mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 19875
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
Mood: Hot n spicy
|
|
Is Baja tuna farming sustainable?
I see so many pens floating off Baja,… and San Diego bait vendor says the wild bait fish is depleted, and they are having trouble catching bait for
sportfishing market… prompting a few Qs that googling could not answer right away
How many ranchers/pens are there off baja?
Tuna Tonnage per year?
How many tons bait fish per year?
I have seen the many pens off coast north of Ensenada while driving by… how far south are the pens? Are they off camalu and san q?
Something tells me the ranching is a bit much, maybe hurting bait fish population… anyone know of real and useful data on this?
Woke!
Hands off!
“Por el bien de todos, primero los pobres.”
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Pronoun: the royal we
|
|
|
Tioloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4434
Registered: 7-30-2014
Member Is Online
|
|
Do you think Mexico has real/ reliable data on this?
Money$$$$ makes things happen and those against it disappear.
|
|
|
chatolj
Nomad
Posts: 113
Registered: 3-17-2014
Member Is Online
|
|
I don't have the answers to your specific questions but I know that feeding offshore pelagic fish with inshore bait stocks has been disrupting the
natural balance for quite a few yeas now. Inshore fish species migrate up and down the coast looking for their preferred water temperature and food
source and its missing from the equation. Those pinned up Bluefin tuna are eating machines.
To make matters worse, the 2025 Pacific Bluefin quota has been raised by 80% by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission due to the fact that past
quota limits have helped the biomass rebuild. So look forward to more floating Pins and even less inshore bait stocks. The only way to stop the Tuna
farming will be when the inshore Sardine, Mackerel and Anchovy stock completely collapses. Sad.
|
|
|
AKgringo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6198
Registered: 9-20-2014
Location: Anchorage, AK (no mas!)
Member Is Offline
Mood: Retireded
|
|
Damage to the natural flora and fauna in the area from excessive nutrients, biological waste, and antibiotics fed to the penned-up fish can affect the
food chain from the bottom up!
I hope this is being monitored closely, and wonder where the money behind this is coming from.
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
|
|
|
wilderone
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3875
Registered: 2-9-2004
Member Is Offline
|
|
The $$ ??
"The fattened tuna are then sold to global markets, particularly in Japan, where they fetch high prices for their buttery texture and quality, as well
as to high-end restaurants and specialty markets in other parts of the world, including the United States."
The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) are the primary international
bodies responsible for managing the Pacific Bluefin tuna fishery, including those raised in pens, while local monitoring may involve the Universidad
Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) for water quality. The IATTC specifically manages tuna in the eastern Pacific, where Ensenada is located, and
works with member nations to establish quotas and monitor fish stocks
But as stated, disrupts the natural balance. Wonder could have been but for those tuna pens - 20 years? 30 years?
|
|
|
bajaric
Senior Nomad
Posts: 658
Registered: 2-2-2015
Member Is Offline
|
|
Most of the pens seem to be based in the Bahia de Todos Santos, off Ensenada, though I have seen them being towed around off the coastline between
Ensenada and the Coronados.
It might be that the waters offshore Northern Baja are simply more productive, baitfish wise, and feeding the baitfish to tuna and selling the tuna to
Japan is a sustainable fishery. Why might this be? For one, upwelling off Punta Banda brings a lot of nutrients to the surface. Another reason that
there might be more baitfish off Northern Baja is the lack of deep water sewage outfalls off shore Baja California.
While the discharge of sewage from Tijuana to Imperial Beach has been a source of friction for decades, the amount of sewage discharged to the ocean
from Tijuana is a drop in the bucket compared to what gets dumped in the ocean from Southern California. What is more, the Southern California sewage
is introduced to deep waters about a mile offshore, while the TJ sewage goes into shallow waters on the beach where it is exposed to oxygen by wave
action before it drifts north.
|
|
|
chatolj
Nomad
Posts: 113
Registered: 3-17-2014
Member Is Online
|
|
"Most of the pens seem to be based in the Bahia de Todos Santos, off Ensenada, though I have seen them being towed around off the coastline between
Ensenada and the Coronados."
There are very few pens located in Bahia De Todos Santos. The multitude of pens formally at Punta Salsipudes (El Mirador) were moved to the lee of
south Coranado years ago. The Island of Todos Santos have some working pens but not that many.
"It might be that the waters offshore Northern Baja are simply more productive, baitfish wise, and feeding the baitfish to tuna and selling the tuna
to Japan is a sustainable fishery. Why might this be? For one, upwelling off Punta Banda brings a lot of nutrients to the surface. Another reason that
there might be more baitfish off Northern Baja is the lack of deep water sewage outfalls off shore Baja California."
The Purse Seine bait boats based in Puerto El Sauzal travel great distances from the boarder and to the south a few hundred miles looking for Bluefin
feed. They are there because there are no regulations or quotas on the take of the resource. Not because of the cold water upwelling off Punta Banda.
Actually there are times when bait feed is trucked in to feed the pen fish because there is no bait feed in the Purse Seine's range.
"While the discharge of sewage from Tijuana to Imperial Beach has been a source of friction for decades, the amount of sewage discharged to the ocean
from Tijuana is a drop in the bucket compared to what gets dumped in the ocean from Southern California. What is more, the Southern California sewage
is introduced to deep waters about a mile offshore, while the TJ sewage goes into shallow waters on the beach where it is exposed to oxygen by wave
action before it drifts north".
Sewage : Tijuana's 2.3 million population are sending millions of gallons of untreated waste water along with unchecked industrial waste directly on
the beach as well as pumping 60 million gallons a day of treated sewage two miles offshore. Compared to the 3.2 million population of San Diego
county's highly treated sewage discharged over 4 miles offshore at a few hundred foot depth. That is NOT a drop in the bucket. Those bait boats don't
fish four miles offshore. They fish very near the beach.
There is no way feeding offshore Pelagic fish inshore bait fish sustainable. Offshore fish need to eat offshore feed, nearshore fish need to eat
nearshore feed. It's a simple balance of nature. We all know what happens when we mess mother nature.
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
