Sea Warming Hits Japan's Fisheries

[gulfcoastliberal]

TOKYO, Jan 31 (IPS) - Japan, a voracious consumer of marine resources, is now discovering that the drastic depletion of its own fish stocks is linked to the loss of underwater seaweed colonies caused, in turn, by rising sea temperatures.

''It's no exaggeration to say that Japan faces a critical situation when describing the rapid decline of marine supply in its domestic waters that is linked to seaweed loss. Tengusa (seaweed) provides food for marine species,'' says Tomohiro Takase, head of the fisheries department at the Hachijojima municipality.

Hachijojima island, situated 300 miles (482 km) south of Tokyo, is now reporting the drastic decline of abalone, a marine resource that fetched high prices and provided a lucrative income for fishermen living on the island.

Takase says regular catches of around 20 tons per year have now dropped to less than one ton, leaving fishermen to face a gloomy future.

''The situation is alarming. Investigations have shown widespread seabed desertification or the surf burnout phenomenon, across Japan. In Hachijojima the loss of tengusa covers most of the waters surrounding the island,'' explained Takase.


http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31974

[donsu]

1. looks like the world is headed in the direction of vegetarianism

are any Japanese looking ahead and planning diets without seafood?

tick, tick, tick

[gasperc]

2. I graduated from high school in 1985, it was an issue then

the ozone was depleting, global warming was occuring, by 1990 Al Gore wrote a book called "Earth in the balance", you know the Earth, GAIA, the place we live on.

Now these fuckheads in Japan are alarmed?! That ship sailed 10 fucking years ago. Me thinks the dinosaurs died off suddenly(hundreds of years I think in Earth time) because what may have started slowly(whether it was triggered by a meteor or dinosaur dung), avalanched into very dramatic and irreversible climate changes that didn't give dinosaurs enough time to adapt. So, I think, natural selection picked the species that were best able to adapt to the new environment.

This is what will be alarming, a world of 6 billion+ people fighting tooth and nail for food, water, clean air and a way to cool off( our bodies can't live an grow in 100F+ without air conditioning for sustained periods of time).

[donsu]

3. every internal combustion machine in the world needs to be turned off

now - until the world comes to consensus on what should be done to save the planet and thus ourselves.

bushmilhousegang be damned.

[gasperc]

4. ok..not going to happen

but Ford needs re-do his feel good innovation ads with real actual products that consumers can go to the showroom and demand. Like flexible fuel vehicles, increase the supply of energy to help bring down costs and also promote them as much cleaner burning fuels. Me, I would mandate all manufacturers and imports must sell a fixed amount of hybrids by 2008 and beyond and increase the minimum CAFE standards by 1 mpg/year through 2020. I know it seems mild but it is way better than a 0 increase over the last 10 fucking years.

[Dead_Parrot]

5. They can always eat whale...

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