed upon. This is what ecologists refer to as a 'negative feedback loop', a vicious circle of exploitation that renders an ecosystem incapable of a recovery to anywhere near its former productivity.

It may not yet be too late however, but our attitudes and tolerance to an industry that has got perilously close to destroying the very fabric of the North Sea must change dramatically. No longer can we view the commercial fishing industry with the romantic notion of hard working fishermen risking everything to put fish on our plates. It must now be seen for what it is, a ruthless, efficient, hi-tech industry of destruction that is prepared to wipe out whole species for profit with almost no long-term consideration for the health of the marine environment.

Seal cull shames Scotland

1,340 grey and common seals may have been shot in Scotland to protect farmed salmon and wild salmon fisheries in 2011. The quota for 2012 is 1,100. It beggars belief that there has been so little outrage about this completely unnecessary slaughter.

The reason for this hugely damaging cull may lie in the Scottish psyche. Scotland has traditionally been reliant on the sea, and seals are classed as pests by many Scottish people. The relatively new £500 million farmed salmon industry is seen as a Scottish success story and the seals are a victim of an over-protective attitude to anybody who provides a job in remote areas.

This attitude is short-sighted to say the least. What should be realised is that 'nature tourism' is worth £1.4 billion to the Scottish economy annually, and seeing a seal will be top of the wish list of most visitors. The quickest way to see an end to this cull would be if the Scottish Government and people felt that tourism could be threatened by the killing of seals.

The crying shame is that this cull needn't take place. In 1990 the 'dolphin safe' label was introduced by the US Dept. of Commerce and has spread so successfully around the world that it is now almost universally accepted that you make canned tuna as cetacean friendly as possible. Salmon farming could just as easily do the same for seals.

Scotland has ample history to learn from. Seals are being culled for the same reason that made the wolf extinct in the 17th century (to protect livestock), and Scottish otters are still reeling from when they were killed in their thousands to protect wild salmon and trout. Thankfully otters have since received full protection and are recovering.

It is time to stop the cull. The seal is Scotland's largest wild predator and millions of people will pay good money to see them alive and in their natural environment. The reputation of Scotland is at stake here, and the current seal cull shames Scotland and the Scottish people.

The demise of sharks

Whilst watching 'Warship' on Channel Five (UK) recently the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean was forced to stop in Malaysian waters to recover a dead body. The body had obviously been in the water for some time as it was badly decomposed.

This got me thinking. Aren't Malaysian waters meant to be shark infested? If so what was a dead body doing floating around long enough to decompose?

Sharks are not only predators, they are also the scavengers of the sea, cleaning up all the dead and dying, keeping the ocean healthy. Was this yet another sign that sharks are becoming increasingly rare due to overfishing?

I recalled in my mind the USS Indianapolis incident. In 1945 whilst on a top secret mission to deliver parts for the atomic bomb she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and 900 of her 1200 crew succumbed to attacks by sharks or drowned.

If the Indianapolis was to undergo this fate in 2009, it is possible that the last thing that her crew would need to worry about would be an attack by a shark - there just aren't enough sharks left.

'Shark infested' may well be a term that passes into history as we move into the next decade.