View Full Version : fish depletion - sooo disapointing
trueblue
22-04-2011, 04:21 PM
I was at a local market in southern asia, and looked through the fish section as I always do to see what the local fish are. baby tilapia,baby snakehead,baby basa, baby ordinary catfish, tiny whiting, loads of yakkas and slimy mackeral, tiny spotted mackeral, baby tunas etc, etc. I asked where the big fish were, and they said "none left, can't find". then one person pointed me to a different and not so easy to see location...
There, I saw some giant mekong catfish flesh, which was bad enough due to the severe depletion of the species in the mekong river. apparently the flesh isn't even any good naturally, they have to run it through a press to make it palatable, but its a hot item at the market.
but THEN, I found containers of giant mekong catfish roe eggs, containers and containers of them - and dirt cheap. about 350 grams for less than $3 a tub.
the market people told me "buy quick, not much supply"... rare as rocking horse sh!t, but they are not even capitalising with increased prices - they are ok with it being gone when its gone
these eggs are massive for fish eggs, between 7 and 10mm diameter each.
such a shame to see that such a majestic and depleted species is being hammered to extinction in asia - they will just keep selling till its gone
now what really sh!ts me is that whenever our green comrades in Aus finish wrecking our fishing industry completely and make it non viable to have an Australian seafood industry - we will be importing more and more fish into Australia from asia - and putting more and more pressure on all species over here where no one gives a sh!t - no regulation, up to the individual how much they take.
we must ensure we maintain a sustainable fishing industry in Australia to reduce pressure on imports from overseas - and this means that greens have to back off and allow australia to maintain a solid fishing industry, where fishing operators of all types can stay in business and flourish in a sustainable manner
otherwise - we simply over regulate ourselves to the immediate detriment of our entire australian fishing industry, and also the total devastation of neighbour countries fish resources
theoldlegend
23-04-2011, 06:12 AM
Couldn't agree more True Blue.
Was in my local Woolies on Thursday (along with 5000 others) and was checking out the fish they had there.
Of course they had the good ol' basa and Nile perch, not that anybody would want to buy that crap, but also a lot of other stuff from interstate and some from New Zealand. Where was the Queensland stuff? Dunno.
For years the Greens have been agitating to reduce the fish take in Australian waters, so much so that shortly Australia will be come a net importer of fish.
Makes me really angry.
TOL
Lucky_Phill
23-04-2011, 07:39 AM
I think we have just recently stepped over that " net importer " line TOL.
1. Australia has the most heavily regulated commercial and recreational fishing industries in the world.
2. Australia's fish stocks are not only sustainable, but immense.
3. Australia used to and in some cases still does, allow ( pitiful payment by way of permit ) foreign vessels to ply our waters and pillage our fish stocks.
4. The worlds oceans are hit by commercial fishers at a rate of 6,000kgs plus per sq kilometer, Australia's rate is 9kgs per sq kilometer in our oceans.
5. I firmly believe that imported fish will, given time, produce adverse affects on consumers, health wise. It may not happen this year or next, but long term consuming of these non regulated, farmed cesspit creatures will impact on our health, similar to things like Asbestosis, Lead Poisoning, Ciguatura and more problems that " build up " over time.
6. Fish, with all it's benefits to our society that include health, should be held in higher esteem than currently defined. It is a sad reflection on our " free trade agreements", that we export our prime Beef, Fish etc and we get left ( commercially ) with the leftovers / second class.
THIS is why recreational fishing is so important to our whole society. WE still can supply our family with a fresh, healthy and sustainable food source, despite being heavily regulated to ensure the longevity of the species and the industry.
Why are promoters of healthy lifestyles investing their strategies in " home grown vegetables ", " solar energy ", " recycling "..... and NONE being aimed at a lifestyle that provides the purest fresh food source, social and family interaction, health and well-being as well as pouring $'s into the local economy ?
Recreational fishing is what I am talking about, of course. There is no other pass-time / hobby that will encompass all of the above. There is NO down side to Recreational fishing in Australia.
Regards
LP.
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johncar
24-04-2011, 09:20 AM
Well human population is increasing at a scary rate, and our wild marine life is being scoured for food, pretty obvious.
Man is just too effective a hunter these days with the massive amount of technology and arsenal of devices at hand for the oceans to stand any chance.
