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Comment by joekw | Hacker News Reader

I work in the fishing industry. Based on what I am seeing - fully autonomous fishing boats/cleaning/packing plants. You know how you have a single farmer handling hectares of farmland, its really looking like fisheries are going to go the same way easily in 10 years.

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This is really concerning. The fishing industry is fairly manual but many fish populations are already pushed to the brink. I went to Antartica a few months ago and I was shocked at how many squid boats we could see at night on our way down. Hundreds and hundreds with huge bright lights to lure them to their machinery. Overfishing is a real problem to the point that the current situation is almost unsustainable. I worry automation will push it over the edge.

Less incentive to overfish when fewer people depend on the industry for their jobs. And, just curious, is overfishing squid an actual problem? Seems like there is a problem with squid overpopulation in fact. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/world-octopus-and-squ...

I think the overpopulation in that article is more in the Pacific Ocean. The way it was explained to me (in Spanish, and I'll admit I'm not exactly fluent) was that squid fishing off the coast of Argentina and nearing Antartica is not at all regulated and they use much bigger and more powerful lights to attract them than what they'd be permitted to use elsewhere.

I don't think they're technically "allowed" to use those sorts of lights in Southern Ocean either but each nation is responsible for enforcing the treaty and most governments don't. It's also my understanding that Japan is pretty open and notorious in their Antarctic fishing in violation of international treaties but everyone just sort of shakes their head without doing much to stop them.

Edit: Not particularly detailed but mentions the lack of regulation/overfishing in the area: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2016/oct/...

Overfishing is a regulatory, not technical, problem.

Though I do think many of the hardest problems today are regulatory (climate, health, digital political advertising), not necessarily technical.

I disagree. Regulations and technology go hand-in-hand. Often the technology comes first and regulations try to keep up.

I don't think technology is the issue here, it will just exacerbate an already existing problem of unsustainable fisheries management.

You can actually and legitimately sink a robotic fishing boat if it does unlawful fishing.

Yes, same is happening in fish food (as in food for fish). Just have to go to the ones that report failures or have lost electricity. In that sense not fully automated, and it will take a while for fully automated boats. Its very much like what big farmers do.

Point to a job that doesnt require human interaction and someone in the field can tell you how to make him jobless.

You should really watch this documentary: Filet! Oh Fish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgrFXN4d1Jc

Its disturbing to say the least.

But to the other comments - the fishing industry is horrifically unsustainable - there is no replenishment to the degree from which we take from the oceans.

Poor measurement of fish populations, and even when the data exists stating that populations are over fished, shady regulatory boards provide licenses to fish what shouldnt be fished.

I would vote to outright ban fishing, in favor of farming:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-future-of-fis...

This sounds interesting.

Will this make fish much much cheaper?

Will it be easier to regulate since it is all data is stored? Are these companies more interested in regulation (since if theyve invested so much they may want longterm production)

Probably short term it will be slightly less and then become extremely expensive as our already overfished reserves dwindle from automated over-fishing.

I was under the impression it might become possible to lab grow fish flesh like beef, pork, chicken, etc.

It would certainly allow for clean, unpolluted fish and let the fish in our oceans recover.

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