Expert says fisheries can recover, in time
We can ensure healthy fish populations (Ministry of Natural Resources, Canada)
One major 21st century challenge is over-fishing of the world’s oceans.
Carl Safina is president of the Blue Ocean Institute. He told Earth & Sky that technology is a factor in the serious decline in fish populations in the past several decades. Sonar, radar and GPS have all made humanity better at fishing.
Safina also said the problem of over-fishing has a relatively simple solution.
Carl Safina: If we leave certain areas alone, and we don’t over-fish in the rest of the areas, the fish know what to do naturally, and they will recover.
Safina said that many of the species that experts are most concerned about are gourmet specialties.
Carl Safina: In general, the smaller and the lower down on the food chain the seafood is, the better it is for you, and the better it is for the ecology. Just like it’s better to eat vegetables or eat chicken than it is to eat lions and bears.
Safina sounds hopeful.
Carl Safina: For the most part, where we let the pressure up, fish populations have begun recovering. If their habitat is still intact, and we don’t kill them faster than they reproduce, they can start coming back.
Check out Blue Oceans’ seafood guide. It’ll help you choose what fish to eat.
Our thanks today to NASA: explore, discover, understand.
Additional Teacher Resources
American Association for the Advancement of Science: All Current Fish, Seafood Species Projected to Collapse by 2048
This article provides a synopsis of a report published in the journal, Science. It discusses the decline of marine species and what we can do to turn this trend around.
NOAA Fisheries – Office of Protected Resources
This web page provides links to lesson plans for educators on the conservation of marine life, food chains, and more. It also has a section for kids.
