Blue Frontier
DB: This is Earth and Sky. Ransom Myers of Canada’s Dalhousie University is lead author of a recent study about the big predators of the ocean – like marlins and great white sharks.
JB: His study shows that in the last 50 years, over 90% of this sort of fish has vanished. Meyers told us why these large fish might go the way of the dinosaurs.
Myers: I think the analogy that I think of is, that if you go back to the Pleistocene, when humans developed hunting techniques to hunt large animals, whenever humans arrived in a continent -North America, South America, Australia – you had a tremendous loss of bio-diversity of the large animals… The same pattern is repeating now, I believe, but it’s just beginning as we exploit the ocean….
DB: Meyers said that by using the latest technology, fishermen can catch almost down to the last fish.
Myers: Remember, we’ve killed off woolly mammoths and mastodons using nothing more than sharpened stones attached to sticks. And the human mind’s the most powerful weapon ever devised [laughs], so we can certainly do the same thing in the sea, which means that we have to fish in a responsible and sustainable manner.
JB: For more – come to earthsky.org. Thanks to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
The following person was interviewed for today’s program. Our thanks to:
Prof. Ransom A. Myers
Killam Chair of Ocean Studies
Department of Biology
Dalhousie University
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada
Additional Teacher Resources
University of Florida, Geography Department: Commercial Fleets Reduced Big Fish by 90%, Study Says
This articles explores how in just 50 years, the global spread of industrial-scale commercial fishing has cut by 90 percent the oceans’ population of large predatory fish. These species include species from the majestic blue marlin to the staple cod.
The Marine Conservation Biology Institute: Deep Trouble in Deep Blue: Decline of Great Sea Predators Imperils Ocean Ecosystems
We’re losing the marine equivalents of tigers, wolves, bears, and eagles. In the wild frontiers hundreds of miles beyond coastal cities and oil platforms, the oceans are not only deep; they’re in deep trouble. This article explains how commercial fishing is decapitating open ocean ecosystems by eliminating these animals, the marine equivalents of tigers, jaguars, wolves, bears, and eagles all over the world.
