Atum em perigo de extinção
Segundo a mais recente edição da revista New Scientist o atum está muito ameaçado, especialmente no Mediterrâneo e no Atlântico. A sobre pesca desta espécie conduz agora os barcos-fábrica a águas do Oceano Índico, onde os stocks de atum ainda permanecem com grande potencial de exploração. Mesmo assim, o peixe espada está fortemente ameaçado com um declínio generalizado no nível das populações. A Índia lançou recentemente um satélite para observar os movimentos dos cardumes de atuns, maximizando as quantidades capturadas.
Preocupante mesmo o facto do tamanho médio do atum capturado no Mediterrâneo ter diminuído para metade: de 125 para 65 kg por unidade - um sinal inequívoco da sobre exploração (overfishing) das populações de atum.
Tuna in peril as catches reach triple the limit
* 12 November 2009
TIMES are tough for tuna. The guidance of scientists that advise groups that manage tuna stocks is falling on deaf ears.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas meets this week in Brazil to set catch limits. ICCAT's scientific advisers have told it that stocks of the giant bluefin tuna are plummeting towards collapse. Catches in 2008 were at three times the ICCAT limit, which is itself more than what its scientific advisers consider sustainable (see "Tigers of the sea"). "It's like the year before the collapse of the northern cod," says Dan Pauly at the University of British Columbia, Canada. In 1992 the Newfoundland cod fishery collapsed. It never recovered.
"..."
WWF claims that over the past 10 years, the average size of a tuna caught in the Mediterranean has almost halved, from 125 kilograms to about 65 kg - a sure sign of overfishing. At present rates of exploitation, WWF estimates bluefin will be commercially extinct within three years, meaning that the population is so small that it is no longer worth trying to catch fish."
Preocupante mesmo o facto do tamanho médio do atum capturado no Mediterrâneo ter diminuído para metade: de 125 para 65 kg por unidade - um sinal inequívoco da sobre exploração (overfishing) das populações de atum.
Tuna in peril as catches reach triple the limit
* 12 November 2009
TIMES are tough for tuna. The guidance of scientists that advise groups that manage tuna stocks is falling on deaf ears.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas meets this week in Brazil to set catch limits. ICCAT's scientific advisers have told it that stocks of the giant bluefin tuna are plummeting towards collapse. Catches in 2008 were at three times the ICCAT limit, which is itself more than what its scientific advisers consider sustainable (see "Tigers of the sea"). "It's like the year before the collapse of the northern cod," says Dan Pauly at the University of British Columbia, Canada. In 1992 the Newfoundland cod fishery collapsed. It never recovered.
"..."
WWF claims that over the past 10 years, the average size of a tuna caught in the Mediterranean has almost halved, from 125 kilograms to about 65 kg - a sure sign of overfishing. At present rates of exploitation, WWF estimates bluefin will be commercially extinct within three years, meaning that the population is so small that it is no longer worth trying to catch fish."
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