May 6th 2009
Climate Change Impact
Sild of MFN, a renowned Environmentalist and also a fishing enthusiast, attended the seminar on Climate Change Impact on Water Resources held at National Hydraulic Reserach Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM). He wrote :-
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“Guys,
Just got back from a seminar on Climate Change Impact on Water Resources held at National Hydraulic Reserach Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM) yesterday.
Just wanna share some interesting finding based on reserch done recently on global climate and local climate as well.
We’re definitely experiencing the effect now! The historical data and the projected data shows that we’re experiencing lot more heavier rain, lot more draught, heavier stream flows locally and other extreme events.
Haiti recently experience typhoon 4 times in a month! Malaysia is still lucky due to our position near equator and this coriolis effect that said to defer those forces to come closer to us BUT there are other extreme events that can penetrate our walls of comforts.
Several models have been tested on impacts to be generated by climate changes. It have been shown globally that our planet will be warmer from 1.8 degree celcius to 4 degree celcisu by the 21th century. Malaysia is listed in top 30 as a CO2 emitter which is alarmin!!!! luckily it’s base on only emergy emission. NAHRIM did a study for Peninsula Malaysia which have yet to be revised by UNDP. It shows that we are actually absorbing back most of the carbon relase (carbon sink)from our plantations. This thing have been debated on the 3th of November in the parliment.
Well there are many more details that i can discuss here BUT the idea is to tell you guys that “THIS IS REAL AND IT”S HAPPENING” Fast and not in linear!!!“
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Lots of prediction mainly on a bigger issues; sea level rises; typhoon, changes of monsoon patterns, agricultural changes due to increase of temperature, methane produced etc.
None were discusing about the migratory paterns of fishes due this changes (salinity, temperature, atm pressure) etc). Some discussion/seminar have been done in Bergen, Norway discusiing on this issues mainly related to saliniy and fish movement, but nothing solid yet (http://www.iiirm.org/iiirmblog/?p=50)
Lets not worry too much about Siakap since they are not among the first to get wipe up due to this climate change, habitat modification/alterations/destruction YES. They are quite capable in thriving in quite large salinity ranges; so they will survive provided they have the habitats. There is a publication on this issues in (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081106065602.htm). They did discussed about changes of temperature into movement of fishes that travel from freshwater to marine vise versa.
There are also discusion about changes of temperature to growth of fishes, comparing it with depth etc (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070427120433.htm). Well fishes move around and they need to do time series of experiments/excercise to get a better prediction/results.
Corals for examples doesn’t move around. Remember thos lanina/elnino 10 years back where coral reef got bleached out?? Well those uniques creatures in those hard coral (zoozanthalae???); these are symbion ; Symbiodinimum microadriaticum which expels out from the hard coarl leaving the coral bleached out and turn white!
That’s what happened; heard after that some areas were ‘healed’ back by this zoozanthalae can thrive back; others dead like dodo. These are some of the historic events that we can refer too; but those on short duration. This prediction on global climate change is supposed to be for a long series events…thinking a bout it making me nuts for a while.
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Am now in Kuantan attending and presenting a paper for the International Conference titled : The South China Sea : Sustainig Ocean Productivities, Maritime Communitied and The Climate.
Several nice papers were presented yesterday; the best so far by the Director of NOAA, USA on Sustainability of Large Marine Ecosystems of Southeast Asia.
There will be several papers on update of Climate Change too. There were also some nice fisheries papers presented yesterday; many were open for wide intepretation. Had a discusioon with many of them on cahnges of catched, fishing effots etc.
The best qoute from yesterday is “Catch and Sustain”.
Source :- MFN
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Climate change leading to shrinking fish stocks, UN says
22 February 2008 – The supply of fish stocks will plummet as the world heats up, impacting millions of people in developing nations who depend on fishing for their livelihoods, according to a new report released today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Rising greenhouse gas emissions threaten at least three quarters of key fishing grounds, and this could affect the 2.6 billion people who derive their protein from seafood worldwide, the study noted.
