Media Release | Feb. 6, 1998
Data proves global fisheries crisis
A UBC researcher has hard evidence to back up what many scientists
have long suspected -- marine fisheries are in a global crisis.
In an article appearing in the Feb. 6 issue of the journal Science,
UBC Fisheries Centre Prof. Daniel Pauly demonstrates a shift in
global fisheries catches away from species high in the food web,
like snapper, halibut and tuna, to species lower in the food web,
like anchovies and shrimp.
The 45-year decline is especially pronounced in the northern fisheries,
like Canada's, which have highly efficient and technologically advanced
fleets.
Pauly's data shows that as larger predators at the top of the food
web are decimated, fishers move down the web to more abundant plankton
eaters, such as anchovies.
Targeting more abundant species further down the food web should
lead to increasingly large catches. Instead, a phase of stagnating
or declining catches is the usual outcome, says Pauly.
"By removing big predators and going after their smaller prey,
we are ripping the fabric of these webs, and endangering their ability
to produce harvestable fish at any level," Pauly says.
Pauly says if present exploitation patterns continue, in about
25 years the only fish in the seas will be lanternfish, jellyfish
and krill.
"This research is another nail in the coffin of traditional fisheries
management. We must begin to focus on the health of ecosystems,
instead of the health of particular fisheries within the fishing
industry."
Pauly, Fisheries Centre graduate student Johanne Dalsgaard and
three international researchers co-authored the study. They painstakingly
analyzed catch data for 1,300 different groups of marine species
covered in the official statistics of the United Nations' Food and
Agricultural Organization since 1950. These statistics were compared
against 60 published food web models for all major aquatic ecosystems.
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Contact
Prof. Daniel Pauly
Fisheries Centre
Tel: 604.822.1201
Sean Kelly
UBC Public Affairs
Tel: 604.822.3213 |
