Life, Then Death, on a Trawler in Freezing Antarctic Seas

May 27, 2015 International News

Matt Lewis, a British marine biologist and author of Last Man Off: A True Story of Disaster and Survival on the Antarctic Seas, was only 23 when he was hired as a scientist on the South African fishing trawler, the Sudur Havid. Destination: South Georgia Island, in the Antarctic, to fish for one of the most valuable catches on earth, Patagonian toothfish. Three weeks later, he found himself in a perfect storm which left many of his crewmates dead. Read the rest here 10:46

a British marine biologist, author of Last Man Off, Life, Matt Lewis, on a Trawler in Freezing Antarctic Seas, Then Death

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The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

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