Originally published August 7 2005
Predator fish are in short supply in the ocean, researchers say
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Researchers have found that many predator fish species in the ocean, like Tuan and Marlin, are in a sharp decline.
The great predators of the seas - tuna, swordfish, marlin and others - could be on the way out.
Canadian researchers who surveyed the catches from ocean fishery "hotspots" warn that not only are numbers in decline, but also the variety of species in any region.
The research, published in Science provides fresh ammunition for conservationists who want to see the creation of large, internationally protected marine parks where fish populations can breed and recover.
Boris Worm and Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University, who showed in 2003 that shark populations in the north Atlantic had fallen by 90 per cent in 15 years, combed fisheries data for the past 50 years to discover that catches were becoming less diverse.
The research highlights a pattern of hotspots in the open ocean where tuna, swordfish and other predators congregate, presumably to hunt smaller fish attracted by local surges of zooplankton in the high seas.
For the first time, marine scientists have begun to understand why sea surface temperatures and other conditions make some fishing grounds richer than others.
The two started with catches logged by Japanese long liners.
Pelagic long liners pay out baited hooks on lines up to 96 kilometres long.
Though the fishermen may be after bluefin tuna, or swordfish, they also catch other kinds of tuna and billfish as well as sharks, sea turtles and even albatrosses.
They matched this evidence against data collected independently by Australian and US researchers, who counted more than 140 species in the same regions in the past 15 years.
"In every ocean basin, our hotspots today are only relics of what was once there," Doctor Worm said.
We have the chance and the political measures to protect some of these areas."
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