Massive ships hauling massive catches all over the oceans from all nationalities, huge trawlers working the coastal areas, bays rivers and creeks and yeah they will all blame someone else when it is all gone. It sickens me to see those huge ships holds with hundreds of tons of wild fish.
Things clearly have to change but unfortunately most people over the world acually don't give a s$%t about the pressure on the wild fish so long as they have something in their stomachs. Basically 90% of humans wouldn't know or care what is happening.
I believe that we in Australia should be very protective of our wild fish and marine life and do whatever possible to reduce heavy commercial pressure on the natural resource in favour of local farming or imported farming to feed the non fishing masses. Rec fishing may need some sensible regulation but it is not even
one blip on the radar compared to the commercial damage.
If I have to buy commercially supplied prawns or fish I am now making a conscious decision to buy a farmed product over wild even though I know that the wild is a better food in most cases. I won't buy Moreton bay caught wild prawns at all.
I am a Rec fisher and although it may seem seem selfish and somewhat hypocritical I will do what I can to protect this activity and pastime in a responsible and sustainable way.
I will never believe that it is possible for responsible Rec fishing to significantly threaten in any way wild fish stocks when you consider all the limitations that time, weather, and limited opportunity bring, not to mention the method being a hook on the end of a piece of string. A thousand of us wouldn't do the harm of one net haul of one trawler or beach net.
So for those who think that it is their right to catch or eat a commercially caught fish regardless of where it came from and the destruction of the wild resource will have to face the reality soon anyway.
For anyone who thinks that our local fish stocks are healty is kidding themselves. If you are a young fellow and not been around long well you may have little to compare to but I have Rec fished this area as a 5 year old kid with my dad and 50 years later it is in my eyes in severe decline and nothing, nothing like what it was.
Didn't need a sounder or GPS to find good spots, you could just about drop a line anywhere and catch great fish. You could drop 1 crab pot in a fill it.
Greed and overfishing, pollution and other human activity has destroyed what we had just in my short time and my rant today is just to say things need to change and Rec fishing needs to be a part of our lives and protected and a better solution found to feed the people who don't want to get their feet wet and just want to buy it by the tons off the shelves.
oldboot
25-04-2011, 03:53 PM
The problem with almost all "green" polocy is that in spite of talking the talk about "the future" is very short sighted.
Mostly it comes down to Not In My Back yard.......so called local "Green Initiatives" simply relocate the environmental preasure to unregulated locations than can least withstand it.
Try to get a local fish farming initiative up and going and the local greenies jump on it a beat it to death with out any further view.
Remember too. there is a very large portion of the Green lobby that have a vegetarian outlook......that in its self is short sighted pussy & puppy thinking.
Thing about all those extra green house gasses that are generated with all that extra refrigeration and transport required to import inferiour overseas fish.
cheers
Dignity
26-04-2011, 01:15 PM
Trueblue, I raised similar concerns a couple of months back
http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=173125&highlight=Vietnam unfortunately the residents are so poor that they dont understand the concept of "Tomorrow" and until that changes there will be no fish stocks left in SE Asia in particular. 3 inch crabs were being caught and sold to the markets, and I watched 3 inch bony bream being taken for consumption. What amazed me though was that the mantis shrimp seemed to be in good supply in these areas.
oldboot
26-04-2011, 01:58 PM
Ya got that right.
We have a whole pile of scientists and greenies in the " civilised world" that are soo focused on the far distant future, and worried about our children's children and leaving an inheritance.
Where most of the second and third world are worried about what they will eat TODAY, most of them will have little or no concept of a future that extends past a couple of years.
I realy wonder what they would make of our rich, comfortable, well fed environmental activists and their massive green zones and ecotourism.
These people would not even know what a holiday was.
cheers
frenzy
30-04-2011, 09:50 PM
Ive been living in the midle east for just over 2 years and they have no size or bag limits in place whatsoever.
Have been on charters here where they encourage you to keep red throat of any size,(I have bigger goldfish) and when I am releasing them the skipper gets angry and tells me they dont get any bigger(wonder why). They tell me if I dont want them they will give them to people they know, i said they will have to come and take their own undersize fish cause they are not eating mine. This is the mentality in other parts of the world. It is so hard to catch a decent fish here barracuda are considered good eating.....
Cant wait to get back to OZ and catch a decent fish...
Cheers
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