Almost no more seafood after 2048 at current rates, study warns
Nov. 2, 2006
Special to World Science
Special to World Science
Seafood will be all but a memory by 2048 if bulging human populations keep devouring fish and polluting oceans at current rates, warns a study published in the Nov. 3 issue of the research journal Science.
Species have been disappearing faster and faster, said lead author Boris Worm of Dalhousie
University in Halifax, Canada. If the long-term trend continues, all fish and seafood species are projected to collapse within my lifetime.
Collapse is defined as the catch of a species dropping by 90 percent, said Worm, one of a group of ecologists and economists studying how marine biodiversity helps sustain humanity.
Worm and colleagues have provided the first comprehensive assessment of the state of ecosystem services provided by the biodiversity of the worlds oceans to humanity, said Science international managing editor Andrew Sugden.
The study is based on a wide array of historical and experiment data, he added.
Twenty-nine percent of fish and seafood species have collapsed already, Worm said. It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating. We dont have to use models to understand this trend; it is based on all the available data.
The problem is much greater than losing a key source of food, he added. Damage to oceans affects not only fisheries, but the ocean ecosystems overall productivity and stability, he said. A dwindling variety of species have a harder time maintaining water quality through biological filtering, protecting shorelines, controlling harmful algal growths and preserving oxygen levels.
The good news is that it is not too late to turn things around, Worm said. The scientists studied 48 areas worldwide that have been protected to improve marine biodiversity. We see that diversity of species recovered dramatically, and with it the ecosystems productivity and stability.
We hardly appreciate living on a blue planet, Worm said. The oceans define our planet, and their fate may to a large extent determine our fate.
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| There will be few seafood fish left four decades from now if current trends keep up, a study suggests. (Image courtesy NOAA) |
Collapse is defined as the catch of a species dropping by 90 percent, said Worm, one of a group of ecologists and economists studying how marine biodiversity helps sustain humanity.
Worm and colleagues have provided the first comprehensive assessment of the state of ecosystem services provided by the biodiversity of the worlds oceans to humanity, said Science international managing editor Andrew Sugden.
The study is based on a wide array of historical and experiment data, he added.
Twenty-nine percent of fish and seafood species have collapsed already, Worm said. It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating. We dont have to use models to understand this trend; it is based on all the available data.
The problem is much greater than losing a key source of food, he added. Damage to oceans affects not only fisheries, but the ocean ecosystems overall productivity and stability, he said. A dwindling variety of species have a harder time maintaining water quality through biological filtering, protecting shorelines, controlling harmful algal growths and preserving oxygen levels.
The good news is that it is not too late to turn things around, Worm said. The scientists studied 48 areas worldwide that have been protected to improve marine biodiversity. We see that diversity of species recovered dramatically, and with it the ecosystems productivity and stability.
We hardly appreciate living on a blue planet, Worm said. The oceans define our planet, and their fate may to a large extent determine our fate.
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