High Fuel Costs Could Reduce Tuna Fishing: Industry Group

<<Rising fuel costs may force one third of ocean-going long-line tuna fishing boats across the world to halt operations, an industry group said Thursday.

About 140 boats from Taiwan, China, South Korea, Fiji and elsewhere are already standing idle at port, said Yuichiro Harada, managing director at the Tokyo-based Organisation for the Promotion of Responsible Tuna Fisheries.

"Another 260 boats are considering suspending operations, bringing the total number to about 400" out of 1,174 boats operated by members of the organisation, Harada told AFP.

"The more you operate, the more money you lose" due to high fuel costs, he said, adding that a typical Japanese boat would lose 100,000 yen (970 dollars) in one day of long-line open-ocean fishing.

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http://rawstory.com/news/afp/High_fuel_costs_could_reduce_tuna_f_05292008.html

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Would it be too much to hope that this allegation is true? The world's tuna fish populations have been decimated by all-too-efficient tuna fishing vessels driving tuna populations to the brink of economic and biological extinction. While "no-take" zones and tough enforcement of tuna quotas would greatly improve the world's tuna population's chances for survival, LESS fishing, not more, would improve these creatures' chances for propogating into future generations and allowing our descendants to enjoy tuna in the sea and at least occasionally tuna on their platters.

Long-liner tuna boats are also all too effective at catching sea turtles. While I believe that the World Wildlife Federation has developed a fish hook that is much less likely to catch sea turtles instead of tuna, sea turtles still get entangled in long lines, and I doubt that the new, improved fish hooks are all that widespread on the tuna boats still going to sea.

Not so good for the fishermen out of work, but maybe we could pay them to do something else.

Shrimp boats and charter boats stay moored at the docks.
The ones who do go out have to charge a lot more to cover fuel.

A few months ago we paid $4 lb. for large shrimp directly from the boat.
Last week $6.

We were in Sam's a short time ago. They had frozen shrimp for $2.99 a pound. Small ones. What we call 'gumbo shrimp'.
5 lb. bags.
One pile was from China.
The other from Viet Nam.
:-(