Monday 25 September 2017

There are hardly any old fish left in the ocean – and that’s bad

15 September 2017
By Michael Tennesen
There are not just fewer fish in the sea: there are disproportionately fewer old fish. A study of fisheries in the seas around the US and Europe has found that their populations of ageing fish have been reduced by an average of 72 per cent.
The researchers looked at 63 fisheries, which had records spanning 24-140 years. To determine the age of fish, they used several techniques including examining otoliths: “stones” in the fish’s ears that grow annual rings rather like a tree.
“The new statistics revealed that the reduction of older fish populations had actually increased by 180 per cent,” says lead author Lewis Barnett of the University of Washington in Seattle.


No comments:

Post a Comment

You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!

Related Posts with Thumbnails

ShareThis