FOR MANY YEARS, lovelorn men and women have been told, “There are plenty of other fish in the sea.”
If scientists are right, that phrase could become meaningless 42 years from now, in 2048. That is when, according to a report issued earlier this month, the last species of seafood commercially caught today will disappear.
It won’t happen all at once. The four-year study says people have been fishing species to near extinction for several hundred years. The extinctions occur when too few of a species are left to support a resurgence in the population. As commercial fishing has become more efficient, the rate of extinctions has accelerated. Soon, the oceans — a boundless garden to the human species for thousands of years — will be barren of edible life.
Don’t care for seafood? It is still bad news for everyone. Many cultures around the world depend on seafood for nutrition.
What happens to the oceans when they are stripped of so much life? The aquatic ecosystem could be irretrievably changed and the cradle of life could become a stinking sewer. And, in too many ways to count, the health of the land depends upon the health of the oceans.
If the study’s findings are correct, there is little time left to abandon destructive fishing techniques and change international behavior. Unless the world can create and enforce a sustainable fishing policy — one that will allow the oceans and the species they contain to recover and thrive — a large part of the planet’s food supply will disappear.
That cannot be allowed to happen.
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Posted by CAFEmporia (anonymous) on November 21, 2006 at 2:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
These studies and their conclusions are validated by numerous other studies stretching back more than 30 years. In many ways, the health of the oceans is a bellweather for the health of our land masses. For decades, we have seen gradual deterioration of oceanic life forms. That is reflected on land, too, and we can see it more clearly every day.
The good news is that oceans have the ability to recover rapidly if conditions change. By decreasing fishing activities, banning all fishing in some locations, we would see remarkable progress in a very few years. We need also to better control pollution runoff, mainly from agricultural activity, but also byproducts from manufacturing and human sewage which are also major factors.
For too long we have ignored the reality of this disaster. If we do not act soon, irreversible damage will be done and our species, not just our way of life, will be threatened.
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