Return of the Wilderness, part 2

[Scythe13]

Okay, along similar veins, but slightly different.

How long until 'natural food stocks' e.g. fish in the rivers, animal populations, ocean animals, etc, increase to more bountiful levels?

[Midnitemo]

Why would that happen?....you've lost me again!....they will surely go into decline with more people than ever looking to tap into these resources!

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The oceans might recover a bit without factory fishing fleets out there but I don't see anything else improving.

[BeardyMan]

(12 April 2014, 08:26)Midnitemo Wrote: Why would that happen?....you've lost me again!....they will surely go into decline with more people than ever looking to tap into these resources!

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The oceans might recover a bit without factory fishing fleets out there but I don't see anything else improving.

Interesting question Scythe.
I see where Mo is coming from, but how many people in the UK are capable of catching a fish, or snaring a rabbit, or taking a cow, peeling It and preparing it?
I know hunger is a great motivator, but I'm not sure I can envisage the population vying for that last rabbit

[Lightspeed]

Midnight I take S13s question to mean how long will it take for game and fish stocks to become plentiful ( again).

In immediate aftermath of a full on crash its to be expected that a lot of wildlife will be taken by people trying to survive.

After the human population declines to a level that matches the available food sources, only then will any remaining pockets of wildlife start to thrive and restock the landscape.

The time it'll take for stock to recover will very much depend on how badly depleted in numbers they are before recovery.

My guess is that it'll be 3 to 5 years before wildlife populations show signs of thriving again.

[NorthernRaider]

I reckon much of the survival wildlife ( Larger Mammals and Birds) will be reduced to almost extinction levels in the aftermath of a societal collapse, few ordinary people will think about keeping breeding stocks of anyting when they have an empty belly so just about every deer, cow, goat, sheep and pig will be eaten. Yeah sure some crafty wild boar, wild goats, smaller deer etc will survive but I reckon we will see the bigger critters take a real battering, number then of course will struggle for many years so long as the number of hungry humans predating on them remains high.

Sea fish once commercial fishing stops should recover to healthy levels in around 10 years according to the EU ( if you can believe them) However it is noted that when sea fish stocks collapsed off the Canadian coast about 30 years ago causing the governments to ban certain commercial fishing in that area it is reported the stocks are only now starting to improve.

River / Freshwater fish is going to be another ballgame altogether, primarily because so many suitable rivers now have dams and wears stopping migrating fish, some such recover within one or two breeding cycles ( tween 2 and 10 years depending on species and habitat regions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon especially on good rivers without dams like the Tweed.

Dunno about other riverine species I guess it will depend on how badly they get fished in the initial aftermath, how much pollution in the following years seeps into waterways etc.

The prudent prepper like some on this forum intend to breed in part their own food fish, I guess they could also restock local water ways with fry ?

[Binnie]

I'd agree with NR on this,

You'd probably find a lot of waste initially, as people take a cow and cut off a leg and let the rest rot,

rabbits may flourish though? with less chemicals and pest control?

[Lightspeed]

Good point about rabbits Binnie. Maybe they will be the primary wild meat for a good while.

[Midnitemo]

Hunting is currently a hobby mostly in this country undertaken by a small minority of the public the status quo seems to be kept quite nicely , occasionally a species have a good year, they starts to cause a problem and get culled back to manageable levels be it rabbits , foxes , deer whatever , when food becomes scarce everyone with a gun will be out looking to supplement the larder , there are currently significantly more gun owners who don't hunt than do in this country and I suspect every last one of them capable of hefting a gun will be willing to go hunt if there need is great enough.

[NorthernRaider]

Around here its one older dude and two 17 yr olds who supply most of the villages door to door rabbit supplies, Ferrets R Us I think those three if not having to avoid the plods could provide enough Bunnies, Pigeons, Pheasant, etc to give the village enough protein to survive on.

To my bloody disgrace since I sold the Ultra and bought the Meteor I am only hitting bunnies 1 out of 3 or 4 times where as before when I hunted more often it was 1 out of 2 or 3 shots.

Lazy Bastard I am lately.

[Midnitemo]

That raises another issue , one of man's classic downfall's is greed , some hunters won't just take what they need but will take all they can to barter/sell onwards and there will be a load of people willing to trade for it

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I used to take between 10 and twenty rabbits a week of the 18acre small holding I used to shoot over and I wasn't keeping pace , by the end of summer every year I'd get the ferret man in just the once and he'd take in excess of a hundred of the land in one session.....imagine what damage to the stocks that man could do if he was let loose to hunt everyday.