The empty ocean Are modern fishing methods killing off the sea?

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A report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature out this week suggests that more than a quarter of sharks and rays in the north-east Atlantic face extinction due to over-fishing. Despite having long had the reputation for being the biggest predator in the ocean, in truth, it’s not the sharks it’s us. The large scale fishing vessels that trawl our waters with nets the size of football fields swallow anything that gets in their way including rays, crustaceans, octopus, deep sea corals and sharks. Once ensnared by the nets, these animals have little hope of surviving, their dead or half dead carcases are thrown back into the sea as ‘bycatch’.

Surfing the dark waters off the west coast of Scotland I have always secretly hoped I would catch a glimpse of a basking shark, but the chances of this happening look increasingly slim. Sadder still it’s not just our waters that are in danger, the pattern is the same world over. The Empty Ocean by Richard Ellis, described by National Geographic as a “powerful tribute to the sea”, which “could change forever the way you think about the ocean, about yourself, and the future we share with the sea”. It outlines the full extent to which we exploit the oceans natural resources with an unforgiving out-of-sight-out-of-mind-mentality, and that if fisheries continue this way, surfers will be the only animal left in a lonely empty ocean.

Download the full report and find out what’s been done to help at www.iucn.org/index.cfm?uNewsID=2213.

For a full list of fish you can eat and fish to avoid visit www.fishonline.org.

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