A school of jack mackerel in the Southern Pacific. Stocks of the fish, rich in oily protein, have declined from 30 million due to a feeding frenzy in the last two decades.
Jack mackerel, feeds a hungry Africa. People eat it unaware of the shortage of this staple fish; much of it is reduced to feed for aquaculture and pigs. It can take more than five kilograms, more than 11 pounds, of jack mackerel to raise a single kilogram of farmed salmon.
The world’s largest trawlers, after depleting other oceans, now head south toward the edge of Antarctica to compete for what is left.
Industrial fleets bound only by voluntary restraints compete in what amounts to a free-for-all in no man’s water at the bottom of the world. From 2006 through 2011, scientists estimate, jack mackerel stocks declined 63 percent.
Greed knows no bounds until the ocean balance is totally reduced and thousands of species disappear and people starve.
Excerpts courtesy of nytimes.com http://tinyurl.com/8yfea6u
Nature's Crusaders 