Jellyfish Rule

[The Vegan Marxist]

Jellyfish Rule
By George Monbiot
July 8, 2011

Last year I began to wonder, this year doubt is seeping away, to be replaced with a rising fear. Could they really have done it? Could the fishing industry have achieved the remarkable feat of destroying the last great stock?

Until 2010, mackerel were the one reliable catch in Cardigan Bay in west Wales. Though I took to the water dozens of times, there wasn’t a day in 2008 or 2009 when I failed to take ten or more (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/22/george-monbiot-fishing). Once every three or four trips I would hit a major shoal, and bring in 100 or 200 fish: enough, across the season, to fill the freezer and supply much of our protein for the year. Those were thrilling moments (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/aug/22/fishing-wales-monbiot?intcmp=239): pulling up strings of fish amidst whirling flocks of shearwaters, gannets pluming into the water beside my kayak, dolphins breaching and blowing. It was, or so it seemed, the most sustainable of all the easy means of harvesting animal protein.

Even those days were nothing by comparison to what the older residents remembered: weeks on end when the sea was so thick with fish that you could fill a bucket with mackerel just by picking them off the sand, as they flung themselves through and beyond the breaking waves while pursuing their prey.

Last year it all changed. From the end of May to the end of October I scoured the bay, on one occasion paddling six or seven miles from land – the furthest I’ve ever been – to try to find the fish. With the exception of a day on which I caught 20, I brought them back in ones or twos, if at all. There were many days on which I caught nothing at all.

There were as many explanations as there were fishermen: the dolphins had driven them away, the north-westerlies had broken up the shoals, a monstrous fishmeal ship was stationed in the Irish Sea, hoovering up 500 tonnes a day with a fiendish new vacuum device. (Despite a wealth of detail on this story I soon discovered that no such ship existed. But that’s fishermen for you). I spoke to a number of fisheries officials and scientists, and was shocked to discover that not only did they have no explanation, they had no data either.

So I hoped for the best – that the dearth could be explained by a fluctuation of weather or ecology. When the fish failed to arrive at the end of May I told myself they must be on their way. They had, after all, been showing off the south-west of England – it could be only a matter of time. I held off until last weekend.

The conditions were perfect. There was no wind, no swell, and the best water visibility I’ve ever seen here. I looked at the sea and thought “today’s the day when it all comes right.”

I pushed my kayak off the beach and felt that delightful sensation of gliding away from land almost effortlessly – I’m so used to fighting the westerlies and the waves they whip up in these shallow seas that on this occasion I seemed almost to be drifting towards the horizon. Far below me I could see the luminous feathers I used as bait tripping over the seabed.

But I could also see something else. Jellyfish. Unimaginable numbers of them. Not the transparent cocktail umbrellas I was used to, but solid white rubbery creatures the size of footballs. They roiled in the surface or loomed, vast and pale, in the depths. There was scarcely a cubic metre of water without one.

Apart from that – nothing. It wasn’t until I reached a buoy three miles from the shore that I felt the urgent tap of a fish, and brought up a single, juvenile mackerel. Otherwise, though I paddled to all the likely spots, I detected nothing but the jellyfish rubbing against the line. As I returned to shore I hooked a greater weever – which thrashed around the boat, trying to impale me on its poisonous spines. But that was all.

Is this the moment? Have I just witnessed the beginning of the end of vertebrate ecology here? If so, the shift might not be confined to Cardigan Bay. In a perfect conjunction of two of my recent interests, last week a monstrous swarm of jellyfish succeeded where Greenpeace has failed, and shut down both reactors at the Torness nuclear power station (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-13971005) in Scotland.

The Israeli branch of Jellyfish Action pulled off a similar feat (http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/07/06/261513/attack-of-the-jellyfish-shut-down-power-station-climate-change) at the nuclear power station in Hadera this week.

A combination of overfishing and ocean acidification (caused by rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) has creating the perfect conditions for this shift from a system dominated by fish to a system dominated by jellyfish.

If this is indeed what we’re seeing, the end of vertebrate ecology is a direct result of the end of vertebrate politics: the utter spinelessness of the people charged with protecting the life of the seas. In 2009 the Spanish fleet, for example, vastly exceeded its quota, netting twice the allowable catch of mackerel in the Cantabrian Sea (http://www.fish2fork.com/news-index/Spanish-mackerel-fleet-penalised-for-quota-busting.aspx), and no one stopped them until it was too late.

