It's bad enough that we are killing off whole populations of land creatures, but the endless larder of the sea will be Mother Hubbard land soon.
Read this in the Sunday Times - Important enough to mention with a couple of photos, but only on PAGE 29!!
FISHERIES FACE WIPEOUT IN 30 YEARS
By Jonathan Leake & Laura FitzPatrick
Mankind is plundering the world's oceans so rapidly that most commerical fisheries face collapse within 30 years, the environmental organisation WWF will warn this week. In its Living Blue Planet report, WWF will say that the world's fishing fleet is two to three times larger than the oceans can support and could cease to exist by the middle of the century.
The report will also warn that the destruction of the ecosystems caused by overfishing and pollution is threatening many other species, ranging from the Blue Whales to sharks and seabirds. WWF commissioned a study of 3,132 populations of 910 mammal, bird, reptile and fish species, and discovered an overall decline of about 40% between 1970 and 2010. It also found that as fishing fleets have exhausted costal waters, so they have moved into the deep sea, where they have wiped out entire populations of long-lived, slow-growing species that tend to be found in the coldest waters.
A recent report said: "As coastal and pelagic [open ocean] fisheries around the world have collapsed, fishing effort has shifted into the deeper sea...most deepwater species are likely to be over-exploited, and as many as 40% of the world's fishing grounds are now in waters deeper than 200 metres." The WWF report coincides with a campaign by green groups, including WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund, to put pressure on the UK Government to protect oceans around 14 of its overseas territories by turning them into marine conservation zones in which fishing is banned or controlled. Britain has already announced plans for a 200-mile marine protected area around the Pitcairn Islands in the south Pacific, but WWF and other in the Great British Oceans coalition want similar 'blue belts' around other territories, particularly Ascention Island and the South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic. Others include Gibraltar, the Falklands and Bermuda.
When the 14 overseas territories are taken into account, the UK is responsible for 2.6m square miles of ocean - more than twice the size of India and nearly 30 times the size of the UK itself. About 94% of Britain's biodiversity exists in these territories.
Read this in the Sunday Times - Important enough to mention with a couple of photos, but only on PAGE 29!!
FISHERIES FACE WIPEOUT IN 30 YEARS
By Jonathan Leake & Laura FitzPatrick
Mankind is plundering the world's oceans so rapidly that most commerical fisheries face collapse within 30 years, the environmental organisation WWF will warn this week. In its Living Blue Planet report, WWF will say that the world's fishing fleet is two to three times larger than the oceans can support and could cease to exist by the middle of the century.
The report will also warn that the destruction of the ecosystems caused by overfishing and pollution is threatening many other species, ranging from the Blue Whales to sharks and seabirds. WWF commissioned a study of 3,132 populations of 910 mammal, bird, reptile and fish species, and discovered an overall decline of about 40% between 1970 and 2010. It also found that as fishing fleets have exhausted costal waters, so they have moved into the deep sea, where they have wiped out entire populations of long-lived, slow-growing species that tend to be found in the coldest waters.
A recent report said: "As coastal and pelagic [open ocean] fisheries around the world have collapsed, fishing effort has shifted into the deeper sea...most deepwater species are likely to be over-exploited, and as many as 40% of the world's fishing grounds are now in waters deeper than 200 metres." The WWF report coincides with a campaign by green groups, including WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund, to put pressure on the UK Government to protect oceans around 14 of its overseas territories by turning them into marine conservation zones in which fishing is banned or controlled. Britain has already announced plans for a 200-mile marine protected area around the Pitcairn Islands in the south Pacific, but WWF and other in the Great British Oceans coalition want similar 'blue belts' around other territories, particularly Ascention Island and the South Sandwich Islands in the south Atlantic. Others include Gibraltar, the Falklands and Bermuda.
When the 14 overseas territories are taken into account, the UK is responsible for 2.6m square miles of ocean - more than twice the size of India and nearly 30 times the size of the UK itself. About 94% of Britain's biodiversity exists in these territories.
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