Fish
Story
 The
Orange Roughy can live to be 150 years
old. It becomes sexually mature at
age 20.
The Acadian redfish can live as long
as 50 years and begins breeding at
about age ten.
The Atlantic halibut can live to be
50 but doesn't have offspring until
it's at least ten years old.
The Blue Fin tuna.
Slow growing and late-maturing.
As a result of overfishing, disruption
of the reproduction cycle, and the
heinous offense of indiscriminate
trawling by industrial fishing fleets
these species and many others, like
the Atlantic
cod, could go extinct in our lifetimes.
Along with rising acidification of
ocean waters, due to man-made climate
change, the
oceans may someday be home only to
species like the jellyfish. No joke.
As for farmed fish, salmon cannot grow
on a vegetable-based diet. They have
to be fed other fish, so
while you may think you're eating responsibly
by
ordering it for lunch you're just kicking
the problem one species down the ladder.
And don't get me started on tilapia.
There are simply too many people
on this planet, especially those in
the West and double-especially in America,
who rely on animal-based products
for their protein. How many species
have to go extinct just because hunger
makes us short-sighted? It's entirely
possible, due to climate-change and
overpopulation,
that there will come a day
when
we've
eaten the last fish and the last cow
and the only animal left on the menu
will be us.
Happy Earth Day, everybody!
(BTW, bonus mouse-click cartoon today.)
-----------
Jellyfish Update: Let's be
clear about this "anything edible"
part of today's
comic. Yes, you can eat jellyfish as
it's about 7% protein, but that's about
it. It offers almost no nutrition (120
calories per pound), it can't be farmed,
it requires lengthy and complicated
processing, it's relatively expensive
and
tastes like bubble-wrap. Plus, only
a few species of jellyfish are edible.
Many
are toxic
to humans. So having the seas full
of jellyfish isn't a consumer's dream.
=Lefty=
|
