The Nereus Program, which provides scientific advice on overfishing, produced a video showing how the cod, sardine, mackerel and anchoveta populations have fared. Here's a frame visualizing their status in 1950.
credit:
Nereus Program
According to Nereus, overfishing led to the collapse of those same four fisheries by 1980, as illustrated in this frame of its video.
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Nereus Program
After a short-term recovery, continued fishing pressure leads to a permanent decrease in fish populations after 2000, according to the Nereus video.
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Nereus Program
VANCOUVER, B.C. – In Greek mythology, the original god of the sea was named Nereus. Among other powers, he could prophesy the future. That’s why researchers at the University of British Columbia thought to name a project to predict future ocean conditions after Nereus. Now, the initial computer simulations are out.
The Nereus Program is designed to answer the question, will there be seafood and a healthy ocean years from now… up to the end of this century. Univ. of B.C. fisheries experts are coordinating an international group of researchers to perfect a sophisticated oceanic simulator. It incorporates existing climate change models and then accounts for fishing pressure, ocean acidification and decreasing dissolved oxygen. The programmers are trying out 3D gaming technology to make this all more understandable. In Vancouver, Professor Villy Christensen says the initial computer runs show a disturbing trend.
(Credit: Nereus Program)
“It’s goodbye big fish. Then it’s hello to small fish. We are seeing many more of the small fish, the fish that we are not interested in, at least not with current technologies,” Christensen says.
Christensen and his colleagues say the most obvious way to reverse the trend would be to curb overfishing and greenhouse gas pollution that eventually drives ocean food web changes.
(This was first reported for the Northwest News Network.)
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