The ocean’s natural pumping systems, which bring nutrients to fisheries and also help flush out wastes and pollution, are under threat.
Additionally, increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will raise the acid level in seas and oceans, which will hurt corals as well as planktonic organisms at the base of the food chain.
“Climate change threatens coastal infrastructure, food and water supplies and the health of people across the world,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “This is as much a development and economic issue as it is an environmental one.”
The new report was compiled from the agency’s various research hubs, including the GRID Arendal Centre, World Conservation Monitoring Centre and Division of Early Warning and Assessment.
It noted that the worst effects of a combination of climate change, over-harvesting, bottom trawling, invasive species infestations, coastal development and pollution are concentrated in 10 to 15 per cent of oceans, far higher than previously thought.
The study, In Dead Water, was launched at UNEP’s Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum, which ended today in Monaco.
Focusing on the theme “Mobilizing Finance for the Climate Challenge,” it is the largest gathering of environment ministers since last December’s landmark UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, which ended with 187 countries agreeing to launch a two-year process of formal negotiations on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol.
Source :- UN News Center
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Overfishing: a threat to marine biodiversity
Despite its crucial importance for the survival of humanity, marine biodiversity is in ever-greater danger, with the depletion of fisheries among biggest concerns.
Fishing is central to the livelihood and food security of 200 million people, especially in the developing world, while one of five people on this planet depends on fish as the primary source of protein. According to UN agencies, aquaculture – the farming and stocking of aquatic organisms including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants – is growing more rapidly than all other animal food producing sectors. But amid facts and figures about aquaculture’s soaring worldwide production rates, other, more sobering, statistics reveal that global main marine fish stocks are in jeopardy, increasingly pressured by overfishing and environmental degradation.
“Overfishing cannot continue,” warned Nitin Desai, Secretary General of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in Johannesburg. “The depletion of fisheries poses a major threat to the food supply of millions of people.” The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation calls for the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which many experts believe may hold the key to conserving and boosting fish stocks. Yet, according to the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Centre, in Cambridge, UK, less than one per cent of the world’s oceans and seas are currently in MPAs.
The magnitude of the problem of overfishing is often overlooked, given the competing claims of deforestation, desertification, energy resource exploitation and other biodiversity depletion dilemmas. The rapid growth in demand for fish and fish products is leading to fish prices increasing faster than prices of meat. As a result, fisheries investments have become more attractive to both entrepreneurs and governments, much to the detriment of small-scale fishing and fishing communities all over the world. In the last decade, in the north Atlantic region, commercial fish populations of cod, hake, haddock and flounder have fallen by as much as 95%, prompting calls for urgent measures. Some are even recommending zero catches to allow for regeneration of stocks, much to the ire of the fishing industry.
According to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate, over 70% of the world’s fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. The dramatic increase of destructive fishing techniques worldwide destroys marine mammals and entire ecosystems. FAO reports that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing worldwide appears to be increasing as fishermen seek to avoid stricter rules in many places in response to shrinking catches and declining fish stocks. Few, if any, developing countries and only a limited number of developed ones are on track to put into effect by this year the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. Despite that fact that each region has its Regional Sea Conventions, and some 108 governments and the European Commission have adopted the UNEP Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land based Activities, oceans are cleared at twice the rate of forests.
The Johannesburg forum stressed the importance of restoring depleted fisheries and acknowledged that sustainable fishing requires partnerships by and between governments, fishermen, communities and industry. It urged countries to ratify the Convention on the Law of the Sea and other instruments that promote maritime safety and protect the environment from marine pollution and environmental damage by ships. Only a multilateral approach can counterbalance the rate of depletion of the world’s fisheries which has increased more than four times in the past 40 years.
Source :- www.un.org
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So, the Green House Effect is finally here. To make matter worst, most of Malaysian Fishermans and Anglers are not aware of the important of conservation. Today, you can still see Commercial Fishermans that uses ‘Trawler Nets’ to haul in their catch thus destroying the seabed…
“Fishing will definitely be different in the future”
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