OWN CORRESPONDENT, San Francisco | Tuesday
A WORLDWIDE network of no-fishing zones may be the last, best hope of replenishing the Earth’s depleted stocks of fish and other marine species, an international team of scientists reports.
Overfishing, pushed by a hungry world’s demand for seafood, has moved species of fish toward extinction, the researchers say, and permanent marine parks may be the only answer to save them. Fish, lobster and other species recover in only a few years given sanctuaries free of the hooks and nets of commercial and sports fishermen.
In a report released at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, they urged creation of the network of marine parks where all sea animals and plants would be protected.
“The seas are increasingly in serious trouble,” said Stephen Palumbi of Harvard University.
He said dying coral reefs, toxic algae blooms, massive fish kills and the collapse of fisheries are symptoms of fundamental changes in ocean life that are caused, in part, by overfishing.
In heavily exploited waters, the fish simply cannot repopulate fast enough to keep up with the harvest. But a study of 89 marine reserves around the world showed that, given the chance, fish and other marine life quickly restore themselves where they are protected. The marine species then fan out, reseeding adjacent waters.
In places where marine reserves have been tried, fish populations have exploded within the reserves and quickly enriched the surrounding ocean. The result has been a revival of commercial fishing in some areas where fish were once scarce.
When snapper and lobster populations in coastal waters of New Zealand crashed, the fishing industry there went into a depression. After a series of marine reserves was created in the 1970s, the snapper population in a few years was 40 times higher inside the reserves and lobsters were increasing at the rate of five percent to 11 percent a year. Outside the reserves, the fishing industry now thrives.
In reserves around the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, fish populations tripled in three years and doubled in the surrounding waters, benefiting commercial fisheries.
The study was produced by the National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and endorsed by 150 of the world’s top marine scientists.