'Only 50 years left' for sea fish [View All]

[ozone_man]

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 fisheries 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.

"What we're highlighting is there is a finite number of stocks; we have gone through one-third, and we are going to get through the rest," he told the BBC News website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6108414.stm

About 20 years ago I read "Sea of Slaughter" by Farley Mowhat. He went into great detail about the overfishing and collapse of fish stocks and marine mammals. Tragic.