Will Mckenzie's List: I&I Project 2 Antarctica Fishing

• seamounts often carry above-average plankton populations, seamounts are thus centers where the fish that feed on them aggregate
• Seamounts provide habitats and spawning grounds for these larger animals, including numerous fish
• Marine mammals, sharks, tuna, and cephalopods all congregate over seamounts to feed, as well as some species of seabird
• They have, however, been confidently shown to provide a habitat to species that have difficulty surviving elsewhere.
• Some recent research indicates whales may use such features as navigational aids throughout their migration
• Seamounts may thus be vital stopping points for some migratory animals, specifically whales

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• Bottom trawling literally scrapes the ocean floor clean of life and is considered by some to be the underwater equivalent of clear-cutting forests.
• bottom trawling is one of the most environmentally damaging fishing techniques, killing animals and destroying endangered coral and other sea life

• Why is an oil spill in a polar environment a particularly bad thing?
• (Oil behaves differently at low temperatures: microbes take longer to degrade oil and the oil globules trapped in ice can take years to disperse.
• Moreover, in the event of a major accident it is unlikely that there would be the local resources to carry out a large-scale clean up.)

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• Antarctica and its associated islands provide excellent breeding grounds for countless sea birds, which include
• seven species of penguins, four albatrosses, 15 petrels and shearwaters, three storm petrels, two diving petrels, one cormorant, one gull, three terns, two skuas, and two sheathbills (as well as a few non-sea birds…two ducks and one pipit).

• without krill, many beloved animals such as whales, seals and penguins would not be able to survive!
• This process is inefficient (it takes several pounds of krill to produce one pound of salmon)
• avoid eating farmed salmon, which is often fed using meal made from krill.

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• method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats
• Trawls may be non-selective, sweeping up both marketable and undesirable fish and fish of both legal and illegal size.
• By-catch commonly includes valued species such as dolphins, sea turtles, and sharks, and may also include sublegal or immature individuals of the targeted species.
• Any part of the catch which cannot be used is considered by-catch, some of which is killed accidentally by the trawling process
• Because bottom trawling involves towing heavy fishing gear over the seabed, it can cause large-scale destruction on the ocean bottom, including coral shattering, damage to habitats and removal of seaweed
• One bottom trawler can put more than 10 times the amount of suspended solids pollution per hour into the water column than all the suspended solids pollution from all the sewerage, industrial, river and dredge disposal operations in Southern California combined.
• Bottom trawling on soft bottoms also stirs up bottom sediments and loading suspended solids into the water column
• trawling can directly kill coral reefs by breaking them up and burying them in sediments
• In addition, trawling can kill corals indirectly by wounding coral tissue, leaving the reefs vulnerable to infection.

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• Ocean sediments are the sink for many persistent organic pollutants, usually lipophilic pollutants like DDT, PCB and PAH.^[6] Bottom trawling mixes these pollutants into the plankton ecology where they can move back up the food chain and into our food supply

• Oil spills are an increasing form of pollution   in Antarctica as a result of increasing shipping activity in the region
• flotsam and debris lost overboard from ships,   particularly fishing ships. Bits of fishing net, fishing line, boxes, strapping   bands etc. might sound harmless if unsightly, but they can have a deadly effect   on wildlife.

• is in danger from the growing demand for health supplements and food for fish farms
• '

  Whales, penguins, seals, albatrosses and petrels - all those creatures we think are absolute icons of Antarctica - depend on krill,'
• the annual allowed krill catch in the Southern Ocean is 4 million tonnes
• One whale can eat four tonnes of krill a day.
• Krill are thought to 'sequester' carbon equivalent to the emissions of 35 million cars a year.

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• There are just 17 species of penguin   worldwide
• Of this 17, there are 4 that live and   nest on and around the Antarctic continent and a further   3 that live and nest on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic   islands, giving us 7 species that can be considered "Antarctic   Penguins"

• maintaining biodiversity and providing refuges for species
• protecting important habitats from poor fishing practices and other harmful human activities and allowing damaged areas to recover
• increasing the productivity of surrounding fisheries through a spill-over effect.

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• In Antarctica, a tiny 0.2% is

  strictly protected
• Nearly 10,000 other species shelter within this beautiful, icy environment, many of which can be found nowhere else on the planet.

• But, imagine what it would be like if these animals were struggling to swim and feed in waters polluted by too much shipping traffic.

   

  Or, if the shrimp-like krill - their main food source - was overfished and there was not enough left to feed the vast colonies of other animals.

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• fishing has divided  the marine biomass by ten in a century. Not bad.....

• The environmental impact of shipping includes greenhouse gas emissions and oil pollution
• Carbon dioxide emissions from shipping is currently estimated at 4 to 5 percent of the global total
• and estimated by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to rise by up to 72 percent by 2020 if no action is taken.
• Marine mammals, such a whales and manatees, risk being struck by ships, causing injury and death. For example, if a ship is traveling at a speed of only 15 knots, there is a 79 percent chance of a collision being lethal to a whale

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