Over fishing causing problems: Large catch of ocean perch taken during a bottom trawl survey. Photo courtesy the NOAA.

It looks like we’re in deep trouble now in regards to the Earth’s seafood supply. A recent report published in the journal Science estimates that the world’s fisheries are in trouble and if nothing is done, they could collapse as soon as 50 years from now.

An international team of researchers and economists examined marine diversity’s role in maintaining ecosystem services on which many human populations depend for survival. The study was led by Boris Worm, an assistant professor of marine biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

“Biodiversity is a finite resource, and we are going to end up with nothing left…if nothing changes,” Worm warned.

Worm and his team studied the impact of species loss in a variety of ecosystems, and the results were the same everywhere they looked.

“Ecosystems that were losing species were always more fragile, always more vulnerable, always more likely to see a whole collapse of fisheries, more likely to show an increase in toxic events like fish kill and things like that,” Worm said.

The study also found that loss of biodiversity is closely linked to declining water quality, ocean dead zones, and other harmful events. World leaders have been aware of destructive fishing practices for some time, especially “bottom fishing” via trawlers, which is thought to cause serious damage to the environment.

Worm compared the close connection between marine communities and their habitats to a house of cards: If one habitat type or species in the system is removed, the entire thing collapses.

Despite the report’s gloomy prediction, all hope is not lost. The trend could be reversed if, as the study suggests, an ecosystem management approach is used to set aside areas that would be completely off-limits to any human activity. At the same time, other regions could be made accessible for recreation, research, fishing, and other such uses.

Jane Lubchenco, an Oregon State University marine biologist, praised the evidence for recovery presented in the study, but cautioned that the rate of implementation of the recovery tools needs to be sped up significantly.

Worm added that individually we can have an effect on fishing practices.

“All of these species end up in our bellies somewhere, so of course we have a lot of control over what is caught and how it is caught, “ he said. “We need to make informed choices on the fish we eat."

MORE INFORMATION

Amazing facts about global fisheries crisis (Greenpeace site)
National Geographic
Historic Global Fisheries Agreement

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