Ecological disaster as 300,000 farmed salmon lost?

Over 300,000 farmed salmon have been 'lost' by Meridian Salmon when 12 salmon cages broke loose in Shetland on Christmas Day.

A spokesman for Meridian said “It’s important to make a distinction between fish loss and fish escape. Over 300,000 adult Atlantic salmon were involved in the incident, but it remains unclear whether an escape of live farmed fish did occur or whether the fish died during the incident.”

Which means that there is a strong possibility that 300,000 farmed salmon are swimming about in the North Atlantic creating havoc in the marine ecosystem.

Why we need to be worried

When farmed salmon escape they can interact with wild salmon causing significant changes in the wild salmon stocks during ten salmon generations (about 40 years). In rivers with a high number of escaped farmed salmon it appears that the population is gradually dominated by the offspring of farmed and hybrids of salmon. Even after many decades without new escapes, it is possible that these populations will be dominated by descendants of escaped farmed fish.

Other consequences:

• Farmed fish have lower genetic variation than wild fish.

• Farmed fish hybridise with wild fish.

• The fitness of wild populations is reduced by immigration of farmed fish.

• Escaped farmed fish destroy, and compete with wild fish for spawning beds.

• The progeny of escaped farmed fish out-compete wild fish in the competition for resources in the river, both as fry and as parr.

• Farmed salmon increase the hybridisation between salmon and trout

• The size and fitness of the populations of salmon stocks will be reduced if the percentage of farmed salmon continues to be high.

The extinction of sharks

We got over the demise of the dodo, the passenger pigeon and even the Chinese river dolphin, but will we ever get over the upcoming possible extinction of sharks?

Conservative estimates reckon that between 30 to 70 million sharks are killed annually in commercial and recreational fisheries, and some conservation organisations put that figure closer to 100 million.

Sharks are killed for a whole manner of reasons, their meat is used for food, fins for soup, cartilage in health supplements, livers for oil, skin for leather and teeth for curios, some are even killed for the sheer pleasure of it.

And demand is increasing. As whitefish stocks have collapsed previously unprofitable shark fisheries have become commercially viable and shark meat more acceptable.

Even in the most optimistic of scenarios this slaughter cannot be sustained. Sharks do not produce huge numbers of eggs like other fish, their young are either born live or in egg cases and the average brood is only about 12 pups.

Sharks first appeared on earth some 400 million years ago, before land vertebrates and before many plants had colonised continents. Modern sharks, such as the mako and the porbeagle, are regarded as living unchanged for 100 million years. The oldest great white shark teeth date from about 65 million years ago, around the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The fact that present-day sharks have not changed substantially for the last 100 million years suggests that they may have attained a level of evolutionary perfection that is unmatched by any other animal. And yet during the last 20 years alone humans have done more harm to sharks than had been done in the previous 100 million years, with some species of shark declining by 90%. It would be sadly ironic that having survived the extinction of the dinosaurs sharks may well disappear from this planet for the sake of shark-fin soup.

Humans have been responsible for the extinction of a single species of animal in the past but never have a whole class been endangered as we see with sharks. In barely the time it has taken to set up and establish a cohesive shark conservation strategy we are in danger of losing one of the most iconic and evocative animals this planet has ever known.

Shark fishing is mostly unregulated and conservation measures have been too slow in coming, but we can act now individually. If you see a Chinese restaurant selling shark fin soup, a health food shop selling shark supplements, a shop selling shark meat, or a media piece showing a 'sports' fisherman with his dead shark trophy, take five minutes of your time to tell them that this is totally unacceptable.

An ocean would not be an ocean without sharks, and as an apex predator they are crucial to the marine ecosystem. Yet the current situation for sharks couldn't really be much worse I'm afraid. We are on the brink of watching the extinction of a whole class of animal that the world cannot afford to lose this time.

Shark protection is finally gaining some momentum

There have been some small but significant developments recently in the fight to save sharks from possible extinction. Let's hope that it's a sign of more to come and that it is not too little too late.

Conservative estimates reckon that between 30 and 70 million sharks are killed annually in commercial and recreational fisheries, and some conservation organisations put that figure closer to 100 million.

Sharks are killed for a whole manner of reasons, their meat is used for food, fins for soup, cartilage in health supplements, livers for oil, skin for leather and teeth for curios, some are even killed just for the sheer pleasure of it.

Some species of pelagic shark such as the oceanic whitetip, blue, porbeagle and mako, have been pushed to the brink of extinction. As they travel the world's oceans they are susceptible to capture, particularly by longline fishing.

However, there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. The Pacific island nation of Palau recently declared that they would be creating a marine reserve for sharks. The sanctuary covers the full 230,000 sq miles of Palau's Economic Exclusion Zone, which stretches 200 miles out from its coasts. Within this region, all commercial shark fishing is banned. Previously, protection measures existed but certain levels of shark-fishing were allowed.

The Maldives in the Indian Ocean have also vowed to stop commercial fishing for sharks in its waters by 2010.

In the USA, a group calling themselves Shark Free Marinas was set up in 2008 to encourage marinas to operate a strictly catch & release policy for the shark fishing boats that operate from them.

Shark protection is also getting more support from celebrities such as January Jones from the HBO smash hit Mad Men, and a video featuring Olympic double gold medalist Amanda Beard has been released.

Even in Asia there is growing unrest over the practice of shark finning, most notably the Hong Kong based shark conservation website Shark Rescue.

In the Philippines the latest issue of Healthy Options Lifestyle Newsdigest is encouraging consumers to support eco-friendly habits rather than unwittingly supporting environmentally damaging practices like shark finning.

Unfortunately the shark conservation message isn't yet getting across to a wide enough audience, only last week in Florida, USA, a mature 750lb mako shark was gaffed from a boat, just for the fun of it apparently.

