I hate to say I tend to agree with this report. Not only are we fishing the living shit out of the ocean with very little concern over how badly we damage the fishery or non-food species in the area, we are polluting the rest. Most people don’t know we have one huge dead zone off of our shores, and wouldn’t believe we have two.
Research unveiled today is projecting that by the year 2050, all current fish and seafood species will collapse. The report is the work of 12 researchers worldwide and is published in this week’s edition of the journal Science.
“I was chilled,” says the report’s lead author, Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who adds, “I was really shocked because, I didn’t expect it to be so soon.”
Worm and the other researchers studied worldwide fishing records from the past 50 years, fishing records from 12 places that stretch back as long as 1,000 years, and records of small scale controlled studies. He says the studies all point in the same direction, “We see very clearly the end of the line…”
I can remember as a child people predicting that we wouldn’t be able to eat fish for the mercury, and lo and behold that’s becoming the case. Look at what almost happened (and may yet) to the swordfish, and think about what poorly farmed (I believe in fish farming, but it can’t be done as a max-profit enterprise) salmon and their parasites and diseases are doing to their local ecosystems.
We can fix this if we take action now, if we really wanted to. Nature is extremely resilient if you give her a chance to catch her breath.
Triggered by
#17’s comment “This sounds right to me. Cod are now an endangered species.. COD?!”
I did some searching.
How endangered cod is varies, I’m sure, but never the less it’s a sad picture many places. I found some info describing the situation in the Eastern Baltic Sea.
As late as in the ’80s, they caught about 100.000 tons yearly. In 2000, they caught only 10.000 tons. A 90 % loss/reduction in 20 years. The same pattern are reported from other areas there.
New and “better” methods have enabled fishing in areas that previously have been safe havens. Trawling as described by #25 is mentioned as one of the improved methods. And a worsened quality of the water is among the causes for the drop. Put into it what you want, but it’s pretty clear it’s caused by man.
Some interesting details of trawling: Research in Netherlands shows that for each kilogram fish that’s sell able, 10 kilograms of non sell able fish are killed. And 6 kilograms of other lifeforms from the bottom also killed. And after trawling, the bottom of the ocean looks like a desert.
Yeah, we’re doing well on our way to self destruction. Too bad we take everything else with us on the way down.
Let me ask a question,
Has anyone here HEARD about how big Sturgeon USED to be, when Lewis and clark came to the west??
This is a creature that cant lay eggs until its AT least 6 foot long.
And they cant keep anything LESS then 10(?) foot I think it is, Now.
And before this limit, it was Anything you could catch.
Before all the Dams
If I remember right..
Im LC time(lewis and Clark) they said they were about 40′ long.
They cant FIND one much larger then 10′, NOW
After reading this article I went looking for an old classic “Soylent Green”
ah that movie is sweet – Remember: Tuesday is Soylent Green Day