Quote:
Originally Posted by Pleasurepays
i think you can definately argue that many countries have over fished stocks, ignore regulations etc. the US did this as well and totally collapsed many of its fisheries. but that does not mean that the fish went extinct... just means that enough pressure was put on the stocks that the volume caught was either not economically feasible or that feds/states took over and started regulating them with small quotas and short seasons.
if you look at major fish stocks 100 years ago when there was no one targeting them... adn compare them to today, you will see a contrast in the total volume of fish probably... but you will also see much better data, fisheries management, quotas, seasons and so on.
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Sure... prob the regs are improving globally and there is more of an awareness of the possible problem.
You're right, the pressure on marine life is a lot more than it was 100 years ago - and, sure, there is now better data and management of stocks. I really don't know what the effect is, but there are now far more efficient methods of capturing these stocks - and on a much bigger scale.
Just an aside... I've still seen shark carcasses (and a few half dead sharks) floating around after having their fins cut off for export to Japan for shark fin soup. Sure it's illegal, but that never stopped a fisherman trying to earn and extra buck
When I am now there is a strong awareness of both marine and land biodiversity and a fair number of research orgs working here and trying to maintain species. This country is miniscule with only 0.01% of the world's land mass, but contains 5% biodiversity of the planet. Just over 25% of the country is already under preservation with national parks and "corridors" to let the wildlife travel. But, it's under pressure and hard to maintain that level of critters. There is damage already done (can be seen best on satellite pics where forests have been denuded), but at least there is an effort now to reforest, tho the cost is crazy. The flip downside is developers are like bees to a honeypot - they want to build unending condo complexes in the middle of this - more pressure. There are also idiots (usually tourists) who want to think they are jungle hunters and killing critters - stuff like bigger cats and tapirs and hell, found three monkeys they shot. The cats are not an endangered species yet, but in this instance the tapirs were very rare, but were shot with AK47's - duh? (They are harmless and shy - just chew up the ground a bit. The larger cats - jaguar etc, are also not a problem - they stay away from humans.)
Back to marine life....
Here's the extrapolation of the predictions in Science mag:
and here's the elements the assembled their data from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/n...14.stm#graphic