Environmental Research Foundation . . P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403 . . Typical is the Grand Banks fishery off the shallow coast of Newfoundland in the north Atlantic. There, after 350 years of commercial exploitation, the haddock, cod and flounder have all but disappeared and the fishery was officially closed a few years ago.
Commercial fishing can be very profitable if conducted on a grand scale.
In 1992, Tyson bought the Arctic-Alaska Fisheries Company, and three other fishing companies. Approximately 40 percent of what these super-trawlers catch is considered trash and is ground up and thrown back into the ocean. Trawlers are now using technology developed by the military to fish waters as deep as a mile, catching species that few would have considered edible or useful a decade ago. Now that the shallow fisheries are in serious decline, trawl nets fitted with wheels and rollers are dragged across the bottom of the deep oceans, removing everything of any size. Part of the problem is consumer ignorance.