Seafood could disappear from human diet by 2048

Dubai: The world has less than 50 years of fish stocks, if present trends continue, scientists predict.

A study of more than 100 fishing regions, published in the journal Science, suggests that if current trends are maintained seafood species will have collapsed below commercially viable levels by 2048.

"This comprehensive report confirms the scale of the crisis our oceans are facing," Greenpeace oceans campaigner Willie MacKenzie told Gulf News.

"It's clear that fish and chips will be off the menu within our lifetimes if we don't act now to tackle the problem."

Researchers found that 29 per cent of fish species have collapsed to, or below, 10 per cent of their 1950 levels. Projecting these trends into the future, all stocks will decline by at least 90 per cent (the definition of a collapse) by 2048.

"Biodiversity is a finite resource. We can predict when we are going to run out of species," Doctor Boris Worm, of Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, the report's lead author, said.

Overfishing, especially with drift nets, massive coastal pollution and habitat destruction which have damaged corals are the main culprits.

"It is not just a question of fish stocks," Andrew Sugden, international managing editor of Science, told Gulf News. "All services that the oceans and seas provide for mankind will be damaged or gone. If this bio-diversity goes it is irreplaceable. Every species matters when it comes to the ocean's ability to repair itself. We need some type of international intervention."

The four-year study of 7,800 marine species around the world's ecosystems concluded that the long-term trend is clear and predictable.

"If this trend continues in this predictable fashion, as it has for the last 50 years, the world's currently fished seafoods will have reached what we define as collapse by 2048," Worm said.

"Every year a higher percentage of the currently fished stocks has collapsed. We are losing it piece by piece."

Scientists have identified a solution, according Richard Page of Greenpeace.

"The study proves that creating fully-protected marine reserves off limits to industry and fishing will help restore the productivity and health of the oceans. Marine ecosystems are capable of regeneration and fish stocks can bounce back but swift action is needed."

Over-fishing also condemns marine environments, profoundly reducing the ocean's ability to produce seafood, resist disease, filter pollutants and rebound from stresses such as climate change.

Greenpeace is calling for 40 per cent of the world's oceans to be put off limits to all destructive industries, including fishing

The scientists found that in 12 regions, which include the Wadden Sea, the shallow part of the North Sea, 38 per cent of exploited marine species of all kinds, including birds, had collapsed while seven per cent were now extinct.