Wires, NYT, etc: Those plummeting marine fisheries get another look – and guess what? Things are looking up. Not great. But up.
Nothing like a big report in Science Magazine, backed by four press releases from some very careful, muscular, and august agencies, to cheer up one who had begun to fear it is adios to the likes of salmon, tuna, cod, and toothfish; ‘nought but krill, dead reefs, and jellyfishes for the world’s oceans by mid-century. In November 2006 a big (and controversial) paper in Science identified a seemingly intractable continuing collapse of major fisheries worldwide. See previous posts here, and here. This new analysis - with its authors including some of the previously gloomy ones – says a good many fisheries are instead showing solid signs of improvement. International and national fisheries agencies, it appears, are getting dividends from the recent rounds of steep cuts in fishing allowances. In other words, contrary to some recent anxieties and a centuries’ long history of failures, regulation of fishing sometimes seems to work.
Not that the report is terribly optimistic about what will happen. But it is about what may happen. Cod, the report concedes, may be past the point of no return in the N. Atlantic, but several other stocks that get strict attention have rebounded. There also is a fine back story of two willful researchers who, after spluttering fiercely at one another in public and even on NPR, are now on the same page.
So sit down and read a few of these stories:
- AP – Randolph E. Schmid: Fish for dinner: Overfishing easing in some areas ;
- Reuters – Deborah Zabarenko: World fisheries collapse can be averted: study;
- USA Today - Elizabeth Weise : Survey: Edible fish won’t disappear if overfishing stops ;
- NYTimes – Cornelia Dean: Having Fish and Eating It Too ;
- Seattle Times – Sandi Doughton: Scientists who debated on fisheries team up for comprehensive study; One of the authors is a local, giving Doughton an inside track on insight to the personal dynamics in the study.
- NPR All Things Considered - Richard Harris: Imperiled Fisheries Make A Comeback, Study Shows ; Harris’s report is a good deal better calibrated than that rosy hed ;
- USNews and World Report (blog) Bonnie Erbe: Study Shows Worldwide Fisheries Are Failing, But There’s Hope Yet ;
- BBC – Mark Kinver: Fresh hope for world’s fisheries ;
- CanWest News – Amy Minsky: Atlantic fisheries show little recovery ; Her lede explains that is one of the dark spots among the report’s broader identifications of recoveries;
- Canadian Press – Alison Auld: Study: Fish less, have more later ; Smart hed, even if it does sound like one’s mother’s (wise) nagging.
- Gloucester Daily News – Richard Gaines: Fish study update: NOAA chief sees success in ‘firm limits’ ;
- Times (UK) Frank Pope: Fish will still be on the menu in 2048, if we are careful ; Here’s a beat – Pope is the Times’s official Ocean Correspondent. He seems to be jamming this report into a perhaps overstretched and overarching theme, declaring peace in the hundred years war. But it produces, to be sure, a majestic rhythm and confidence to the piece.
- Nature News – Lizzie Buchen: Battling scientists reach consensus on health of global fish stocks ;
Related News:
- Toronto Globe and Mail – Anna Mehler Peperny: Arctic debate heats up over fish / US to ban fishing in a part of Beaufort Sea claimed by Washington and Ottawa ; A new kind of fishing war – a war over NOT fishing.
Grist for the Mill:
NSF Press Release ; COMPASS Press Release (a reporter new to the fishery science beat could start up a pretty good contact list just off this release) ; NOAA Press Release ; CSIRO (Australia) Press Release ;
Also see Univ. of British Columbia Press Release based on a complementary study in PloS One. ;
-CP
