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Studies chart humans’ huge effect on sea life; Many species now smaller, more rare

Posted by: Maven on May 27, 2009 at 7:41 am

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Humans have been exploiting the oceans for far longer and with more devastating effect than anyone had imagined, scientists report in advance of an international conference on the state of the Earth’s oceans and marine life.

Dozens of new studies will be presented tomorrow at the Oceans Past II conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, part of the decade-long Census of Marine Life. The studies will describe seas once teeming with incredibly large and abundant life, from thousands of right whales hunkering off New Zealand to sharks darkening English coastal waters and groupers as big as cows in the Florida Keys.

Most of these species are now smaller and more rare – and in some cases, threatened with extinction.

“Joni Mitchell once famously sang that ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’ But when it comes to marine life, in many cases we’re only just starting to fully realize what the planet once had,” said Ian Poiner, deputy chief of the Division of Marine Research at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia.

The foundation of the conference is the ongoing History of Marine Animal Populations project, a worldwide effort to assess lost biodiversity using novel sources such as old ship logs, tax accounts, legal documents, photographs and literary texts. “HMAP’s evidence includes old restaurant menus, whalebone buttons, logbooks and lore, paintings and pavements, isotopes and ice,” said Jesse Ausubel at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a primary funder and manager of the project.

Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.

May 27, 2009 · Filed Under Oceans & Beaches

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