How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
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Re: How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
#2We badly need some sort of industrial fish farming at a large scale. Oceanic fishing at this point is basically like hunting gathering at an industrial scale: we just catch whatever we can and who cares if it grows back, not our problem, "nature" will take care of it. The same way we seed, till, etc., we should be doing the same thing with oceans and "hunting" aka fishing should only be allowed as a hobby.
In a somewhat "positive" side effect of what they're doing, traditional Chinese medicine will probably go extinct together will all the fish and animal species they will wipe off the face of the Earth...
Re: How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
#3What are they doing with all that squid? If the market price of the squid doesn't cover the cost of extraction, then that must mean there isn't much demand for the product.
Re: How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
#4We badly need some sort of industrial fish farming at a large scale. Oceanic fishing at this point is basically like hunting gathering at an industrial scale: we just catch whatever we can and who cares if it grows back, not our problem, "nature" will take care of it. The same way we seed, till, etc., we should be doing the same thing with oceans and "hunting" aka fishing should only be allowed as a hobby. In a somew…
> We badly need some sort of industrial fish farming at a large scale.
Even if we invented it, PRC would most likely not use it.
> In a somewhat "positive" side effect of what they're doing, traditional Chinese medicine will probably go extinct together will all the fish and animal species they will wipe off the face of the Earth...
Unfortunately, this probably only happens when everything more exotic than common farm animals has been eaten to extinction.
Re: How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
#5We badly need some sort of industrial fish farming at a large scale. Oceanic fishing at this point is basically like hunting gathering at an industrial scale: we just catch whatever we can and who cares if it grows back, not our problem, "nature" will take care of it. The same way we seed, till, etc., we should be doing the same thing with oceans and "hunting" aka fishing should only be allowed as a hobby. In a somew…
As it happens, China has extensive fish farming. It is huge and China may be the country where it is the most developed.
It may also be helped by the fact that Chinese eat quite a lot of fresh water fish compared to what we eat in Western countries.
Of course an issue is that it creates further pressure on agriculture/traditional fishing to produce fish feed...
Re: How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
#6We badly need some sort of industrial fish farming at a large scale. Oceanic fishing at this point is basically like hunting gathering at an industrial scale: we just catch whatever we can and who cares if it grows back, not our problem, "nature" will take care of it. The same way we seed, till, etc., we should be doing the same thing with oceans and "hunting" aka fishing should only be allowed as a hobby. In a somew…
> We badly need some sort of industrial fish farming at a large scale. Even if we invented it, PRC would most likely not use it. > In a somewhat "positive" side effect of what they're doing, traditional Chinese medicine will probably go extinct together will all the fish and animal species they will wipe off the face of the Earth... Unfortunately, this probably only happens when everything more exotic than common far…
Why wouldn't they? They're not irrational.
I understand their desire to keep their newly achieved standards of living and I imagine they don't want to be dependent on foreign seas, especially as these situations can cause conflicts. They also have a pretty big EEZ, about 1 million sqkm. Seems more than enough to have some huge fish farms.
Re: How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
#7We badly need some sort of industrial fish farming at a large scale. Oceanic fishing at this point is basically like hunting gathering at an industrial scale: we just catch whatever we can and who cares if it grows back, not our problem, "nature" will take care of it. The same way we seed, till, etc., we should be doing the same thing with oceans and "hunting" aka fishing should only be allowed as a hobby. In a somew…
Farmed fish are fed wild-caught fish generally, so their environmental impact is comparable. There is an ongoing effort to remove that from the chain, but it remains an unsolved problem.
Re: How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
#8We badly need some sort of industrial fish farming at a large scale. Oceanic fishing at this point is basically like hunting gathering at an industrial scale: we just catch whatever we can and who cares if it grows back, not our problem, "nature" will take care of it. The same way we seed, till, etc., we should be doing the same thing with oceans and "hunting" aka fishing should only be allowed as a hobby. In a somew…
Farmed fish are fed wild-caught fish generally, so their environmental impact is comparable. There is an ongoing effort to remove that from the chain, but it remains an unsolved problem.
Well, I have a feeling that the resolution of this problem will accelerate in the following decades. With China and other developing countries rising, we're going to need to feed 2-3 billion people more at developed country standards.
We'll literally suck all the fish out of the ocean at the rate we're going, with our current processes.
Re: How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
#9We badly need some sort of industrial fish farming at a large scale. Oceanic fishing at this point is basically like hunting gathering at an industrial scale: we just catch whatever we can and who cares if it grows back, not our problem, "nature" will take care of it. The same way we seed, till, etc., we should be doing the same thing with oceans and "hunting" aka fishing should only be allowed as a hobby. In a somew…
(Salt water) fish farming is still hunting on an industrial scale because the farmed fish are mostly carnivorous and are fed with feed derived to a large part from hunted fish. It's mostly a tool to strip the oceans even harder (with fish farms converting undesirable catch into species people like to eat, everything becomes a target)
Re: How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans
#10What are they doing with all that squid? If the market price of the squid doesn't cover the cost of extraction, then that must mean there isn't much demand for the product.
Centrally planned economies don’t really factor such things in. Extract one resource at a loss to “book” a gain elsewhere.
So they probably think net they are profiting from this. But then, centrally planned economies are not efficient at decision-making...