Great read on the effects of overfishing

[smellzlikefish]

As student pursuing his Master of Science degree after achieving a bachelor of science in Biology, I have read an average of 1 scientific journal article per day for the past four-ish years. A large percentage of these have been on the hot-button environmental issues (global warming, habitat destruction, eutrophication, etc.), so I like to think I have a level head about this kind of thing. I came across the following article in Science looking at the historical evidence and effects of overfishing the other day and it blew my mind. Any marine science-minded folks out there should have a look at it, regardless of your stance on overfishing.

Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems

and for the .pdf-

http://www.zoologi.su.se/education/courseweb/amce/Jackson et al. 2001.pdf

 

[drbill]

Oh, please... we know there's no such thing as overfishing. Nor is there any global climate change, economic collapse or bribery ion our political systems.

Establishing appropriate baselines is an important aspect in determining the level of overfishing. Too many anglers seem to want to establish the baseline as "today" with the term overfishing only applied to declines from current levels. Many of them have expressed strong disagreement with me when I reference stock levels that predate European settlement of the West Coast (which, of course, are only anecdotally arrived at for the most part).

The abundance of life, both on land and in the sea, that was present when Europeans first arrived on the North American continent has been decimated and will continue to be drawn down until we do something about human population levels.

 

[drbill]

Oh, please... we know there's no such thing as overfishing. Nor is there any global climate change, economic collapse or bribery ion our political systems.

Establishing appropriate baselines is an important aspect in determining the level of overfishing. Too many anglers seem to want to establish the baseline as "today" with the term overfishing only applied to declines from current levels. Many of them have expressed strong disagreement with me when I reference stock levels that predate European settlement of the West Coast (which, of course, are only anecdotally arrived at for the most part).

The abundance of life, both on land and in the sea, that was present when Europeans first arrived on the North American continent has been decimated and will continue to be drawn down until we do something about human population levels.

If growth is considered "good" in human economic systems, why isn't it considered the desired outcome in the populations of native species in ecological systems?

OOPS: hit the quote instead of the edit button... not enough coffee this AM