Overfishing damages not just the species in question but whole ecosystems.
Nobody knows how much is killed this way, but the best estimate is 22m tonnes, roughly a quarter of the total wild catch.On the whole, overfishing does not lead to the biological extinction of species.
"Until All the Fish Are Gone" (editorial, Jan . 21, about the economic and ecological costs of overfishing, did not include nations like the United States, Australia, Iceland, Canada and New Zealand, which have implemented effective policies to end overfishing and rebuild stocks.
These elements might explain why the death of a single lion caused a sustained uproar, whereas chronic issues related to climate change, pollution, habitat loss, or overfishing do not usually enjoy the same media attention.
"The question is very basic - do EU fisheries ministers have the courage to end overfishing or not?" said Markus Knigge, advisor to the Pew Environment Group.
When considering the amounts of sea cucumbers that were collected, it seems implausible that overfishing did not take place at least in some locations.
"We don't talk about whether you should eat it or not, we talk about whether it's overfished or not," says Sarah Shoffler, fishery biologist and coordinator for the US delegation to the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean (ISC).
Marine species categorized as overfished could not be predicted from either fishery characteristics or life history characteristics in a PCA analysis of available data for fished species in the US.
He said American operators must provide documentation to the U.S. government showing that they are not overfishing the area, a practice he said probably was not always followed by other nations.
His problem is not overfishing by foreign boats or pollution in the Thames estuary.
