Summary of The Sea Around Us, another article that Sam sent to us. Not a lot of stuff in here that directly applies to counting fish.
Mapping of Catch
- Problem: only tuna catch data includes information about where the fish were caught (on the large scale)
- Solution: the fish must be caught in their ranges, and the the country that reports the catch must have access (legal or not) to the fishing grounds. This gives a rough estimate of how much was caught where.
How Fisheries Interact With Other Biological Entities
- Marine mammals and seabirds eat about 4 times the world catch of fish, but they tend to eat noncommercial species and they hunt in the open ocean, where the only commercial fishing is for tuna.
- Fisheries have a strong effect on marine biodiversity, but most nations cannot manage their EEZs well enough to sustain the diversity.
- Many countries do not even know all of the species found within their EEZ
- The Marine Trophic Index shows the average trophic level of a country's catch. It generally shows a decline over time (more fish are being caught at lower food chain levels)
- About 0.6% of the oceans are MPAs, and that number is growing by about 5% per year. (There is a goal to have 10% of the oceans protected by 2010; that goal will NOT be met unless protection increases a lot)