Seafood Choices

  Since nowadays a large number of marine species are endangered, both effort from the government and effort from general public are required to sustain the reproduction of these species. Along with government’s regulation on fishing these species, we should make wise decision on what kind of seafood we are supposed to eat. The general rules for choosing ocean-friendly seafood are the following:

1)      We should choose those abundant species with a short maturation period. For example, saury and Antarctic krill are cheap, fresh, and delicious. They are both ocean-friendly species.

2)      We should choose filter-feeding or herbivorous marine species to eat. For example, oyster and clams are good choices.

3)      We should choose those farmed species with good management. We can also check whether a particular species is certified as sustainable and well managed to the Marine Stewardship Council’s environmental standard at http://www.msc.org.

4)      We should also consult those species’ clear background and make it clear: what kind of seafood is this, what is the place of origin, how it is fished, etc.

5)      We should not eat those fish with large size, or fish ore. Big fish are usually on high nutrition level. Their population size is small and their biological recovery rate is very slow. Eating those species such as sharks and blue-fin tuna will influence ocean’s ecological balance. Fish ore are technically immature fish, human should let it grow to make reproduction of fish possible. 

The Blue Ocean Institute (http://blueocean.org/) contains a very useful seafood choice guideline, which enables consumers to look up for information about many different kinds of seafood. The guideline classifies all the seafood choices into the following categories:

1)      Species has a combination of problems such as overfishing, high bycatch, and poor management.

2)      Some problems exist with this species' status or catch methods, or information is insufficient for evaluating.

3)      Species is relatively abundant, and fishing methods cause little damage to habitat and other wildlife.

4)      A fishery targeting this species has been certified as sustainable and well managed to the Marine Stewardship Council's environmental standard. Learn more at http://www.msc.org.

5)      These fish contain levels of mercury or PCBs that may pose a health risk to adults and children.

  It is always important for consumers to carefully choose what seafood to eat in order to effectively protect endangered marine species. With the information provided above, we will be able to choose seafood in an ocean-friendly manner and help protecting endangered species more effectively.

Works cited:

http://news.sohu.com/20070328/n249023792.shtml

http://www.aihuwai.net/html/shui/qs/5040.html

http://blueocean.org/seafoods/

http://worldwildlife.org/threats/overfishing

Endangered Species

  Overfishing seems to be a good strategy to maximize fisher’s profit, but it also has very serious consequences and irreversible impact on balance of marine life. Due to the increase in fishing efforts and the use of unsustainable fishing practices, there is an increasing number of marine species on the list of endangered marine species. In this section we will see several most endangered marine species and discuss the possible ways to prevent them from approaching to extinction.

  The Yangtze River dolphin, which is also known as  the lipotes vexillifer, used to live in downstream of the Yangtze River. It is a mammal in the whale family living in freshwater. Although the rare Yangtze River dolphins are not edible and they had been protected by the Chinese government for quite a long time, a large number of these dolphins are still killed by human activities, mainly overfishing. According to the statistics provided by Chinese Fishery Bureau, 48.8% of the accidental death of the lipotes vexillifers in the Yangtze River region, from 1973 to 1985, was caused by the use of fishing hooks and the collision with paddle of ship over the course of human’s fishing activities. After the inspection on the lipotes vexillifers conducted by scientists from the U.K., the U.S. and China in 2006, they sadly announced to the world that lipotes vexillifers have ‘functionally extinct’, which means that they have lost the ability to reproduce and all of them are possibly dead. Although the Chinese government has focused on protecting this species for almost half a century, the extinction of lipotes vexillifers still cannot be avoided.

  Another species which is facing the threat of extinction right now is blue-fin tuna, which is the biggest fish in the tuna family. The blue-fin tuna is the most popular choice for customers in Japanese market since it is delicious and nutritious. It has become one of the major food supplies in Japan over the past century due to its large size and nutritional value. However, after a century of unrestricted fishing, the population of blue-fin tuna has dramatically dropped and this species has entered the list of endangered marine species. In 1864, Italian fishermen in Favignana Island caught 14020 blue-fin tuna, with an average weight of 129 kilograms. In contrast, sadly, only about 100 blue-fin tuna were caught in 2009, with an average weight of only 29 kilograms. Nowadays the blue-fin tuna is incredibly expensive in Japanese market, which leads to seeking of this species by even more fishers. Therefore, the legislation on fishing blue-fin tuna becomes urgent in present society.                    

