Gulf of Maine bluefin tuna not as healthy as before

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/050822tuna.shtml

SEABROOK, N.H. — Bluefin tuna caught in the Gulf of Maine these days are a lot leaner than they were in the 1990s, suggesting a major shift in the ecosystem, according to scientists at the University of New Hampshire.

Fourteen years worth of records at a Seabrook auction house reveal that tuna aren't eating as well as they used to, says Molly Lutcavage, director of the Large Pelagics Research Lab at UNH. Bluefin are also less abundant.

Lutcavage says it's unclear what has happened to the species, a top predator in the Gulf of Maine and the premium tuna for sushi lovers in Japan.

The decline, she says, could signal changes in the gulf that also may be affecting whales, seabirds and other fish that feed on the same forage fish, such has herring. Many tuna fishermen say they are seeing a lot fewer tuna in near-shore waters and also fewer whales and seabirds.

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[beetbox]

1. Did you see this in LBN?

Scientists Fear Oceans on the Cusp Of a Wave of Marine Extinctions

hatrack posted this Washington Post story in editorials. It belongs here, too. Absolutely stunning news.

Scientists - Oceans On Edge Of Extinction Tipping Point - WP


EDIT

Dozens of biologists believe the seas have reached a tipping point, with scores of species of ocean-dwelling fish, birds and mammals edging towards extinction. In the past 300 years, researchers have documented the global extinction of just 21 marine species -- and 16 of those extinctions occurred since 1972. Since the 1700s, another 112 species have died out in particular regions, and that trend, too, has accelerated since the mid-1960s: Nearly two dozen shark species are on the brink of disappearing, according to the World Conservation Union, an international coalition of government and advocacy groups.

"It's been a slow-motion disaster," said Boris Worm, a professor at Canada's Dalhousie University who wrote a 2003 study that found that 90 percent of the top predator fish have vanished from the oceans. "It's silent and invisible. People don't imagine this. It hasn't captured our imagination, like the rain forest."


EDIT

Large-scale fishing accounts for more than half of the documented fish extinctions in recent years, Nicholas K. Dulvy, a scientist while at the University of Newcastle's School of Marine Science and Technology in England, wrote in 2003. Destruction of habitats where fish spawn or feed is responsible for another third. Warmer ocean temperatures are another threat, as some fish struggle to adapt to hotter and saltier water that can attract new competitors.

But nothing has pushed marine life closer to the edge of extinction more than aggressive fishing. Aided by technology -- industrial trawlers and factory ships deploy radar and sonar to scour the seas with precision and drag nets the size of jumbo jets along the sea floor -- ocean fish catches tripled between 1950 and 1992. In some cases fishermen have intentionally exploited species until they died out, such as the New Zealand grayling fish and the Caribbean monk seal; other species have been accidental victims of long lines or nets intended for other catches. Over the past two decades, accidental bycatch alone accounted for an 89 percent decline in hammerhead sharks in the Northeast Atlantic.

EDIT

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[Divernan]

2. Aggressive commercial fishing (for food, not sport) is culprit

and reinforces my core belief that overpopulation remains as great a threat to the future of man on this planet as Bush and his warmongering military/industrial backers. These are concommitant factors. The more desperately poor & starving people, the more cannon fodder available to throw into battle.
Too many people using up earth's resources at an unsustainable rate - and especially in the US consuming fuel, food, et al at a far higher rate than in other countries.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. Tuna are apex predators...

...and the medium-sized fish below them on the food chain are the ones in the greatest trouble.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Conjugation of the Great Aquatic Fauna Die-Off

(Infinitive) To Die:

1. Future Perfective: will die


2. Present Imperfective: are dying


3. Past Preterite: have died

How's that for a new paradigm?

--p!