<
https://time.com/6307192/baja-california-ocean-preserve-marine-life-in-photos/>
"It’s easy to spot the small, family-owned fishing boats that ply the waters
around Baja California—a peninsula 1,223 km (760 miles) long that represents
the westernmost part of Mexico. There are 24,000 of the vessels, after all, and
they spend much of their time at sea—as well they might if the so-called
artisanal fishermen are going to compete with the vastly larger industrial
vessels that fish the same waters. The average artisanal boat measures 24 m (79
ft.) from bow to stern, compared with the industrial vessels, which can easily
exceed the length of a football field, at 130 m (427 ft.). And the industrial
vessels are equipped accordingly—with nets that measure 600 m (1,968 ft.)
across, and baited lines that may stretch 45 km (28 miles) long.
“There’s a huge level of injustice there,” says Cristina Mittermeier, a
photographer, marine biologist, and co-founder of the U.S.-based
ocean-preservation group SeaLegacy, which is partnering with the Mexico-based
group Beta Diversidad to address environmental and economic problems around
Baja California. “The industrial fishing fleet is owned by billionaires and
subsidized by the government.”
The kind of megafishing the industrial boats do leaves a huge environmental
footprint. Up to 96% of the population of bluefin tuna in the region are gone,
for example. For every 2.2 lb. of shrimp pulled from the ocean, there are more
than 20 lb. of unwanted bycatch—mostly juveniles of various species. The nets
drag along the bottom of the ocean, damaging the delicate ecosystem of the
ocean floor, and releasing the carbon that’s sequestered in the sediment."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-poverty-bangladesh-conservation-ecuador-indigenous-fire-australia/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
