To all seafood lovers - do you still remember the fun of munching on juicy squids and tasty salmons? Here is the bad news - a team of ecologists and economics announced in last Friday's issue of journal Science that if overfishing and pollution conitnue, the populations of just about all seafood face collapse by 2048. 
OMG. Ths means that we'll run out of seafood in 22 years!!!
And here is the summary of the article (quoted from CNN.com):
"Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world's ocean, we saw the same picture emerging. In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems," said the lead author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
"At this point 29 percent of fish and seafood species have collapsed — that is, their catch has declined by 90 percent. It is a very clear trend, and it is accelerating," Worm said. "If the long-term trend continues, all fish and seafood species are projected to collapse within my lifetime — by 2048."
"It looks grim and the projection of the trend into the future looks even grimmer," he said. "But it's not too late to turn this around. It can be done, but it must be done soon. We need a shift from single species management to ecosystem management. It just requires a big chunk of political will to do it."
Gee. But I still love seafood and can't stop eating them unless they're out of reach and out of sight.
6 responses to Bad News For Seafood Lovers
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November 8th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
oh no… so sad to have this news! ARRGgh but still i wanna eat more sea food… yeah!! crabs, prawn, fish,…. i’m coming to eat… LOL
November 8th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
Haiz. Me too! Although I want to stop the marine population from collapsing I am unwilling to deprive myself from the enjoyment of eating seafood. I love squid, cuttlefish, salmon, crabs, prawn… and oh no if abalone and sea cucumber ran out of supply I do not dare to imagine what we will be eating on the day of Chinese New Year.
Dooms day!
November 8th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
omg. i will only be 16+22=38 by then! how to live like dat?
November 8th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
and all you are talking about is how you wont have this certain thing to eat, what about the ecosystem, the alteration of the ocean food chain, could you imagine if this impacted the algae in the ocean, we are in danger of impacting the whole planet, if impacting the ocean is not enough to cause some twinge of guilt… ah! Now I have to look up international fishing codes and laws. There should be some sort of policy for these things.
sorry, about that…
umm, calc does stand for calculus
November 9th, 2006 at 11:20 pm
hey dude,
oh gee i read about it in the papers too.
but the thing is, im sure there are fish farms and seafood farms around, where they breed fish and all that eventually ends up as seafood right? lol
November 9th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
Hey everyone thanks for the insightful comments and discussion
jamie: yeah… I’ve been thinking about this too! I’ll be like 17+22 = 39 then. I guess at that time I will have so much cholesterol stocked up in my body the doctors would by then discourage me to eat seafood anymore.
Denise: Thanks a lot for the reminder. Gee. I always see things personally… sorry. Well, personally if I could evaluate on this projection, I would say that the world’s eco system would be is deep trouble. Depletion of marine population will take earth on the path of inevitable destruction caused by insensitive human actions. If fishes are gone then algae would pile up like crazy, affecting the balance of the entire ecosystem. Image the amount of CO2 they will release during daytime! Even thoguh they can recycle some of them during nightitme but CO2 will still eventually accumulate… acceleration of global warming. And what’s next? Everyone should know.
Rei: Ooooh it is in the papers too?! My only read is Newpaper anyway… haha
Fishfarms are available but then the output is just peanuts compared to the tonnage captured from the open sea. If fishes all die we will not have enough fish to go around. Maybe next time a can of tune will be priced at… S$500? And a tune sandwich… S$200? OMG.