Last week, the European Commission again failed to take action against the unilateral decision by Iceland and the Faroes (http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2011/06/28/eu-fisheries-commissioner-under-fire-for-dragging-feet-in-mackerel-dispute) to award themselves a mackerel quota several times larger than the one they agreed to, under their trilateral agreement with the EU and Norway. Iceland and the Faroes have given two fingers to the other nations, and we appear to be incapable of responding.

The mackerel haven’t yet disappeared from everywhere, but my guess is that the shoals which, since time immemorial, came into Cardigan Bay, were a spillover from the mass movements up the Irish Sea. As the population falls, there’s less competitive pressure pushing them towards the margins. Without data, guesswork is all we’ve got.

I desperately hope it’s not the case, but it could be that the fish that travelled to this coast in such numbers that it seemed they could never collapse have gone.

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/07/08/jellyfish-rule/

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

For fuck's sake. We need a more sustainable relationship to the oceans, and fast. It's getting to point now where if warships were used to sink offending trawlers, I'd have a hard time feeling sorry.

Seriously, don't those idiots realise that if they carry on like this, they'll lose their source of income entirely?

[Nox]

For fuck's sake. We need a more sustainable relationship to the oceans, and fast. It's getting to point now where if warships were used to sink offending trawlers, I'd have a hard time feeling sorry.

Seriously, don't those idiots realise that if they carry on like this, they'll lose their source of income entirely?

Once again the problem falls down to capitalism. Capitalism teaches them to be greedy, so they take as much as they can, as soon as they can and don't care about the sustainability of what they're doing.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Once again the problem falls down to capitalism. Capitalism teaches them to be greedy, so they take as much as they can, as soon as they can and don't care about the sustainability of what they're doing.

Yes, but we don't have that much time to wait for conditions to be ripe enough for socialist revolution. Which makes this all the more dangerous.

[Nox]

The sooner, the better.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Here's Aljazeera's coverage on the increasingly swarming jellyfish:

2_71Ml0oqjI

[Black Sheep]

Their seas are infested with disgusting stinging jellyfish and they STILL go for a swim?
The fuck?

[The Vegan Marxist]

Their seas are infested with disgusting stinging jellyfish and they STILL go for a swim?
The fuck?

It's a great analogy, don't you think? No matter how clear it is, no matter how much it hurts, they keep pretending nothing's happening and that everything is perfectly normal. Kind of like this massive heat wave, which I saw this great picture on the Richard Dawkins forum that really symbolizes what I'm saying here:

http://www.cagle.com/working/110720/bagley.jpg

[Metacomet]

This is a big problem where I live as well. Which is a fishing area. Of course the townie prevailing view is that the government and fisheries regulators need to leave the poor fishermen alone. They are the victims. Most of the people around here side with them as well. As does our new favorite politician around here, Scott Brown. :rolleyes:

Bring up a environmental issue around here they look at you like you have seven heads.

We were actually parodied in a Simpsons episode as well. When all the fish were gone (which destroyed the economy) the solution was to cut down all the trees. :laugh:

[MarxSchmarx]

Seriously, don't those idiots realise that if they carry on like this, they'll lose their source of income entirely? Once again the problem falls down to capitalism. Capitalism teaches them to be greedy, so they take as much as they can, as soon as they can and don't care about the sustainability of what they're doing.

The real problem here is capitalism, yes, but the mechanism isn't quite so much greed, indifference to sustainability, and idiocy as it is that most fishing operations are hopelessly trapped.

An individual small fishing company based on the other side of the world engaged in heavy fishing probably realizes that the industry cannot afford to continue this way as a whole - I think just about everyone engaged in this industry recognizes that.

The main problem is that the suppliers of fish are quite diffuse while the buyers and intermediaries are very concentrated. Competition is fierce and the merchants do a very good job squeezing the profit margins out.

Thus for an individual operation to cut down, they would have such a mediocre impact, and their competitors would swoop in as there is every incentive to break ranks and little advantage for them to do so. They operate on razor-thin profit margins.

