Category Archives: Live Waterman Talkabouts

School Talkabout on Over Fishing

Live Waterman Talkabouts, , , ,
The chances of winning in a global campaign to halt the following are slim:
  • over fishing,
  • by-catch fishing
  • dynamite fishing,
  • foreign factory ship landings,
  • illegal fishing,
  • cyanide fishing,
  • bottom trawling
  • and the dumping of low value catch in favour of a higher value catch.

Some laws will be written to be broken by law breakers.
Some fines will be handed out and some fishing equipment seized.

In the big picture,  whilst bellies are being fed, money is being made and taxes are being collected –  we’ll continue dancing to the beat of this bad drum until we drop ourselves into deep water.

“Will we swim?”

In some ungainly doggy fashion we’ll patch together an ever poorer quality existence until we are all fighting over the last krill burger which will contain more micro-plastic particles than protein. But HEY! – the serving suggestion on the packaging will look delicious.

“Will there always be plenty more fish in the sea?”

When I delivered our first World of Water Talkabouts  I was a member of the Institute of Fisheries Management and my studies had included trimming for pike with an empty bottle, lift, lave, dip and haaf netting and babbing or clotting for eels. I had been sea fishing, visited fishing weirs, seen putcher fishers at work and was conducting research into aquaculture, including algae, oysters, clam, salmon, trout and carp farming.

Freshwater fish appeared to have a sporting chance of escape, even from poacher nets which were hastily erected across rivers after most water baliffs were fast asleep and removed before their dawn patrol. At this time, marine fish stocks were already being attacked by technical and industrial fishing methods, so it was clear that the sea was never going to be a safe haven for fish family life again.

“What’s the future?”

A mix of Global Fisheries Management, Aquaponics and World diet changes.  In the long term, we may reach peak people population and peak food production. When that hits us, we may need to move planet but whilst we study terraforming this planet needs to hold in good health all the life we’ll need to replicate any new home.

We may have five billion years before the Sun stops shining but as we may need all that time to work out how to terraform, then we have to keep this Earth a ‘home SWEET home’ and not trash it.

The next generation needs to look to the future urgently.

World of Water does all it can to make today healthier for tomorrow. We need everyone to help in this global need – and that’s the message flowing through all or School Talkabouts.

 

 

School Talkabout on: Sharing the Differences

Live Waterman Talkabouts, , ,

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

 

 

 

 

 

Left:
Seashell (Crassostrea gigas) grown in the protective environment of a farm hatchery with a very thin colourful shell form.
Right:
Layers and layers of heavily Insulated off white seashell (Ostrea edulis) found growing in the cold wild sea.

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The real treasures of this blue planet are the different ones, the special ones like the Mad Hatterpillars and Iron Clad Seashells

All manner of things live and have lived on this Earth home since it became habitable.  Most of them we have never seen alive or heard their sounds. In a School Talkabout, we can safely imagine dinosaurs without the need to bump into any in the school playground.

This blue planet is full of different creatures of different shapes and sizes and it’s a buzz with sub atomic particles, too small to see, but each individual aspect runs its part and at its own unique speed.  For example, as I can run at about 12 km/h.  I can overtake most mountains glacial slides which usually move very slowly and over a long time but I can’t outswim a Mako shark which does 47 mph (76 kph) on a good day,  and absolutely nobody can outrun light which travels through air at about 299,700 km/s – faster through a vacuum.

Living with these and all other differences, makes for a peaceful life. From a distance, in outer space, the Earth looks like a peaceful enough blue planet but it is full of live sparks, bright colours, shades of colours and many human depths without colour.

If the next generation is to live more peacefully with itself and this blue planet whilst solving the environmental problems we’ve caused,  it needs to:

  • value and share different ways
  • culture the unique qualities of individuals
  • respect other species and their habitats
  • learn more about the rhythm of Nature

World of Water is an educational charity so we like to talk about the way forward and to support the big learning process the World needs to adopt. If you feel you would like to support us, let’s diary a get together.