Tuna fisheries facing a cod-like collapse – earth – 19 February 2008 – New Scientist Environment
The collapse of north Atlantic cod populations could provide an important lesson for preventing tuna from suffering a similar fate worldwide, researchers say. Over-fishing caused Canada’s cod industry to plummet in value from $1.4 billion in 1968 to just $10 million in 2004. Now researchers warn that tuna fisheries worldwide are on the brink of a similar collapse.
“Cod have been reduced to between 1% and 3% of their natural abundance and people still want to fish them,” says Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. “Are we going to do the same thing with tuna?”
From 1960 to 2000, worldwide tuna production doubled roughly every 10 years and peaked at 4.45 million tons in 2004. But the impact of intensive fishing is starting to be felt. In 2001, the western and central Pacific Ocean yellowfin tuna fishing industry was worth $1.9 billion. By 2004, its value had dropped by more than 40% to $1.1 billion. According to Barbara Block of Stanford University in California, US, Atlantic bluefin tuna populations have declined by as much as 90% since the 1970s and Mediterranean bluefin by about 50%. In both cases, the rate of decline has accelerated in recent years. Thanks to Bruce Potter