Fishy Future?
Posted on November 5, 2006 Comments (10)
Will seafood nets be empty? Grim outlook draws skeptics:
“It looks grim, and the projections into the future are even grimmer,” said Boris Worm, a marine biologist and a lead author in the peer-reviewed study, which was published today in the journal Science.
But other scientists question that forecast. “It’s just mind-boggling stupid,” said Ray Hilborn, a University of Washington professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.
The evidence seems pretty convincing overfishing has created serious problems and if unchecked those problems threaten to become even more serious. It also seems a stretch to claim those problems will be unchecked (that the checks will be less than they should be I think is a reasonable position). It seems to me the original stories talking about the end of fishing stocks in the next 40 years are alarmist to the point of being counterproductive.
The measured effects today should be enough for sensible people to realise the tragedy of the commons applies to fishing and obviously governments need to regulate the fishing to assure that fishing is sustainable. This is a serious problem exacerbated by scientific and economic illiteracy. The obvious scientific and economic solution is regulation. Determining the best regulation is tricky (and political and scientific and economic) but obviously regulation (and enforcement) is the answer.
Related: Overfishing: a threat to marine biodiversity [UN broke the link, so it was removed:-(] – International talks on overfishing in May – Our oceans are being plundered – World’s Fish Supply Running Out, Researchers Warn – Defining Best Scientific Information Available for Fisheries Management (I sure wish the National Academies would improve the usability of their sites)
Categories: Economics, Life Science, Science, Students
Tags: commentary, curiouscat, economy, fish, government, ocean, politics
10 Responses to “Fishy Future?”
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December 9th, 2006 @ 9:06 am
“The Greenland shark typically inhabits the deep, dark waters between Greenland and the polar ice cap”…
May 8th, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
“A quarter of the world’s oceans will be protected from fishing boats which drag heavy nets across the sea floor, South Pacific nations have agreed. The landmark deal will restrict bottom-trawling, which experts say destroys coral reefs and stirs up clouds of sediment that suffocate marine life…”
March 18th, 2008 @ 8:07 am
“the regional $150 million fishery, which usually opens for the four-month season on May 1, is almost certain to remain closed this year from northern Oregon to the Mexican border…”
May 11th, 2008 @ 8:23 am
“Ninety years of industrial-scale exploitation of fish has, he and most scientists agree, led to ‘ecological meltdown’. Whole biological food chains have been destroyed…”
September 13th, 2008 @ 3:06 pm
“Nearly 40 percent of fish species in North America are imperiled, according to a new survey by fish experts, the U. S. Geological Survey, and the American Fisheries Society, up 92 percent from the last survey done in 1989…”
June 21st, 2011 @ 7:19 am
[…] overfishing of our oceans has been a problem for over 100 years and a known problem, that we continue to give too little […]
August 9th, 2011 @ 9:29 pm
ecosystem damage the aquatic environment is very influential on the economy. but it can be overcome with the establishment of artificial ecosystems such as the lat rumpon to protect marine ecosystems from people who are not responsible. so that the economy can return to normal can be even increased.
September 7th, 2011 @ 10:55 pm
[…] could cause havoc. They look yummy though. And eating them would be doing nature a favor unlike the overfishing of the oceans. Abstract of the open access article, A large population of king crabs in Palmer Deep on the west […]
October 4th, 2012 @ 11:09 pm
The normal pattern has been to turn to more aggressive fishing methods and new technology to try and collect fish as over-fishing devastates yields. This, of course, further devastates the state of the resources and makes it so recovery will take much much longer (decades – or more)…
October 4th, 2013 @ 7:32 pm
[…] The State of the Oceans (2011) – Fishless Future (2005) – European Eels in Crisis After 95% Decline in Last 25 years – Unless We Take Decisive […]