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Re: The Limits To Growth
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Subject: Re: The Limits To Growth
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From: "Mike Asher" <masher@tusc.net>
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Date: 12 Nov 1996 05:09:36 GMT
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Article: 15781 of alt.sustainable.agriculture
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Newsgroups: alt.politics.economics, alt.save.the.earth, alt.sustainable.agriculture, sci.econ, sci.energy, sci.environment, talk.environment
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Organization: db Technology
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References: <542t7d$iep@rainbow.rmii.com> <32665F05.112@ilhawaii.net><JMC.96Nov9215757@Steam.stanford.edu> <5645oa$enb@agate.berkeley.edu> <JMC.96Nov10090026@Steam.stanford.edu> <3287B4E9.B00@ilhawaii.net>
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Xref: newz.oit.unc.edu alt.politics.economics:92163 alt.save.the.earth:25271 alt.sustainable.agriculture:15781 sci.econ:59898 sci.energy:57619 sci.environment:111052 talk.environment:76298
Jay Hanson <jhanson@ilhawaii.net> wrote in article
> Well John, if there is anyone who is an expert on misleading
> people, it's you.
>
> Fishery Declines of more than 100,000 tons, Peak year to l992
>
> Species Peak | Peak | 1992
> Year | Catch | Catch | Decline | Change
> |(. . . million tons . . )|(percent)
Southern African pilchard 1968 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 1.6 | -94
Haddock 1969 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | -80
Peruvian anchovy* 1970 | 13.1 | 5.5 | 7.6 | -58
> (rest of table snipped)
>
> Source FAO.
Speak of misleading! Your table includes only the species that experienced
declines; not hard to support your thesis that 'fish are running out'.
However, culling from the same source as you, the FAO, I pulled the
following data:
"World marine fisheries production has increased almost fivefold over the
past 40 years, rising from around 18 million tonnes to more than 86 million
tonnes by 1989... The use of fish as a source of food has increased
steadily, rising from 40 million tonnes in 1970 to 70 million tonnes in
1989."
"Five species accounted for most of the production increase during the
1980s. The catch of Alaska pollack, Chilean jack mackerel, Peruvian
anchoveta, Japanese pilchard and South American pilchard increased from 12
million tonnes in 1980 to 25 million in 1989. The Japanese and South
American pilchard share with the Peruvian anchoveta the characteristic of
widely fluctuating yields as a result of natural variability. These stocks
are expected to decrease in the future. Indeed, Japan's catch of Japanese
pilchard dropped from 4.49 million tonnes in 1988 to 3.68 tonnes in 1990.
"Catch has also increased for higher-value species which are facing
increased demand. The catch of all tuna increased fairly steadily during
the past two decades, adding one million tonnes to the total annual catch
between 1980 and 1989. The catch of skipjack and yellowfin tuna have
increased at a rate of 5.4 percent and 4.5 percent per year, respectively,
since 1970... There have, however, been recent increases in the catch of
albacore, particularly by Taiwan, Province of China, whose catch rose from
an average level of about 60 000 tonnes during the period 1977 - 1985 to
almost 140 000 tonnes in 1989"
Source - THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE (SOFA) 1992
Hang your head in shame, Mr. Hanson.
--
Mike Asher
masher@tusc.net
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