Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities
@article{Myers2003RapidWD, title={Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities}, author={Ransom A. Myers and Boris Worm}, journal={Nature}, year={2003}, volume={423}, pages={280-283} }
Serious concerns have been raised about the ecological effects of industrialized fishing, spurring a United Nations resolution on restoring fisheries and marine ecosystems to healthy levels. However, a prerequisite for restoration is a general understanding of the composition and abundance of unexploited fish communities, relative to contemporary ones. We constructed trajectories of community biomass and composition of large predatory fishes in four continental shelf and nine oceanic systems…
2,967 Citations
Extinction, survival or recovery of large predatory fishes
- Environmental Science, BiologyPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- 2005
It is concluded that management of multi–species fisheries needs to be tailored to the most sensitive, rather than the more robust species, to initiate recovery of severely depleted communities.
Unexpected patterns of fisheries collapse in the world's oceans
- Environmental ScienceProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2011
This work analyzed two fisheries datasets to determine the life-history traits of species that have suffered dramatic population collapses, and suggests that up to twice as many fisheries for small, low trophic-level species have collapsed compared with those for large predators.
SHIFTS IN OPEN‐OCEAN FISH COMMUNITIES COINCIDING WITH THE COMMENCEMENT OF COMMERCIAL FISHING
- Environmental Science
- 2005
We identify changes in the pelagic fish community of the tropical Pacific Ocean by comparing recent data collected by observers on longline fishing vessels with data from a 1950s scientific survey…
Predator-Induced Demographic Shifts in Coral Reef Fish Assemblages
- Environmental SciencePloS one
- 2011
In recent years, it has become apparent that human impacts have altered community structure in coastal and marine ecosystems worldwide. Of these, fishing is one of the most pervasive, and a growing…
Marine fisheries as ecological experiments
- Environmental ScienceTheoretical Ecology
- 2011
To highlight the value of marine fisheries data, a review of leading ecological theories that have been empirically tested using such data is reviewed and two barriers to use of fisheries data to answer ecological questions are addressed.
Chapter 12 the requirements of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management
- Environmental Science
- 2006
Dietary niche expansion of a kelp forest predator recovering from intense commercial exploitation.
- Environmental ScienceEcology
- 2014
Examining historical diet data and a time series of benthic community composition, it is concluded that changes in dietary niche breadth are more likely due to the recovery of size structure from fishing than major shifts in prey availability.
Ecological repercussions of historical fish extraction from the Southern Ocean
- Environmental Science
- 2009
A major mid-1980s shift in ecological structure of significant portions of the Southern Ocean was partially due to the serial depletion of fish by intensive industrial fishing, rather than solely to…
Analysis of Large Predator Populations in the Line Islands
- Environmental Science
- 2008
Human disturbance and reef health are inextricably linked. Specifically, the biomass of predators in a marine ecosystem has been identified as an indicator of overall reef health. Less affected reefs…
Fishery-Independent Data Reveal Negative Effect of Human Population Density on Caribbean Predatory Fish Communities
- Environmental SciencePloS one
- 2009
This study analyzed presence and diversity of predatory reef fishes over a gradient of human population density across the greater Caribbean region to fill a fundamentally important gap in knowledge of the ecosystem effects of artisanal fisheries in developing nations.
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 65 REFERENCES
Historical Overfishing and the Recent Collapse of Coastal Ecosystems
- Environmental ScienceScience
- 2001
Ecological extinction caused by overfishing precedes all other pervasive human disturbance to coastal ecosystems, including pollution, degradation of water quality, and anthropogenic climate change.…
LARGE-SCALE DISTURBANCE AND THE STRUCTURE OF MARINE SYSTEMS: FISHERY IMPACTS ON GEORGES BANK
- Environmental Science, History
- 1998
The arrival of distant water fleets during the early 1960s resulted in dramatic increases in effective fishing effort and the subsequent commercial collapse of several fish populations, resulting in further declines in groundfish populations on Georges Bank.
WHY DO FISH STOCKS COLLAPSE? THE EXAMPLE OF COD IN ATLANTIC CANADA
- Environmental Science
- 1997
In 1993, six Canadian populations of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) had collapsed to the point where a moratorium was declared on fishing. It has been argued that the collapses were caused by poor…
Broadbill swordfish: status of established fisheries and lessons for developing fisheries
- Environmental Science
- 2000
Guidelines for the assessment and management of developing swordfish fisheries are derived through an examination of five swordfish fisheries. As they develop, swordfish fisheries may be inclined to…
Primary production required to sustain global fisheries
- Environmental ScienceNature
- 1995
THE mean of reported annual world fisheries catches for 1988-1991 (94.3 million t) was split into 39 species groups, to which fractional trophic levels, ranging from 1.0 (edible algae) to 4.2…
Fishing down marine food webs
- Environmental ScienceScience
- 1998
The mean trophic level of the species groups reported in Food and Agricultural Organization global fisheries statistics declined from 1950 to 1994, and results indicate that present exploitation patterns are unsustainable.
Anecdotes and the shifting baseline syndrome of fisheries.
- Environmental ScienceTrends in ecology & evolution
- 1995
Towards sustainability in world fisheries
- Environmental ScienceNature
- 2002
Zoning the oceans into unfished marine reserves and areas with limited levels of fishing effort would allow sustainable fisheries, based on resources embedded in functional, diverse ecosystems.
META-ANALYSIS OF COD-SHRIMP INTERACTIONS REVEALS TOP-DOWN CONTROL IN OCEANIC FOOD WEBS
- Environmental Science
- 2003
The results show that changes in predator populations can have strong effects on prey populations in oceanic food webs, and that the strength of these interactions may be sensitive to changes in mean ocean temperature.