There will be no more fish in the ocean in 30 years if we keep fishing at current rates, study warns
We’ve all heard the prediction there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050, but according to one study, there won’t be any fish at all by 2048.
The study was conducted by an international team of ecologists and economists, who say ocean fish are disappearing at alarming rates due to overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change.
A third of edible fish species have already declined by over 90 percent, say researchers from Nova Scotia, the U.K., the U.S., Sweden and Panama, who worked together to survey the world’s fishery populations.
“I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are — beyond anything we suspected,” said the study’s lead author Boris Worm, an ecologist and marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
“Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood,” said study co-author Stephen Palumbi, a biology professor at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station.
“If biodiversity continues to decline, the marine environment will not be able to sustain our way of life. Indeed, it may not be able to sustain our lives at all,” added co-author Nicola Beaumont of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the United Kingdom.
The research team analyzed a 1,000-year history of 12 coastal regions around the world, including San Francisco and Chesapeake bays in the U.S., and the Adriatic, Baltic, and North seas in Europe.
They also looked at fishery data from 64 large marine ecosystems and 48 protected ocean areas.
The loss of species isn’t gradual, they say. It’s happening fast, and getting faster.
Worm and colleagues call for sustainable fisheries management, pollution control, habitat maintenance, and the creation of more ocean reserves.
“It’s not too late. We can turn this around,” Worm says. “But less than 1% of the global ocean is effectively protected right now.”
RELATED: Warming Oceans Are Losing Oxygen at Breathtaking Rate, Threatening Mass Extinction of Marine Life
Comments
4 responses to “Ocean Fish Could Be Extinct by 2048, Ecologists Warn”
If you believe this, I have 10 million acres on Mars to sell you at $10 million an acre.
Not sure it’s a question of belief. There is scientific evidence you might be ignoring. Don’t be ignorant.
I am a professional fisherman from Kauai and I can tell you personal experience it’s true. I have seen at least a 70 or 80% decline and fish such as wahoo mahi mahi and yellowfin tuna. Big Pacific Blue Marlin are almost extinct now.
The fish are gone, the reefs are dead. The birds that feed on small fish are dying off at an alarming rate. If the government does not intervene quickly the fish and all wildlife will be gone.
A ban on all fishing is necessary to allow the fish to replenish themselves otherwise it’s game over son.
We are living in the final days, life as we know it , for our children’s children won’t exist. My grandparents remember WW2, Their grandparents will remember,the beginning,before,when we could have made change and prevented what is to come or at aleast lessened the planetarium devastation and distruction of the human race and world as our Grandparents new it. Thing is no one Gives a f×××, money and greed concurs all, money and greed will bring the planet to its knees.