[classicman]

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT THE GLOBAL FISHERIES CRISIS

The world's marine catch has increased more than four times in the past 40 years -- from 18.5 million tons in 1950 to 82.5 million tons by 1992.

from another source:

The popular George's Bank cod in New England has sunk 77 percent since 1978, while the West Coast rockfish known as bocaccio has nearly vanished, declining 97 percent since the late 1960s.

and yet another:

The scientific data also indicates that marine biodiversity has already crashed by as much as 29% since 1960.

Another reason (fact) is that this was not even considered an issue of "global importance" to most countries until the 80's. At that point there became a wider range on information and more reliable data available to substantiate the declining fish populations.

Additionally the decline in fish populations has many factors involved from global warming, or cooling as assumed in the 70's, to overfishing both commercially and privately. It was originally assumed that the private fishermen were the culprits. Only when strict limits were put upon them and the decline continued to worsen did the reality become known. Private fisherman are NOT the problem.

I have personally seen commercial boats take out entire schools. Yes, personally. They will group their boats together and repeatedly circle a school with their nets. It takes them very little time to completely devastate an entire school.

In recent years they have begun to follow the scallop trawlers. They have learned that the tuna follow these boats up the coast for an easy and reliable food source. Sometimes they are so close as to almost entangle their gear with each other. It's a sin, but these guys have gotten so technical and so advanced that the fish populations have virtually no chance.

We are looking forward to a certain crisis in about 40-50 years.

Reuters reports that a shocking study published in Science found that ocean life and seafood could be depleted by as early as 2048. The scientific data also indicates that marine biodiversity has already crashed by as much as 29% since 1960.
In an analysis of scientific data going back to the 1960s and historical records over a thousand years, the researchers found that marine biodiversity -- the variety of ocean fish, shellfish, birds, plants and micro-organisms -- has declined dramatically, with 29 percent of species already in collapse.