AR-News: Jellyfish for lunch? It's no joke, says scientist--What's next, soilent green?

[jim robertson]

Jellyfish for lunch? It's no joke, says scientist
As traditional fish stocks decline, some nations are turning to eating lower 
on the food chain

By ROBERT McCLURE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- It's your wedding anniversary, so you go out for seafood. 
As you and your mate reflect on your years together, you're both salivating 
in anticipation of a fine meal of ...

Jellyfish?

That's the picture of the not-too-distant future painted yesterday for 1,500 
fisheries scientists from around the globe by one of the world's leading 
fisheries researchers, Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia.

Kicking off the World Fisheries Congress, the veteran scientist showed how 
people's growing appetite for seafood has driven fishing boats from 
industrialized countries ever farther into Southern Hemisphere seas 
controlled by Third World nations.

It's a pattern also reflected in Puget Sound, where commercial fishing has 
virtually disappeared but a Seattle-based fleet goes all the way to Alaska 
to land the nation's biggest fish catch.

Pauly recounted how, as traditional fish stocks have declined, people in 
Third World countries increasingly have turned to eating lower on the food 
chain, even taking in the likes of sea cucumbers and sea urchins -- "stuff 
that eats dirt," Pauly said.

"When we first presented this, it was a joke -- you're going to have a 
jellyfish sandwich," Pauly said in his keynote address. "The journalists all 
ate it up -- not the jellyfish, the quote. It was a joke, but now it's 
real."

In the wake of the disastrous crash of the North Atlantic's cod stocks, the 
Newfoundland government is encouraging fishermen to go after jellyfish, 
Pauly said.

full story:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/171765_fish04.html


"One of the most dangerous things that can happen to a child is to kill or 
torture an animal and get away with it" —  Margaret Mead.

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