The Dying seas
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- The Dying seas
- Language
- English
- Source
- Panorama XII (10) October 1960
- Year
- 1960
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- Beware! The water is going up in smoke. The Dying Seas The vast oceans are still the richest source of food in the world—but the day may be rapidly approaching when there will not be “lots more fish in the sea.” If it does come, it will probably be the fault of man, not nature. The danger signs are already clear. Fishermen from Glou cester to Osaka are finding it almost impossible to catch enough fish per voyage to stay in business. Here are two ex amples of how critical the sit uation has become: The port of Boston lands more haddock than any other fishing port in the world and is one of the major fisheries centers of the United States. Yet its total landings at the Fish Pier in 1958 were the low est in thirty-six years, and had dock landed here amounted to 78,000,000 pounds, compared with annual catches of 200,000,000 pounds thirty years ago. In 1953 the total haul of sar dines on the West Coast dropped from previous annual levels of 600,000 tons to 5,000 tons. The sardine industry al most vanished that year. HY HAVE THERE been these major declines in harvests of the ocean’s food resources? There are always certain fluctuations due to natural causes. Climate changes, ocean temperatures and unusual acts of nature such as earthquakes have profound effects on the numbers and locations of the innumerable species of marine life. But some depletions are so severe and affect human life to an extent where intensive research and the adoption of corrective measures is called for. Whenever money has been spent to outfit marine biologi cal laboratories, ocean research vessels and oceanographic stud October I960 89 ies, big dividends have resulted. Norway, Japan, Britain, France, Portugal, Iceland and the Soviet Union are devoting substantial efforts and subsidies to improve fisheries techniques, to harvest fish wisely and to fathom more of the ocean's mysteries. The Soviet Union, for exam ple, recently completed a siz able fleet of huge 100-man fishing trawlers, equipped for long voyages and containing modem freezing and processing equipment Oceanographers, marine bio logists and research equipment will be carried by these ships. The Soviet Union is also ex perimenting with oceanographic submarines fitted with under water TV cameras and giant searchlights to learn more about the ocean’s bottom deposits and the behavior of fish. These innovations are the re sults of a program to expand the Soviet fisheries, which in cludes twenty-seven schools for the training of technicians, bio logists and marine specialists. It is doubtful that the United States has one such fishing trawler as these Soviet vessels. D OPULATION EXPERTS believe * the land-growth food sur pluses of today will not be enough to feed the world to morrow. They believe we will have to turn to “our last fron tier” for food and other natu ral resources, including water to drink. Over-fishing, waste, pollution of coastal regions, nuclear wea pons tests and the dumping of nuclear wastes into the ocean may eventually poison the salt water, the plants and animals of the sea and man through the complex ocean food chain. The cycle of ocean life is de licately balanced. Elimination of one species, through over fishing, may lead to the extinc tion of other species that had depended on it for food. Most dangerous is interfer ence with the growth of plank ton, minute ocean plants that are ultimate, basic food of near ly all ocean life. Pollution could interrupt this growth and upset the marine food patterns. Fresh water fish also are be ing affected by waste, pollu tion, and over-fishing. More unusual is the danger to salmon, a fresh water spawner, resulting from dams that block the salmon's attempt to swim upriver to his breeding ground. Pacific salmon constitute the single most valuable ocean re source of the northwest Amer ican coast. In 1955 the American and Canadian salmon packs were the lowest in fifty years. 90 Panorama In 1958 the total salmon pack of the Pacific Northwest was up again, but the increase was due solely to a bumper crop in Alaska, while Oregon and Washington experienced the effects of apparent declines in salmon populations. Shrewd Seer A fortuneteller one prophesied that a good friend of King Louis XI of France would die on a certain day. The prophesy came true and the superstitious king, thinking the seer had worked some kind of magic that really caused his friend’s death, planned to have the fortuneteller himself killed. When the man was brought before him the king said, "I am told you are very clever but can you tell me what your future is going to be?” The fortuneteller, suspecting the worst, answered, "Your Majesty, I shall die three days before you do.” From that day on. King Louis XI took very good care of the fortuneteller. Information, Please Oring an extremely hot day the sergeant in charge of bayonet drill at an Army base was trying hard to get his listless men to attack the stuffed dummies with more energy. Finally he halted the drill and said, "Listen men, those dummies are the enemy. They have burned your house and killed your parents. They carried away your sister, stole all your money and drank up all the whisky in the house.” The sergeant then stepped back and motioned the recruits forward toward the row of dummies. The line of men surged ahead with new purpose, eager to attack. One recruit, his eyes stern and his drawn back over his teeth in a snarl, paused to ask: "Ser geant, which one drank that whisky?” October 1960 91
- pages
- 89-91