- ScienceDaily. (2021, January 11). More management measures lead to healthier fish populations. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210111112149.htm.
The article’s main point is that “In general, we found that more management attention devoted to fisheries is leading to better outcomes for fish and shellfish populations.” It is important that the study was done across hundreds of diverse marine ecosystems that all show the same result of thriving after management. An example of the management’s success comes with the mid-Atlantic population of black sea bass in the US, plans to rebuild the population started in 1996 and the Bass made a full recovery by 2009.
Overall the article goes to show the importance of environmental science and regulations. Direct evidence from a respectable study shows that regulations lead to a more thriving ecosystem. It is interesting that the study explains that fishing can still be done while preserving a thriving ecosystem. This sort of goes against John Muir’s ideas of preservation without human interference and instead supports the idea of conservation while still using resources.
I think that it is good that we took steps to preserve marine ecosystems, and that fish populations are thriving because of it. But, do you believe that at a certain point people will again care more about the fishing economy than their ecosystem if we start experiencing shortages in buyable fish?
Yes, at the end of the day only a small portion of people would put the life of a fish over their own economic success. The only way to prevent this is to continue educating the public.