Tuna Experts....A Question?????

[Shams]

Originally Posted by DenisB

There you go.
Hope this years season is better for you.
Good luck come Sept.

Thanks!!!

[Dakine Pole Benddah]

Birds are you best and worst enemy. I know guys that know whats feeding on bait by the type of bird. Its insane!!! He could tell if skipjacks, tuna, mahi, or marlin were underneath a bait frenzy by what bird was above.
Love seeing a big ol white albatross soaring high. This often indicates a Marlin is around. For tuna, look for Iwa birds.

[alimufti]

I have been researching the lack of tuna and the fact is that FAO statistics and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission have confirmed that the very prolific yellowfin and bigeye stocks have been over harvested in the the years 2004-2008. Harvested above the sustainable suggested yield for this region.
You will remember a few seasons ago there were even spotter planes searching for the tuna. Its not rocket science, the fish are simply being depleted.
Watch "the end of the line" by national geographic for confirmation. In fact some estimates are that MOST large pelagics will be commercially extinct by 2048.
Shams, the answer to our tuna decline is often closer to home than you might imagine. Perhaps if you had joined the PGFA and partaken of the forum discussion you would have seen the extent of research that we have undertaken into this issue.
Either way it is a catastrophe and one that is being repeated in many third world countries across the globe. I too, hope the tuna will return, but also hope that we will treat this precious resource with a little more respect than we have as anglers in Pakistan in the past. Now that we have seen how empty our angling calender is without our annual tuna run.

Sadly yours,
Ali.

[alisaeed]

Ali,

I have seen the spotter planes! the thought of "the fish are simply being depleted" is Heartbreaking! I hope this is wrong!

To be my best knowledge i think the reason of tuna gone missing is not only over fishing but also the change in sea temperature the global warming effect. Tuna migrates annually to spawn in warmer waters of Arabian/indian Ocean and spawn in Tanzanian waters (ref book: The Tuna), fishermen have been tracking them since early 19th century and if we look at their heaps of records.

One of the most neglected matter is the cattle dung dumping in our ocean. We have 400,000+ cattle in the patch of 3X3 KM of dairy Colony near Landhi making it the world's largest dairy colony. Now as well as producing milk these animals also responsible of making over 8000 metric tons of dung every day, this is enough to cover the area of 119 squire kilo meter which is good to cover whole Karachi in .5 inch of dung with in 29 days, this is my made area fact by using the numbers provided by nzaid.govt.nz as they conducted this survey and yes this can also generate over 40 mega watt of electricity every day… watta misery.

Now this creates loads of Methane in atmosphere and chemical bloom in our ocean, traces are found till Ormara and Khadda. With the help of a friend of mine in desalination business I’ve even conducted few water tests and found that COD/BOD rises to create water almost oxygen less, dragging our ocean towards a dead zone (ecology) see wikipedia. Low oxygen means decreased size of reproductive organs, low egg counts and lack of spawning and ultimately no fish = dead zone.

This become worst in monsoon when rain flush out huge amount of dung which normally move very slowly because it’s high in viscosity

Don’t forget the same waste produce by 18 million peoples living in Karachi and the huge industrial area dumping everything in sea, it makes me feel crying some times watching all this helplessly.

For information a huge dead zone is already marked by intl. marine biologists exactly in front of Indus delta. It can be seen in goggle earth after activating the marine layer.

The traces of dung flowing in mangroves can be seen from satellite near rehri goth, see google earth.

Another reason could be the bait fish utilization in Poultry Feed, here are the shocking numbers:

Pakistan fishmeal production was about 65,000 to 70,000 tons, compared with 30,000 tons in 1985.

252 hatcheries, 141 feed mills and 13,154 poultry farms with the capacity to produce 98 million chickens. [Ref: Pakistan Economist]

This is over 500 thousand tons poultry meat!!!

AND THEY NEED BAIT!

These figures speak of the potential!!!

This is all harvested from the wild, obviously they don't catch commercial fish for fishmeal but the bait and since bigger fish feeds upon the bait fish therefore we are witnessing the depleting Tuna, Wahoo, mackerel etc. etc.

UNSUSTAINABLE!

From the link:
Pakistan Game Fish Association | Fishing Report

[luna sea II]

we've got oil over here and ya'll got dung over there...the fish can't catch a break..

[VaRandy]

Your post from Pakistan was very informative and thoughtful. I assume the facts you list are studied and accurate with one exception.

The writer accepted Global Warming to be fact when that is the biggest single myth perpetuated on the world public. Yes there are areas with significant warming but the average temperature has fallen for some time.

Even "happy ending" Gore had to change his scam from Global Warming to Global Change because of leaks in the con, and dummy "scientific" papers were found out.

Thanx for the writeup.