TL;DR version:

It is paradoxical, they are only digging their own grave, but they know that the minute they stop digging they will get shot.

[Libertador]

I've seen enough hentai to... nevermind.

The Japanese have the best idea.
http://pinktentacle.com/2006/08/chefs-prepare-for-annual-giant-jellyfish-invasion/

[Broletariat]

I think this is a fairly good example of "tragedy of the commons."

I believe a solution within Capitalism COULD occur in the route of private property over the oceans. Obviously this is less desirable than socialism, but it would provide a fix as far as Capitalism can go.

[Libertador]

I think this is a fairly good example of "tragedy of the commons."

I believe a solution within Capitalism COULD occur in the route of private property over the oceans. Obviously this is less desirable than socialism, but it would provide a fix as far as Capitalism can go. Water isn't a static resource like land is. I can't even begin to imagine how you could actually implement this but I suppose it would make a little bit of sense (even if it is totally wrong).

[Broletariat]

Water isn't a static resource like land is. I can't even begin to imagine how you could actually implement this but I suppose it would make a little bit of sense (even if it is totally wrong).

For private property, I'm sure the capitalists will find a way.

[DinodudeEpic]

This is why we need Aquaculture.....But, at least not hog the fish in the mean time to Aquaculture...

[Os Cangaceiros]

I'm a pretty big proponent of regulated sustainable fisheries (as someone who is actually a fisherman). Historically the district in which we operate here has been managed very well, although one of the larger salmon runs collapsed a few years back...but that had nothing to do with overfishing and everything to do with storms, wash-outs, overescapment etc. It's currently in the process of being re-built. American fishermen are undoubtedly the most regulated on planet earth, so you can rest easy when you bite into your next piece of salmon lol

The one area I am concerned about here is halibut, though. It used to be that you could catch 300 pound halibuts every once in a while longlining...no more. There are no more to be found in my district. My parents said that they were getting out of long-lining this year, that they didn't want to contribute to the demise of "the last of the buffalo". (They threaten to get out of long-lining every year, though, mostly because it's a huge pain in the ass).


This is why we need Aquaculture.....But, at least not hog the fish in the mean time to Aquaculture...

I'm a proponent of aquaculture as well, but many fish farms are disgusting. They feed the fish with shit (literally in the case of tilapia), meal made out of insects and (in the worst case) meal made of fish, which actually results in a net lose of fish stocks. Aquaculture conducted in the present economic environment results in irresponsibility just like traditional fishing does.

Overall I think the oceans are p. resilent...I haven't given up hope quite yet, in spite of the "fishpocalypse".

PS: Fuck jellyfish. I love blasting those fuckers off the net with a firehose. You haven't experienced real pain until you get a red jellyfish in your eye.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Bycatch 22

As a twisted consequence of overfishing regulations, commercial fishermen have no choice but to catch sea bass, flounder, monkfish, and tuna—and throw them dead back into the sea.


Back in the middle aughts, I took a job fishing on a commercial dragger out of Montauk. I was running a tab at a local pub when in walked a fisherman I knew. He was looking to fill out the crew for a trip leaving the following day and knew I’d been making noises about wanting to give offshore commercial fishing a try. I joined the crew as resident greenhorn, and the fisher, who knew of my eco-boy proclivities, warned me that we would be throwing back a lot of fish on the trip—the “bycatch”—and not just low-value “trash” fish, either. My friend explained that owing to the regulations we were compelled to abide, there would be fish coming onto the deck that were out of *season, that we did not have permits for, and that we would have no choice but to throw back or we’d risk crippling fines at the dock, should fish cops from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation greet us at trip’s end to check the fish hold. The fisherman’s admonition was, “You’re going to see a lot of stuff out there that’ll knock you back on your heels, but there’s not much we can do about it. Do your job, shut your mouth, collect your money.”

While concerned consumers fret over which fish are correct to order at their favorite seafood restaurant, heading to websites maintained by groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund for guidance on the “eco-best” and “eco-worst” fish to purchase, the truth about commercial fishing in the United States is that a regulatory framework designed to limit overfishing results in vast numbers of fish per year being scooped up on boats and dumped right back off, dead, never consumed by any *human. Concerned about “endangered” bluefin tuna? Tell it to the tuna long-liners who’ve had to cut loose untold numbers of dead bluefins in recent years, owing to the restrictions that come with winding up on the endangered-species list. A recent *bycatch-reduction report issued by the National Marine Fisheries Services says that “bycatch is considered to be one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of the marine environment, and bycatch affects practically every species in the ocean.”

