Seafood could collapse by 2050, experts warn

[peejay 327]

Seafood could collapse by 2050, experts warn

Overfishing, pollution, warming are destroying stocks, study finds

MSNBC staff and news service reports

Updated: 7:26 p.m. CT Nov 2, 2006

WASHINGTON - Clambakes, crabcakes, swordfish steaks and even humble fish sticks could be little more than a fond memory in a few decades.

If current trends of overfishing and pollution continue, by 2050 the populations of just about all seafood face collapse, defined as 90 percent depletion, a team of ecologists and economists warns in a study published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

“Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world’s ocean, we saw the same picture emerging. In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems,” said lead author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.

“I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are — beyond anything we suspected,” Worm said.

When ocean species collapse, it makes the ocean itself weaker and less able to recover from shocks like global climate change, Worm said.

“This research shows we’ll have few viable fisheries by 2050,” Andrew Sugden, international managing editor of Science, told reporters at a telephone news briefing. “This work also shows that it’s not too late to act.”

Added co-author Steve Palumbi of Stanford University: “Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the oceans species together, as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15532333/

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Eat more beef.

[peejay 327]

Eat mo' possum!

[Ban Hammer 14,271]

Eat mo' possum!

http://www.road-kill-cafe.com/roadkill.html

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Hoard seafood!

[Peikko 1,575]

No more catfood.

It's unlikely governents will actually significantly change ocean management (judging by past records on how they react to warnings of environmental instability) so it's probable we will find out if these predictions are acurate.

[eric&gen 0]

Darn im going to miss my crabs.