And whilst this kind of mindless slaughter of sharks is allowed to continue (and attract uncritical media coverage - the LA Times was an exception) sharks, and the people who want to protect them, still have a huge battle ahead.

RSPB risks all on climate-change policy

The RSPB have gone on record as saying they will not oppose windfarms, despite the fact that their primary concern should be the welfare of birds, and windfarms and birds clearly don't mix.

They also believe, quite wrongly in my opinion, that it is climate change not overfishing that is starving our seabirds. (See 'Is the RSPB failing seabirds?' and 'Where have all the sandeels gone?' below).

I assume that the RSPB believe climate change to be such a threat to birdlife that overfishing and windfarms are the lesser of two evils?

This is an extremely high-risk strategy to take and if they are wrong, and the policies they pursue fail, the countryside will be littered with wind turbines and overfishing will have killed all our seabirds.

My problem does not stem from whether or not climate change exists but that in the RSPB's efforts to combat it much more pressing issues will be ignored.

The UK government is in a similar dilemma, they compel me to buy a certain type of lightbulb but they subsidise the buying of new cars and cannot protect the rainforests or implement marine reserves.

Surely, prior to tackling the minutiae of climate change, governments and NGO's should demonstrate an ability to adequately tackle grossly overlooked environmental concerns like overfishing before they can convince us that they will be able to make any impression on a warming planet?

Accidental death of huge marlin must call sportfishing into question

This recent article in the LA Times about a huge 865lb blue marlin that died, possibly from heart failure, whilst a sportfisherman attempted to fight and land it will disturb marine life lovers the world over.

Massive blue marlin are now so rare as to be threatened with extinction. Ninety percent of all large predatory fish like this one have disappeared from our oceans due to overfishing and to see a mature, possibly breeding female, hanging upside down on dry land breaks my heart.

I appreciate that this angler would have released this magnificent animal had it not died, but surely we must now ask ourselves that if the marlin is so stressed by the ordeal that it dies from it should we not now consider stopping harassing these beautiful animals in the name of sport?

Lions, tigers and most other endangered large land predators stopped having to endure an early death in the name of sport many decades ago, surely it is now time to include iconic and rare predatory marine fish in that decision?

The world's ocean has reached crisis point

There are alternatives to the way we treat the marine environment, but they require a change in the way we think and act. Land conservation had its period of enlightenment in the 1950’s and 60’s and it is now long overdue for the world’s ocean to command equal resources and focus. The world’s ocean is unique, and should be treated as such; it hides the damage humans do to it, and hides it so well that it may be too late to do anything by the time we fully realise the extent of our stupidity.

If we take the current rate of over-exploitation of the ocean to its natural conclusion (in about 2050), 71% of earth will be a biological desert, save for a few billion jellyfish. We must wake up to this fact, and we must act now.

Stopping the loss of species and ecosystems is essential but not sufficient. The goal should be to ensure that animals do not become endangered in the first place. This means keeping not only the parts of an ecosystem, but also the processes that generate and maintain the parts.

Saving the planet is not a luxury that can be left to someone else. It requires all of us to make fundamental changes. At present, individuals and corporations are free to act until it is proven that their actions are harmful. This needs to be changed. Commercial fisheries, the oil and gas industry, mining companies, developers, and others must be made to prove that their activities are not harmful to the world’s ocean before engaging in them.

Public education needs to be stepped up significantly too, and this can be done relatively quickly if the conservation sector educates the mass-media first. It should no longer be acceptable for the media to scream ‘shark attack’, or killing game fish for sport to be seen as something to be proud of. In other words, wild marine animals should be afforded the same treatment as wild animals on land. Only then will marine animal consumption go down.

Whichever way you look at it, the world’s ocean has reached crisis point and much more action is needed if we are to avert a global catastrophe. Some people say that humans are at their best when faced with dire choices, that they only act decisively when they are on the precipice of such a catastrophe; well that time has come for the world’s ocean. If only humans had evolved the ability to breath underwater, this message probably wouldn’t be taking such a dangerously long time to sink in.

China threatens the entire marine ecosystem

China has the largest fishing fleet in the world at around 300,000 vessels, employing nearly eight million people, and accounts for one-third of the world's reported fish production. Chinese boats land over 17 million tonnes of marine-life annually for human consumption.

With a population of 1.3 billion people that consume 25.8 kg of fish per annum (nearly twice the world average) and an appetite for high-status dishes comprised of endangered marine species such as abalone and shark-fin soup, it is hard to imagine a greater threat to the health of our oceans. (Chinese emperors loved shark fin soup and abalone because it was expensive, rare, tasty and difficult to prepare. The dishes are now served at weddings to show appreciation to their guests and as a show of respect and honour).

With commercial fish stocks in local waters severely depleted China’s distant water fleet now comprises of about 2,000 vessels. These boats receive subsidies to encourage them to leave coastal waters and 300 Chinese vessels have been sighted off West Africa at any one time. Instead of catching high-end fish like tuna they target smaller species like mackerel, the staple fish of local African fishermen.

This has led to accusations of Chinese fishing vessels worsening Africa’s food crisis and threatening the livelihood of poor African fishermen. Others blame the emergence of pirates in Somali waters on the depletion of fish caused by Chinese overfishing.

China’s illegal fishing has also triggered tension with other countries. Indonesia in June seized eight Chinese fishing vessels and detained 75 Chinese fishermen for illegally fishing in Indonesian waters. Korea this year has seized some 150 Chinese fishing vessels for illegal fishing.

With China's rapacious appetite for eating marine-life, a status based social structure, and a rapidly expanding middle-class population that already stands at around 80 million, the future for our global marine ecosystem looks increasingly bleak.