The oceans are emptying. In a single generation, once thriving populations of deep sea fish have been driven to the brink of extinction by expanding fisheries, researchers said yesterday.
Records of catches logged by trawlers operating in the North Atlantic from 1978 to 1994 show that at least five species of deep sea fish are at such low levels that they qualify for the World Conservation Union's critically endangered list.
The research, published in the journal Nature, adds weight to demands by conservationists for the creation of internationally protected reserves to place vast areas of the deep seas out of bounds to fisheries.
"We expected to see declines, but we didn't expect such severe declines," said Jennifer Devine, who led the study at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada. "If nothing changes, we could be facing barren oceans or oceans of fish we can't utilize."
Last year, researchers in Canada, led by Ransom Myers at Dalhousie University, reported that the great predators, such as tuna, swordfish and marlin, were in serious decline. Shark populations have also plummeted in the North Atlantic, by 90 percent in 15 years.
While previous studies focused largely on species destined for the dinner plate, the latest research looked at by-catch, those fish caught up in trawlers' nets by accident.
"These are species no one really cares about, but they play a key role in the ecosystem," Devine said.
The scientists reviewed trawler logs for records of five deep sea by-catch species -- the roundnose grenadier, onion-eye grenadier, blue hake, spiny eel and spinytail skate. All are slow growing, reaching more than 1m long and living to 60 years. They found that levels of all the fish plummeted by 87 percent to 98 percent over the 17 years, a rate that will see a decline over the next three generations of 99 percent to 100 percent.
Records for roundnose grenadier and onion-eye grenadier from 1995 to 2003 show those species have collapsed by 99.6 percent and 93.3 percent in 26 years.
"The declines occurred on timescales equal to, or slightly less than, a single generation of these species," the authors wrote.
The researchers also checked the trawlers' logs for trends in the size of fish caught. Of the five by-catch species, four became progressively smaller over the 17 year period, by 25 percent to 57 percent, suggesting the fisheries were driving down the size of the fish that remain in the oceans.
The sharp decline in by-catch species has alarmed conservationists, who point out that fisheries have only expanded into the deep seas in recent decades, after near-shore stocks dropped below profitable levels.
"We now have the technology to fish down below 2km, something that has been brought in on a large scale in the North Atlantic in the past 15 years," said Myers.
He added: "What's alarming is we're eliminating fish we don't know much about at all and they are often the biggest conservation concern. If you're fishing for cod and you fail to catch any, you can quit fishing for it and hope stocks recover, but no one pays attention to the by-catch, so they can be fished out without anyone picking up on it."
The crash of fish populations is a spur to governments to rein in fisheries and seek out international agreements on deep sea marine reserves, Devine said.
Fisheries in some parts of the world, notably Alaska, have developed ways to cut their by-catch by using technology and switching fishing grounds. Throwing the fish back is not an option.
If the trauma of being pulled to the surface from the deep is not fatal, the fish are usually crushed in the net by other fish.
In Alaska, officials forced fisheries to cut their by-catch by threatening to close them if they failed to do so, an example that Myers believes other fishing regions should follow.
"You can't expect fisheries to do it out the goodness of their hearts, but given the right incentive, fishermen can often find a way," he said.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS