High Seas Fish Stocks "Plundered" - WWF Report - BBC

[hatrack]

Fish stocks in international waters are being plundered to the point of extinction, a leading conservationist group has said.
Illegal fishing and bottom-trawling in deep waters are to blame, according to a report from WWF.

It says the current system of regional fishing regulation is failing to tackle the problem, with not enough being done to enforce quotas or replenish stocks. It says species under severe threat include tuna and the orange roughy.

The orange roughy is targeted by bottom-trawlers, which drag heavy rollers over the ocean floor, destroying coral and other ecosystems. "Given the perilous overall state of marine fisheries resources and the continuing threats posed to the marine environment from over-fishing and damaging fishing activity, the need for action is immediate," Simon Cripps, director of WWF's global marine programme, said.

Illegal fishing "by highly mobile fleets under the control of multinational companies" was identified as one of the worst threats to marine life. But the report also attacked governments for over fishing. "Vast over-capacity in authorised fleets, over-fishing of stocks... the virtual absence of robust rebuilding strategies... and a lack of precaution where information is lacking or uncertain are all characteristic of the management regimes currently in place," it said.

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4996268.stm

[redqueen]

1. This isn't really news, is it?

*sigh*

[ThomCat]

2. When the availability of sea food crashes

because of overfishing, then what? And who how will the fishing industry try to spin this as unforseen and beyond their control?

It's going to be a horrible ecological disaster, and they don't give a damn as long as they make their target numbers this quarter.

[blm]

3. And guess who's the fishing industry's BIG FISH -- Bush ally, RevMoon.

.