No more fish to eat in 40 years

Study warns that all seafood stocks will have collapsed by 2048

Fish stocks are declining so rapidly that scientists have predicted that they will disappear by the middle of the century unless radical measures are taken to protect them.

A study of more than 100 fishing regions, published in the journal Science, suggests that if current trends are maintained every seafood species will have collapsed below commercially viable levels by 2048.

Its authors also found, however, that fish stocks and diversity recover quickly when marine ecosystems are managed to prevent overfishing.

Concerns have been raised for several decades over stocks of such fish as cod in the North Sea ? but the extent to which species have declined worldwide and mankind?s effects on the Earth?s ecosystem shocked scientists.

?Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world?s ocean, we saw the same picture emerging,? said Professor Boris Worm, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

?In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems. I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are . . . [It is] beyond anything we suspected.?

Researchers found that 29 per cent of fish species have collapsed to, or below, 10 per cent of their original levels over the past 1,000 years. There has been a steep decline since the Industrial Revolution.

Overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction ? mostly on coastlines and in coral regions ? have been blamed. Researchers assessed catch numbers recorded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Sea Around Us Project, at the University of Columbia, before concluding that fish stocks will collapse by 2048.

They also analysed human impact on 12 regions, including the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic Sea, examined archives and sediment cores over a thousand-year period and looked at initiatives designed to promote species recovery. The researchers found that once marine ecosystems receive protection, they quickly recover. Increases in biodiversity were associated with large increases in fisheries production and with increased and lucrative, tourism, they reported.

Profesor Worm added: ?It is not too late to turn things around . . . diversity of species recover dramatically and with it the ecosystem?s productivity and stability.?

continues.........

FISHING, GONE
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Global cod catch down from 3.1 million tonnes in 1970 to 950,000 in 2000
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Bluefin tuna catches in the Mediterranean thought to be 60 per cent above the 32,000 tonnes quota
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Russian trawlers are said to catch 100,000 tonnes of cod illegally in the Barents Sea

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Over-exploitation said to have increased 150 per cent since 1970
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Global fishing fleet estimated to be 2.5 times sustainable levels
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Fish stocks in North Atlantic are one sixth of levels 100 years ago

Makes you want to tear your hair out, doesn't it? Yet again, an 'authority' reveals to the public something we've all known for decades! Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that we cannot continue to plunder the seas for every last resaleable nugget without devastating effect. If you were told that you couldn't buy/eat sea-fish for four or five years, would it bother you that much? Probably not - and by 2010 we'd very likely have swarms of big fat cod back in our waters. Oh for a different type of government, a government with the humility to consult the REAL experts on so many matters - the bloke in the street.
Ask 'him' if he thinks a temporary total ban on commercial fishing might be a good thing and he'll boggle at the naivete of such a question - OF COURSE IT WOULD BE!
Ask 'him' if it's acceptable for tens of thousands of women to walk around the streets of Britain dressed as spectres from your worst nightmare.....and ask 'him' if caning should be restored....if more prisons should be built....if we need 20% of the WORLD'S cctv cameras watching us day and night. Trust 'him' to give the most sensible answer.

Immediately after posting my last comment, I checked my Emails. The first two to appear were junk mails from 'Eddy' and 'Mac'- the very names of two guys I've just started corresponding with! Terrifying.

Sorry to have got off the 'fish' topic.

Fishing report 'ignores reality'


A dire warning about the future of fish stocks is a doomsday prediction which ignores reality, a Scottish fishing body has said.

An international team of scientists, writing in US journal Science, said stocks could collapse within 50 years if commercial fishing is not curbed.

The UK Government is considering its response to the warning.

The Scottish Fishermen's Federation said strenuous efforts were being made to make fishing in the UK sustainable.

SFF chief executive Bertie Armstrong said the mistakes in the report came from "extrapolation" of current circumstances into the future.

He said: "We have the strongest objections to the superficial nature of this report.

No complete ban

"It takes a ridiculously long timescale and does not mention the efforts being made in Europe to recover stocks as quickly as we can.

"It is a doomsday prediction that ignores the reality of what the world is actually trying to do to remove the ills that it describes."

Mr Armstrong said much was being done to halt the decline of marine biodiversity.

He added: "With respect to fisheries there has been much effort made to make exploitation of a natural renewable resource sustainable and that is where we are approaching now."

The international study said supplies of fish such as cod were under threat from over-fishing and habitat destruction.

UK Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw said the warning represented the biggest global environment challenge after global warming.

'Alarmist scaremongering'

But he ruled out a complete ban on cod fishing, saying a "zero catch" would see "the end of all fishing in the UK".

Richard Lochhead, the SNP's fisheries spokesman, said: "This report is alarmist scaremongering that is largely irrelevant to Scottish waters where the vast majority of stocks are booming and some are even at record levels.

"Of the key stocks in our waters, the situation facing North Sea cod is by far the exception rather than the rule.

"The reason why cod stocks have changed has yet to be identified although global warming is now being seen as a major influence on that particular stock and fishermen can't exactly be blamed for that."

Ted Brocklebank, the Scottish Conservatives fisheries spokesman, said: "Only when we are in a position directly to conserve our own stocks can we ensure that we will have a chance to build upon them."

He said it was encouraging that fishermen were reporting an increase in cod stocks.

"He said it was encouraging that fishermen were reporting an increase in cod stocks."

Birds Eye's portions are still getting smaller.

A increase in cod stocks. Where. I gave up sea fishing and returned to coarse fishing because of the poor fishing on the flyde coast.

A mate goes every weekend and last year the biggest cod caught between 3 of them was around 3Ib. 10 years ago you could pull a couple of double figure cod out over the winter fishing once a week and loads of fish around the 5Ib bracket.

It will take a lot more than words from comercial anglers to prove to me that the fish stocks are on the mend.