[DenisB]

I would add another exception Randy

The assumptions of "End of the Line" are based on unscientific selective data.
(rather the same as the data base that created the 'global warming' scenario).

Boris Worm was one of the "eco-biased" conservation scientists that contributed to the 'End of the Line' scenario.
More recently, he participated in a world fisheries science forum which focussed on generating a mutually agreed unbiased data set of fish species knowledge that both fisheries scientists, fisheries managers , & conservationists would use to review the status of particularly migratory species in the worlds oceans.

The final report of the forum ........the "Worm -Hilborn Report" includes the statement by Mr Worm that in large part modern fisheries management is working & the situation is not as bad as previously suggested.

Relatively few individual highly migratory species are at risk of being unsustainable . The well known examples of particular species declines such as the Cod & giant BFT were largely caused at a time where the science of fisheries management was not understood & in general could not occur today.
What is occurring is a contraction of some species to smaller areas of abundance as a result of a combination of harvesting, local oceanic conditions, weather , prey species abundance, & cyclic events such as El Nino/La Nina.

Its interesting that research into Sardine & Anchovy abundance from scales in sediment deposits in the ocean going back many hundreds of years shows a regular 60 year cycle of abundance and decline that humans have not influenced.
The expectations are that similar variations will be found in other prey species.

tuna need food to support their populations

As humans we will typically experience one of these 60 yr cycles & if we are experiencing the decline cycle over a number of years ..........it is easy to extrapolate the data & assume we are seeing the potential end of abundance of a species...........until you become aware that those cycles have been going on for hundreds of years & probably thousands.

The hard part is assessing what role humans are playing & what the cyclic environmental role is.........whether it is global change/global warming or fish abundance.
Nevertheless, modern fisheries management focusses on managing the total harvest of a species population as a percentage of the standing stock to ensure the stock remains sustainable & can re-populate when more favorable conditions exist during a natural decline in abundance.

An example is what is happening in Southern Australian waters over the last 5 years or so.
Yellow Leatherjacket ( a Triggerfish) was abundant in the 1950's & almost disappeared during the period 1960- 2000.
The Yellow leatherjacket population is currently in absolute plague proportions with both commercial & recreational fishers almost unable to put a bait in the water over thousands of miles of coastline without getting their hooks, lines & sinkers snipped off or nets chewed.

Another example is the result of a Herpes virus outbreak in the Austalian sardine population in the mid & late 1990s where the population was devastated to just 20-30% of its original size.............by 2007-2008 the population was back up to similar levels to those prior to the mid 1990s.

There are natural processes at play that we do not as yet understand, but those millions of eggs that individual fish produce can, under the right conditions, rapidly recover a fish stock from a low population base.

There is no cause for undue pessimism based on a local short term (decades) decline in abundance of pelagic species...........as cycles of abundance have been going on since before man invented hook or net.

2C

[egluck]

Im not arguing here just curious about the perspectives on this issue.

The people with a supposed "eco-bias," what is their bias for? If they in reality know that humans are not causing the earth to warm and we are not overfishing, then why do they argue that we are; what is their supposed unscrupulous end goal or motives?

[VaRandy]

that is an easy one.

The enemy is in two camps. The emotional group that is a continuation of the "Bambi" thing,

The control camp seeks to control as many aspects as possible on their subjects so that he stops thinking completely and simply submits to their "One world" goal. If I went fishing tomorrow, either locally or somewhere in the world, I would need a secretary AND a lawyer to avoid breaking some law.

The charter captains can't even keep up with them. Therefore, since our govt selectively enforces the law, most everyone is guilty of something,and it keeps them on edge and in line.

I am done with worrying about it, but that is just me. I never responded to intimidation very well, but I am sure that is just a character flaw!

[egluck]

Originally Posted by VaRandy

that is an easy one.

The enemy is in two camps. The emotional group that is a continuation of the "Bambi" thing,

The control camp seeks to control as many aspects as possible on their subjects so that he stops thinking completely and simply submits to their "One world" goal. If I went fishing tomorrow, either locally or somewhere in the world, I would need a secretary AND a lawyer to avoid breaking some law.

The charter captains can't even keep up with them. Therefore, since our govt selectively enforces the law, most everyone is guilty of something,and it keeps them on edge and in line.

I am done with worrying about it, but that is just me. I never responded to intimidation very well, but I am sure that is just a character flaw!

Yes I agree the charter captains probably don't have much economic or political clout, but you would think the commercial fishing industry and all those corporations/industries that make more money if we don't believe in global warming would have enough juice and funding to counter act these two camps you speak of, neither of which would seem to have the same type of power/money or cash incentive. Usually in life it all comes down to the all mighty dollar.

I guess its always possible that more people stand to make money if we believe in overfishing and global warming.