The Side Hustle Thread (split from Bees with AZD)

Quote: Fleastiff

Filthy Riches.
The title of a TV show on:
alligator hunters
Worm diggers
eel catchers
mushroom hunters.
Maine, Vermont, New York, Louisianna.
Each episode does snippets on each unusual occupation.

Dirty Jobs did all these 10 years ago.

Quote: Fleastiff

If eels are so valuable but not exportable from the USA except under extreme enforcement, what about a high seas eel raising venture? What would it cost to raise eels beyond the twelve mile limit? Get some old tub and pay some old geezer who is on the lam to tend your eels?

You kind of have to wonder if part of the reason prices are high enough to make it worth shipping live eels, the Japanese/Asian waters are fished out. The ecological impact might be pretty large if we do that in turn.

One of my 3 am thought paths - what is really going on in the ocean. Between worldwide overfishing, garbage dumping, effluvient runoff, etc. Wild stocks are depleted, many popular fish near extinction either by overfishing or by losing food while higher in the food chain, plastic, algae bloom, many other things. Mostly hidden so, out of sight, out of mind. Until it gets to critical mass and can't be healed. Then we all die.

Some scientists consider critical mass to have passed about a decade ago.

Plastic on the surface is being "successfully" skimmed but even at extreme depths its plastic in the fish and if we reached into the Mariana's Trench and pulled the plug the first thing down the drain would be tons and tons of plastic.

China, Japan, both Koreas, Vietnam and the Unification Church (Moonies) simply will not stop.

Even French fishing vessels use fake id numbers and duplicate numbered containers.

"Ackee rice, salt fish on ice and the rum is fine any time of year" usually meant cod but cod stocks are sorely depleted.

Ciguatera poisoning is increasing in tropical waters.

darn this double clicking mouse

Quote: Fleastiff

Plastic on the surface is being "successfully" skimmed but even at extreme depths its plastic in the fish and if we reached into the Mariana's Trench and pulled the plug the first thing down the drain would be tons and tons of plastic.

I thought plastic floated?

Quote:

China, Japan, both Koreas, Vietnam and the Unification Church (Moonies) simply will not stop.

Even French fishing vessels use fake id numbers and duplicate numbered containers.

"Ackee rice, salt fish on ice and the rum is fine any time of year" usually meant cod but cod stocks are sorely depleted.

Pacific cod from Gulf of Alaska is down 70% in two years, 85% by next year. Alaska provides 33% of USA cod.

Trawlers in Alaska shove 11% of the total fish caught in Alaska, over the side of the vessel as bycatch.

Quote: petroglyph

I thought plastic floated?

Pacific cod from Gulf of Alaska is down 70% in two years, 85% by next year. Alaska provides 33% of USA cod.

Trawlers in Alaska shove 11% of the total fish caught in Alaska, over the side of the vessel as bycatch.

I don't understand "bycatch". Catch and release? Throw dead? Use for chum? Something else?

Ok, I was aware of it, just not by that term.

Bycatch, in the fishing industry, is a fish or other marine species that is caught unintentionally while catching certain target species and target sizes of fish, crabs etc. Bycatch is either of a different species, the wrong sex, or is undersized or juvenile individuals of the target species. The term "bycatch" is also sometimes used for untargeted catch in other forms of animal harvesting or collecting. (Wiki)

Quote:

beachbumbabs, Throw dead?

'Fisheries[edit]

Global capture of Alaska pollock in tonnes reported by the FAO, 1950–2010[13]
The Alaska pollock has been said to be "the largest remaining source of palatable fish in the world."[14] Around 3 million tons of Alaska pollock are caught each year in the North Pacific from Alaska to northern Japan. Alaska pollock is the world's second most important fish species in terms of total catch.[15]'

Until sometime in the 90's[?] trawlers kept none of the pollock meat and instead, "roe stripped" the fish and threw the rest overboard. The law was created then, sometime to make them utilize the flesh. 3 million tons per year of the target specie's; were thrown overboard, harvested just for the eggs.

All the salmon fisheries, unless it changed recently are all, "roe fisheries". The eggs are worth much more than the rest of the fish. I have seen a 50 pound king salmon hen sell for less than 3.00 per pound, but the eggs within were sold for 900.00.

The herring fishery is a roe fishery, what's left after "stripping" is mostly bait. The fish sell, by the egg content of the fish while still in the water, by the ton.

Quote: petroglyph

I thought plastic floated?

Depends on what kind of plastic. Floating/sinking is one way they sort it to recycle.

Even if the plastic is floating it can get eaten and incorporated into the food web.

Quote: AZDuffman

Getting propane behind a mobile dog groomer. Asked the normal "how's business" question and she said they will not even take new clients right now. They had a super set-up with a 1-ton van and cap with all kinds of equipment so you would be looking at $50-100K. But I would figure revenue of $100K after a person got established.

These Fetch a Vet trucks make even more money than that.