Fishermen off of Oregon's coast could go broke sitting, or could go broke working, which is why they're trading in their salmon fishing gear and began outfitting their boats for prawns. This is a classic case of overfishing (as well as other factors that play into the salmon shortage, such as climate change and habitat degradation) and fishing down marine food webs--and the Oregon fleet is trying to diversify under the new regime. Read more on the conversion of a fishing fleet and hard times at the New York Times.
Steve Wilson refits his salmon boat to fish for prawns destined (hopefully) to high-end restaurants. Photo by Leah Nash for the NYTimes.
Comments
I think it's less about fishing down the food chain than about taking advantage of new space. California has a small, highly restricted prawn trap fishery that's considered fairly "clean". Prawns are sold live for big money and the fishermen are territorial about their sites. They haven't had to compete with trawlers as much as the Oregon folks have (even the MSC-certified Oregon pink shrimp fishery is a trawl fishery). Traps and trawls can't co-exist spatially, but as the west coast groundfish trawl fleet has been further restricted more area for trapping opened up. Not that we shouldn't be worried about the import of the salmon decline, but this could be an opportunity to "eat like a pig," as you like to say, and shift away from 90-year-old rockfish to fast-growing crustaceans. Providing they put some limits in place.
Posted by: Kate | May 9, 2008 2:04 PM