'Only 50 years left' for sea fish

There will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by the middle of the century if current trends continue, according to a major scientific study.

Stocks have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating.

Writing in the journal Science, the international team of researchers says fishery decline is closely tied to a broader loss of marine biodiversity.

But a greater use of protected areas could safeguard existing stocks. "The way we use the oceans is that we hope and assume there will always be another species to exploit after we've completely gone through the last one," said research leader Boris Worm, from Dalhousie University in Canada.

Link to full article

I hope this is not true, that there are only 50 years left for the creatures living under the sea. I am a very keen Sea Food Lover

Its kind of ironic that the person posting this (me) is named Piranha. Anyways....

Sorry if this has already been posted, please remove thread if that is the case.

Thanks, Piranha.

[edit on 26-5-2009 by Piranha]

[edit on 26-5-2009 by Piranha]

[edit on 26-5-2009 by Piranha]

Something a bit fishy about this story sorry could not resist, I doubt the decline would bring about a total colapse of marine life, if you look at the level the whale population got to, then with quotas has bounced back, plus recent increases in EU fishing quotas would tell a different story. I think this is just fear mongering in the the face of fish moungering

I don't understand. The oceans are so large.. we don't go anywhere near most of it, so how can the fish be gone in 50 years?

reply to post by On the level


But whales are not at the bottom of the food chain.

Often when a 'critical' species like plankton decreases in numbers, a small change in numbers causes a large problem, quickly. This is because it props up the rest of the food chain, when one link fails or weakens, the effect travels up the food chain. Think of mercury poisoning - it gradually ends up at the top of the food chain - us, sharks and other predators.

Nature is much more fragile than you think. How many cans of tuna do you think we can keep pulling from the ocean? If you have ever heard of Tsukiji fish markets in Tokyo, you will understand where I am coming from.
Being a video jockey (VJ) I had to get footage there. I got to the markets around 5am and shot 3 hours of footage. It is the largest fish market in the world, the amount of captured sea critters is amazing. You can very easily get lost there. Double, triple, quadruple or more stacked boxes of fish for hundreds of meters if not a kilometer in each direction. The market is a bustling, blade runneresque melting pot of any fish you can think of and many you probably have not. There are 3 wheeled delivery vehicles packed with tuna, boxes, ice blocks or anything else you can think of scurrying down tight passageways. Fish tanks filled to the brim with fish and crabs, distribution boxes packed with crabs and fish still squirming or moving (some still alive and covered in breadcrumbs - typical Japanese style).
The tuna room at the far end of the market is massive, roughly 100-200m wide by 40m deep with hundreds and hundreds of frozen tuna, which are inspected and bid on each day.
This really opened my eyes - with 6bn plus people on the earth, how can we sustain this much wreckage of the sea?
Trawlers destroy the ocean floor and plant life with weighted nets, indiscriminately catching species, many of which we do not eat. Long line fishing techniques and netting catch many a bird, dolphin or shark each year.


The solution which has been trialed here in New Zealand is protected zones, these are immensely helpful in re-juvinating the sea. I have snorkeled in the first protected zone which is called Goat island, or Leigh. The abundance of fish was simply amazing, grand daddy snapper the size of your leg, giant crayfish larger than some peoples thighs!

I will attach some frame grabs to simply show the size of this single fish market. No doubt most cities have a few smaller ones.. multiply this one out for each reasonable coastal settlement and the numbers get mind boggling.

Okay I'm having issue with Sony software currently. Will download a large update and try again tomorrow!

It will only take a few breaks in the oceans food chains to bring this about.

The remaining sea life that is unable to adapt will perish.

I have read theories that say it was actually a similar situation which led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs millions of years ago. While some claim that it was an asteroid impact in the Yucatan that killed prehistoric life others have shown that there isn't enough evidence to support that as the sole cause, though it could have done enough damage to the global ecosystem to have ultimately led to mass extinctions.

Think of the growing human population demands on sea food as well as pollution, as an asteroid impact that could have a similar impact on sea life.

[edit on 26-5-2009 by Walkswithfish]

reply to post by Piranha


once the fish and animals are gone...cannibalism!

hehe

If plankton goes we go i think,they produce a large percentage of the oxygen on the earth.As for fishing,this news just comes as the EU is reforming the fishing quotas to allow more fish to be caught

Piranha is river fish, so you should not worry, me thinks.
Also, we heavily pollute and exploit oceans/seas. I read somewhere that there are large areas of mediterranean sea where there is much more plastic waste then there is plankton. Spooky stuff. But it will not elimitate sea fish. There will be much fewer species, they will contain much more toxic waste. However i think that this kind of exaggerations is acceptable since it highlightens the problem.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


Well yes, but a micro experiment would be in order.

Try putting a single drop of bleach in a gold fish bowl and watch what happens to the fish.

Originally posted by warrenb
once the fish and animals are gone...cannibalism!

I never though that one day I would be affraid this film
could be/become partly true. . .

en.wikipedia.org...

Blue skies.