Works Cited:

http://www.baike.com/wiki/蓝鳍金枪鱼

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/esa/mammals.htm

http://www.baike.com/wiki/白暨豚&prd=button_doc_jinru

Sustainable Sushi

Sushi is a popular food around the world and have a long history for more than 600 years. It was originated in Southeast Asia but highly developed in Japan and introduced to the world.

Sushi is made of rice, ingredients and sauces. Ingredients are usually raw fish and seafood. In this case, Japan is the largest fish consumer in the world especially for those needed for sushi making. Due to such large command for fresh fish, the problem of overfishing rises and caused many species such as blunfin tuna becomes depleted. Not only in Japan, since introduced to the USA in 1970's, Sushi has become the most popular food around the country. Nowadays, it is really easy for you to find a sushi restaurant in the USA.

In this case, the movement called "Sustainable Sushi" appeared. This movement start in 2008 with the foundation of Tataki sushi bar. The movement suggests that people should eat those farmed or abundant fish instead of depleted one. Here is a TED talk by the founder of Tataki, Casson Trenor and a list of recommended food fish.

Sources:

"Casson Trenor at TEDxSF", TEDxTalks, Youtube. Web.Feb 25th, 2014. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9IQYyFh43M

"Japan admits to overfishing bluefin tuna by 25 percent", Taipei Time. Mar 03, 2013. Web. Feb 25th 2014. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/03/03/2003295497

Sustainablesushi.net. Web. Photograph. Feb 25th, 2014. http://www.sustainablesushi.net/

Supergreenlandmarket. Web. Photograph. Feb 25th, 2014. http://www.supergreenlandmarket.com/online/maru-japanese-sushi/

Environment compact

The overfishing will not only caused extinction of one specific species but will have a net effect on other marine species as well. To take an example, the blue-fin tuna, a valuable fish mentioned most by the environmentalists, is the main food of sharks. Due to the rapid decrease in the number of tuna, sharks have to find other source of energy to maintain life. Moreover, the population of small predator, which is the food for tuna will increase rapidly and make an imbalance in the ecosystem. 

Moreover, the modern fishery will have a bad effect on the habitat of many species. To make a example, the engine of modern fish boat will make noise in the sea water and caused a misdirection of dolphin or whale's communication. 

Bycatch is also a very serious problem as many sea mammal died every year due to bycatch. Not only fish, but sea mammals such as whales, dolphins and sea turtles as well. Here is some video about the bycatch effect on sea turtles. 

Sources:

"Bottlenose dolphin", Animal Globe, Web, Feb 25th, 2014, http://true-wildlife.blogspot.com/2011/02/bottlenose-dolphin.html

"Millions of turtle killed due to bycatch", Dicovery, Web, video, Feb 25th, 2014,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cH7PYXrbAs

Overfishing

Overview 

Ocean overfishing is simply due to catching wild fish at a much higher rate than that they reproduced. In the last few decades, the total amount of fisheries have increased a lot. Scientists dicovere that the population of many usual food fish has come to 10% of that in pre-industrial period. and that predicted that before 2050, most of the food fish will extinct including tuna, shark, cod. 

Overfishing not only have effects on those who were catch but also strongly affect the life of many other sea creatures. Bycatch, a word referring to those fish or marine animal caught by accident with the valuable fish is one of the important reason. Due to some research, the scientists discovered that "Every year, an estimated 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die entangled in fishing nets, along with thousands of critically-endangered sea turtles. Long-line fisheries also kill huge numbers of seabirds. Over 100,000 Albatrosses die this way every year, and many species are endangered as a result of bycatch."

Another big problem caused by the overfishing is the collapse of marine biological system. The loss of biodiversity will cause a collapse of marine environment.

Luckily, human being has awared that the fish population is depleted and many country have limited the time and amount of fishery. In addition, a movement called "Sustanable Sushi" is really popular. This movement start in 2008 in North American that suggest people not to eat those sushi made of endangered marine speices such as wild salmon or blue-fin tuna. Instead, we can eat those can be farmed or not effective in biological system. 

Endangered species 

Environmental compact

Sustanable Sushi

Seafood Choice

Sources: 
"Sustainable sushi", seachoice.org, Web, Feb 25th, 2014, http://www.seachoice.org/seafood-recommendations/sustainable-sushi/

Photo arena, Jul 14th, 2013, photograph, Feb 25th 2014,http://www.photosjunction.com/photo/7809.aspx#.Uw102fmSyps

"Overfishing-Plenty of fish in the sea? Not alwayss", National Geographic, Web, Feb 25th, 2014 http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-overfishing/