It has always puzzled me that there’s a substantial group in society persistently accusing farmers of environmental vandalism while virtually ignoring what is involved in providing the seafood they’re eating (a number of whom will be self described ‘vegetarians’; but that’s another discussion). A farmer sinks money into buying land, machinery, livestock and undertaking capital improvements such as fencing off different land types, providing more watering points to spread grazing evenly, planting trees, contouring to slow erosion, rotating crops to maintain soil quality, controlling weeds and feral animals, etc. All in order to ensure the land and everything on it is left in a better shape than when they started, for future generations. Anyone can come along and look over the fence at any time and see exactly what state the operation is in.
Commercial fishing years ago was a family enterprise – small boats, heading out in good weather, heading back to shore-based fish markets when they had a load.
There are still family fishing operations who operate more or less on the same lines as they have for centuries. By complete contrast however, there are now many huge commercial fishing enterprises with increasingly sophisticated fish-finding equipment in all-weather boats which are met at sea by massive floating freezer ships. Often a long way from home, they net everything in sight, ditching over the side vast quantities of good quality (but now dead) species of lesser value, damaging coral and dugong seagrass beds with huge drag nets, etc. Commercial fishing operations only ever harvest, they never ever propagate. Commercial fishers never invest capital, time or effort into controlling pests and weeds or doing anything to ensure the marine environment is left in a better state for future generations. Fishermen don’t own it, they just visit it to take. Some northern hemisphere countries with a tradition of fishing have so depleted their traditional fishing grounds, they send massive factory ships to the southern hemisphere. Large numbers of huge drift nets (‘ghost’ nets) float into the Gulf of Carpentaria from South East Asia, killing unknown quantities of larger marine species such as dugongs, turtles and dolphins. Some people predict the world’s seas will be virtually devoid of the main sources of fish species by people, within an alarmingly short period. For example, one widely publicised study predicted that seafood would be completely off the world menu by 2048, due to specie extinctions.
Imagine the massive outcry if it was predicted soy beans (tofu, soy milk etc), rice, wheat (flour), grape products (wine) or any other food produced by farmers, would be off the menu within several decades, due to environmental destruction?
I’ve seen the tuna fishing industry in American Samoa and it was a very, very ugly sight. To make matters worse it was not, of course, an industry set up by the Samoan people – it was overseas businesses running it all (and undoubtedly pocketing the substantial profits). I’ve been careful about the origins (method of catching) of the tinned tuna I buy ever since. The hypocrisy of those who criticise farmers while never questioning where the large quantities of seafood they scoff comes from, and how it is caught, still rankles.
Sarah Wilson has written about sustainable tuna fishing on her blog, and has compiled a list of the most sustainably fished tuna brands to buy. These are tuna caught selectively by pole & line rather than nets, which are indiscriminate. Coles apparently don’t stock Safcol, which is on top of the list, so it’s up to consumers to pester Coles into stocking Safcol and other brands with better sustainability credentials.
We’re all told these days that for health reasons we should eat at least several serves of seafood each week. I believe that anyone with a genuine concern for the welfare of the environment (which should naturally include the sea and everything in it) should stick to humanely raised, farmed livestock, environmentally sustainable grain, fruit & horticulture crops etc. Seafood should only be consumed on special occasions and care should be taken to ensure the seafood eaten has been caught in as sustainable a manner as possible.
The days of trotting out and harvesting whatever one likes, from the wild, are over. The world’s population is way too large for wild harvesting to be sustainable. It’s a sure path to species extinctions. Next time you’re walking along a beach in Sydney, have a look to see if you can find any edible shellfish anywhere, including oysters. Everyone on the planet needs to stick to farmed produce, except in rare instances of very selective and controlled harvesting of natural produce.
The very best way to ensure the future survival of any species, is to farm it. And the best way to tread as lightly on the earth as possible, is to consume less, recycle as much as possible, and stick to a balanced diet from a very wide variety of food groups. Don’t turn a blind eye to how the fish or prawns came to be on your plate.
Sign the Stop the Super Trawler online petition to tell the Federal Government that we don’t want massive floating fish plunderers from the northern hemisphere, raiding fish from our waters.
Tags: Conservation and the environment, Australian agriculture, Vegans & Vegos