A new study stating that current trends project the collapse of all currently fished seafood before 2050 has sparked a great debate between the world’s fishing authorities.
The study, led by Dr Boris Worm from Dalhousie University in Canada and published in Science journal, claims that the loss of biodiversity is profoundly reducing the ocean's ability to produce seafood, resist diseases, filter pollutants, and rebound from stresses such as over-fishing and climate change. According to the research, every species lost causes a faster unravelling of the overall ecosystem and that if this continues all species of wild seafood that are currently fished will collapse by 2050.
However, the study does also state that every species recovered adds significantly to overall productivity and that ocean ecosystems hold great ability to rebound.
According to co-author Steve Palumbi of Stanford University, “Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean's species together, as working ecosystems, then this is the last century of wild seafood”.
The study analysed 32 controlled experiments, observational studies from 48 marine protected areas, and global catch data from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) database of all fish and invertebrates worldwide from 1950 to 2003. The scientists also looked at a 1000-year time series for 12 coastal regions, drawing on data from archives, fishery records, sediment cores and archaeological data.
The study has received mixed reactions from the industry:
A WWF statement, clearly concerned by the study, urges governments, industry and consumers to “tackle the crisis in the oceans or risk the food security and livelihoods of over a billion people”.
Dr Simon Cripps, Director of the organisation's Global Marine Programme says, “This study confirms the scale of the oceans crisis. Governments and industry must act or we'll reach the point of no return for fisheries and the marine environment.”
Director of Soil Association Scotland, Hugh Raven, says that pressure on wild fish stocks must be reduced and the obvious way to do this is to “ensure the sustainable development of aquaculture and fish farming.” The critical state of the majority of the world's commercial wild fisheries was a key reason that the Soil Association decided to engage with and develop organic standards for aquaculture, he says.
However, not all organisations have accepted that their fishery has been taken into account. Seafish, the UK seafood industry body, is commissioning its own scientists to review the report in more detail as it questions whether the predictions have taken into account the “many advances made by the UK seafood industry”.
The predictions do not include New Zealand, according to Ministry of Fisheries Chief Executive, John Glaister, who stated that his country acted early to ensure sustainability of the country's fisheries and marine ecosystems.
Two Scottish organisations have reacted angrily to the report. The Scottish National Party's Shadow Fisheries Minister, Richard Lochhead, labelled the study “alarmist scaremongering that is largely irrelevant to Scottish waters where the vast majority of stocks are booming and some are even at records levels.”
The Scottish Fishermen's Federation Chief Executive, Bertie Armstrong, claims, “We have strenuous improvement efforts being made in each of these areas [exploitation, pollution and habitat destruction] but the article fails to recognise this, preferring to paint a much more dramatic picture which is scientifically superficial and invites damaging misinterpretation.”
This mix of opinions suggests that no definitive view is likely to emerge in the immediate future.
