Smart fishery management is not only to protect big fish but carefully tackle the forage fish which are ground up and used in all sorts of products, including feed for pig lots and fish farms, nutritional supplements and salad dressing. They are valuable and easy to catch, and industrial fleets the world over are relentlessly “harvesting” them with little awareness of the damage this is doing to the oceans’ ecosystems.
As pre a new study taking of too much forage fish should be cut back drastically in some areas, to prevent broader ecological destruction. The study urges a rethinking of the common belief that little fish are “more like weeds than trees,” whose populations can be maintained no matter how aggressively they are fished.
According to the scientists there are gaps in knowledge about some forage-fish species, urge erring on the side of protecting these fisheries, which can rebound quickly if allowed to. Stricter limits will be opposed by many in the forage-fishing industry. But in future there should a stop of oversfishing for benefits of fishermen, consumer and environment. .
