Graph of the Day: Mean Fish per 100 Hooks, 1952-2002
Cover Study of Nature Provides Startling New Evidence that Only 10% of All Large Fish are Left in Global Ocean 90% of All Large Fish Including Tuna, Marlin, Swordfish, Sharks, Cod and Halibut are Gone Leading Scientists Say Need to Attempt Restoration on a Global Scale is Urgent 
The cover story of the May 15th, 2003 issue of the international journal Nature reveals that we have only 10% of all large fish—both open ocean species including tuna, swordfish, marlin and the large groundfish such as cod, halibut, skates and flounder—left in the sea. Most strikingly, the study shows that industrial fisheries take only ten to fifteen years to grind any new fish community they encounter to one tenth of what it was before. “From giant blue marlin to mighty bluefin tuna, and from tropical groupers to Antarctic cod, industrial fishing has scoured the global ocean. There is no blue frontier left,” says lead author Ransom Myers, a world-leading fisheries biologist based at Dalhousie University in Canada. “Since 1950, with the onset of industrialized fisheries, we have rapidly reduced the resource base to less than 10% – not just in some areas, not just for some stocks, but for entire communities of these large fish species from the tropics to the poles.” …