On this early-spring trip, the quarry would be whiting, a commercial food fish that goes into lots of frozen-fish products—fish sticks and fish cakes and the like. The crew mustered on the dock at twilight, cast off the lines, and started to sail out to the edge of the continental shelf. At daybreak, the crew dropped the net into the Atlantic for our first “dip.” We towed the net for a couple of hours before “hauling back,” and that air of anticipation you apprehend on Deadliest Catch as the crab pots come up was exactly the sentiment on deck as the gears groaned under the stress of what would be a cod end bulging with fish.

That first dip indeed yielded a teeming bag of fish—but they were the wrong fish. We’d hit a pod of off-season summer flounder, or fluke. The regulations allowed for a certain poundage of fluke that could be kept and sold without risking fines—a tiny fraction of what we caught, less than 100 pounds. We toted up our allowance and shoveled the rest of the fish back into the brine, all dead or dying.

This was a waste of time, effort, fuel, and fish. The captain hightailed it from that piece of ocean in search of a body of whiting we could scoop up. But our regulatory *bycatch frustrations were just beginning. During this three-day trip, I tallied about twenty species of edible fish and other sea creatures brought up in the net. There were more summer flounder and other out-of-season or less-desirable flatfish; there were piles upon piles of monkfish that got thrown back; and there were stone crabs, lobsters, silver eels, shad, ling cod, John Dory, menhaden, and black sea bass, which at that time were in season and had no minimum-size requirement to be brought to market. The monkfish, highly prized for their livers and status as “the poor man’s lobster,” were an especially memorable waste. I recall that we had around a 100-pound bycatch limit on the monks, and on every dip I was ruefully shoveling at least twice that amount back into the ocean.

Then there were the requirements of our whiting buyer, explained the captain, which placed a minimum length on the whiting it would be able to process. This meant we were throwing back every whiting that was below the processor’s requirements. All of those fish were juveniles—next year’s potential catch. As my old Montauk buddy Mack used to say: Well, the crabs gotta eat too.

(Read the rest ... long article (http://nymag.com/news/features/bycatch-2011-7/))

[Libertador]

IPS: Fuck jellyfish. I love blasting those fuckers off the net with a firehose. You haven't experienced real pain until you get a red jellyfish in your eye.http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9u3m2j9jr1qad3lc.jpg
I want to hear more about your life.

[∞]

PS: Fuck jellyfish. I love blasting those fuckers off the net with a firehose. You haven't experienced real pain until you get a red jellyfish in your eye.

How dare you.

[Libertador]

How dare you. They lack a brain, I don't think they mind all that much.

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/150/f/2010/364/c/e/u_jelly_by_skeligun-d362nbl.jpg

[Ocean Seal]

For fuck's sake. We need a more sustainable relationship to the oceans, and fast. It's getting to point now where if warships were used to sink offending trawlers, I'd have a hard time feeling sorry.

Seriously, don't those idiots realise that if they carry on like this, they'll lose their source of income entirely?


The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we hang them
-Stalin
The bourgeoisie can only see what is straight ahead of them in a few yards. A profit motive, essentially means disregard everything else.

[∞]

They lack a brain, I don't think they mind all that much.

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/150/f/2010/364/c/e/u_jelly_by_skeligun-d362nbl.jpg

Stop it. You don't know what its like being a jellyfish.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The bourgeoisie can only see what is straight ahead of them in a few yards. A profit motive, essentially means disregard everything else.

Most of the people who run the larger boats don't actually own them...the owners are playing golf somewhere in Arizona or something while the captains get a percentage.

They're not really "capitalists".

The people responsible for turning fish into commodities are large multinational processing companies.

[Os Cangaceiros]

How dare you.

feels good man

[∞]

Stop insulting my tendencie's founder.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

They feed the fish with shit (literally in the case of tilapia)

When you do it the other way around it's quite effective.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2350/aquaculture.jpg

[Os Cangaceiros]

Yeah, there was a pretty interesting article about that I read recently:

http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/14653