It\u2019s late autumn, so the season for bottom trawling has begun in Cobscook Bay, in eastern Maine. First, fishermen pursue sea urchins and later scallops. I am a fan of fresh scallops, so I appreciate their efforts to catch scallops on the cold mornings in mid-winter.\u00a0 Even though no one seems entirely happy about rules, both harvests are closely regulated in an attempt to prevent destruction of these fisheries. \u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s hope the rules work.<\/p>\n
One does not have to travel far in Downeast Maine to see what overfishing can do to coastal villages and the people who work there. First the cod disappeared, then the herring, and finally the sardines.\u00a0 There is much finger pointing at who was responsible\u2014Russian trawlers, fish-locating sonar technology, dams on the rivers, EPA rules, and local greed.\u00a0 But, the fish are gone, fish canneries are abandoned, and much of the population has left town. Even where protected, cod show only a slow recovery, suggesting that permanent changes have occurred in the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
What happened in this area of coastal Maine is similar to what is reported from fisheries worldwide. The most desirable, large predatory fish, such as swordfish and snapper, are first depleted. By some estimates their numbers in the sea are only about 10% of what they once were. \u00a0Then fishermen focus on smaller species that were once considered trash fish. \u00a0Non-selective bottom trawling is employed, reworking, degrading, and denuding the deep sea floor at a rate that is roughly similar to the rate of deforestation that we deplore in the Amazon Basin. Finally, sardines and menhaden are the target of the catch.<\/p>\n
This pattern exemplifies what Dan Pauly once called \u201cfishing down\u201d marine food webs, in which humans first exploit the top predators, then their prey, and finally the small fishes that support all of the marine food web. Roughly 8% of the total productivity to the seas goes to support the human population globally.\u00a0 If we could see beneath the waters and knew how things have changed, we\u2019d deplore what we would see.<\/p>\n
In our local community, there are fishermen in pursuit of clams, lobsters, urchins and scallops. Their work is cold, tough and demanding.\u00a0 Interestingly, compared to 50 years ago, no one makes a living from traditional fishing, except for those working with farm-raised salmon in large pens.<\/p>\n
Now, there is an increasing urge to harvest seaweed, known as rockweed, which lines the coast. With the fishes gone, it is time to scrape the rocks clean of seaweed that once offered a nursery for the fisheries in the open waters.\u00a0 If we are ever to see these fisheries recover, protecting rockweed will be an important foundation for the effort.\u00a0 Observations also suggest that rockweed is an important nursery for the young of shellfish and lobsters.<\/p>\n
Whether appropriate rules will be put in place to maintain adequate rockweed habitat, productivity, and regeneration remains to be seen. Already, those exploiting rockweed are lining up to defend their practice.\u00a0 Claims that these folks are simply trying to make a living are tough to ignore, but scientific studies to support claims of a sustainable harvest are as scarce as cod fish.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Ames, E.P. and J. Lichter. 2013. Gadids and alewives: Structure within complexity in the Gulf of Maine. Fisheries Research 141: 70-78.<\/p>\n
Frank, K.T., B. Petrie, J.S. Choi, and W.C. Leggett. 2005.\u00a0\u00a0 Trophic cascades in a formerly cod-dominated ecosystem.\u00a0 Science 308: 1621-1623.<\/p>\n
Jackson, J.B.C., et al. 2001. Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems.\u00a0 Science 293{ 629-638.<\/p>\n
Myers, R.A. and B. Worm. 2003. Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities.\u00a0Nature 423: 280-283.<\/p>\n
Pauly, D., V. Christensen, R. Froese, and M.L. Palomares. 2000. Fishing down aquatic food webs. American Scientist 88: 46-51.<\/p>\n
Pauly, D. and V. Christensen. 1995. Primary production required to sustain global fisheries.\u00a0 Nature 373:255-257.<\/p>\n
Puig, P., M. Canals, J.B. Company, J. Martin, D. Amblas, G. Lastras, A. Palaniques and A.M. Calafat. 2012. Ploughing the deep sea floor.\u00a0 Nature 489:286-289.<\/p>\n
Rose, G.A. and S. Rowe. 2015. Northern cod comeback.\u00a0\u00a0 Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 1789 doi: 10.1139\/cjfas-2015-0346<\/p>\n
Seeley, R.H. and W.H. Schlesinger. 2012.\u00a0 Sustainable seaweed cutting?\u00a0 The rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum<\/em>) industry of Maine and the Maritime provinces.\u00a0 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1249:84-103.<\/p>\n Watling, L. and E.A. Norse. 1998. Disturbance of the seabed by mobile fishing gear: A comparison to forest clearcutting.\u00a0 Conservation Biology 12: 1180-1197,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If we are ever to see these fisheries recover, protecting rockweed will be an important foundation for the effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":517,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[82,5,88,89],"tags":[132,133],"coauthors":[6],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","category-faculty","category-marine-studies","category-sustainability","tag-overfishing","tag-rockweed"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5KxUl-5a","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/517"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1482,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/citizenscientist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}