Is there a real danger that the earth can run out of fish? Scientists say yes. Overfishing, destruction of habitat, man-made polution, global warming and unbalancing ecosystems of the oceans and waterways are destroying fish populations faster than they can be replenished.

The Guardian reports

Is anyone not aware that wild fish are in deep trouble? That three-quarters of commercially caught species are over-exploited or exploited to their maximum? Do they not know that industrial fishing is so inefficient that a third of the catch, some 32 million tonnes a year, is thrown away? For every ocean prawn you eat, fish weighing 10-20 times as much have been thrown overboard. These figures all come from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which also claims that, of all the world’s natural resources, fish are being depleted the fastest. With even the most abundant commercial species, we eat smaller and smaller fish every year – we eat the babies before they can breed.

Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at York University, predicts that by 2050 we will only be able to meet the fish protein needs of half the world population: all that will be left for the unlucky half may be, as he puts it, ‘jellyfish and slime’. Ninety years of industrial-scale exploitation of fish has, he and most scientists agree, led to ‘ecological meltdown’. Whole biological food chains have been destroyed.

Will we run out of fish? According to marine biologist (Dalhousie University, Canada) Boris Worm, “We really see the end of the line now…It’s within our lifetime. Our children will see a world without seafood if we don’t change things.” (Washington Post)

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