09-04-2003 - Biodiversity

sagar: Author=’Jorge Salazar’ program=’3895′ video=”Courtesy of SARC, Univ. of Oslo, from the USA Today website._JB:_ This is Earth and Sky. The largest predators of the sea – such as giant bluefin tuna, giant marlins, and hammerhead sharks – might be quickly disappearing according to some scientists.

_DB:_ We spoke with Ransom Myers, a professor of biology at Dalhousie University in Canada.

_JB:_ Meyers found that the biomass – the numbers in weight of fish – for ocean predators has been reduced to one-tenth of what it was in the 1950’s. The number he’s finding now can be used as a baseline, a known quantity to compare with the past or future.

_Myers:_ Having a baseline allows you to look at where you are compared to where you were historically. For example, if you go to Africa, and you go to many areas which are over-harvested, the game is shot out, and there’s overgrazing by goats, you would not believe the diversity and wonder of the wildlife in the Serengeti. And so without any knowledge of the Serengeti, you would not know that properly managed ecosystems can produce such diverse and wondrous animals. So it’s the loss of knowledge of the great fish in the oceans that we’re trying to recover by doing this historical statistical analysis.

_JB:_ We’ll have more with Ransom Myers – tomorrow. Thanks today to the “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration”:http://www.noaa.gov/ and to the “National Fish and Wildlife Foundation”:http://www.nfwf.org/. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.

Written by EarthSky