East Coast cod found to be recovering

CanadaSue · 07-27-2011, 02:27 PM

Tentatively excellent news. I recommend a hands off approach for the next 10-20 years - let's see what nature can do when left to its own devices:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/st...e-recover.html

rb. · 07-27-2011, 02:41 PM

Good to see. Everything balances out eventually. After, what, 500 or 600 years of fishing? To start rebounding that fast bodes well, IMO.

Ought Six · 07-27-2011, 02:52 PM

Excellent news! Nature is more resilient than people give it credit for.

Kassy · 07-29-2011, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rb.

Good to see. Everything balances out eventually. After, what, 500 or 600 years of fishing? To start rebounding that fast bodes well, IMO.

Fast is relative. The increase was 69% from 2007 to 2010.

But the 2010 numbers were 10% of the 1960ies stocks.

We have a long way to go.

Potemkin · 07-29-2011, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kassy

Fast is relative. The increase was 69% from 2007 to 2010.

But the 2010 numbers were 10% of the 1960ies stocks.

We have a long way to go.

What a "cup half empty" kind of person!

Kassy · 07-29-2011, 05:02 PM

How much is left for you to drink?

i think it's a decent concept.

Coyote · 07-29-2011, 07:46 PM

Kassy has it right. We have a very long way to go.

The fear was that the population had been depleted to the point of extinction, not enough fish to have a breeding population. But that isn't the case.

Good government regulation and enforcement have started the cod on the road to recovery. We will probably never see cod in the numbers we did in the mid twentieth century but a stable population is definitely possible.

Good news.

Ought Six · 07-29-2011, 09:37 PM

Good luck keeping the Asian factory ships from drift netting them. There is not even remotely enough enforcement resources to do this. The best we can do is protect the shoals of cod that congregate close to our shores. So far, that has been enough because the illegal driftnetters dare not come in too close. I am not confident that will continue to be the case.

Ross · 07-29-2011, 10:08 PM

Only bad news is attributed to Global Warming so this must
be proof of Global Cooling .

rb. · 07-29-2011, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ought Six

Good luck keeping the Asian factory ships from drift netting them. There is not even remotely enough enforcement resources to do this. The best we can do is protect the shoals of cod that congregate close to our shores. So far, that has been enough because the illegal driftnetters dare not come in too close. I am not confident that will continue to be the case.

IIRC, Spain was the last country we were having problems with doing that, within our waters. Grand Banks area, I think. Possibbly pre-Sept 11.

CanadaSue · 07-30-2011, 01:23 AM

Yeah, pre-9/11. We seized the ship. Problem solved.

Kassy · 07-31-2011, 07:11 AM

The seas are a classic 'tragedy of the commons'.

We need a worldwide coordination with reservations but there's no real will to do so. We don't get it worked out on the EU level (we should scrap at least 25% of the fleet right now but this is not being done). See http://thisbluemarble.com/showthread.php?t=26999 for link to an article about historical fish numbers. We catch less then a century ago despite the progress in technology.

Worldwide we have the whaling ban with Japan and their 'scientific research'...the whale to article ratio is rather bleak but luckily you can still sell the material for a decent price.

So i don't expect much progress on this.