Baltic Sea Salmon Stocks Collapsing - Down 50% In 2006 - Cod, Trout Also In Trouble - AFP

[hatrack]

Stocks of wild salmon in the Baltic Sea are in continuous decline but 2006 may have been a particularly bad year, with an estimated drop of 50 percent from the previous year, a scientist said on Monday. "Fish counters, catches ... All the reports point in the same direction," said Jaakko Erkinaro, a professor at the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute.

"The figure of (a) 50 percent (drop between 2005 and 2006) is likely. Whatever the exact figure is, it's a marked decline," he told AFP, attributing the decrease to several hypotheses: a fall in salinity, warming of the waters or a rise in seal stocks. "But it remains a big question mark," he said.

Wild salmon quotas were drastically reduced in the 1990s by the International Baltic Sea Fishery Commission, which over the years reduced them from 700,000 fish to 300,000 in 2005.

The European Union decided in October to reduce by an additional five percent the quotas for 2007.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/070205161812.cuyunbrs.html

[hogwyld]

1. Isn't progress great!

Soon, we'll have the oceans all to ourselves. No more fish to crap in our tub so to speak. :sarcasm:

[phantom power]

2. The oceans: Less inexhaustable than previously assumed.

[Morgana LaFey]

4. Apparently, a LOT less

[Dead_Parrot]

3. But, but...

I thought the human being and fish could coexist peacefully?