ST: 43 fish species in Mediterranean threatened

[barmby]

Taken from The Straits Times

Apr 19, 2011
43 fish species in Mediterranean threatened

GENEVA - SOME 43 species of fish native to the Mediterranean Sea are threatened with extinction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said on Monday, citing a new survey.

Many of the most threatened species are sharks and rays, said the IUCN, adding that they are at risk of disappearing due to overfishing, marine habitat degradation and pollution.

While some of these shark and ray species have little commercial value, they have also fallen victim to fishing gear used in the sea, including trawling nets, which indiscriminately haul up all kinds of fish.

'The use of trawling nets is one of the main problems for conservation and sustainability of many marine species,' Ms Maria del Mar Otero, an IUCN programme officer said. 'Because it is not a selective technique, it captures not only the target fish but also a high number of other species while also destroying the sea bottom, where many fish live, reproduce and feed.'

Meanwhile, commercial species like the Atlantic bluefin tuna and the dusky grouper were also found to be endangered in the IUCN's latest survey of 513 species and six sub-species occurring in the Mediterranean.

The reproduction potential of the bluefin tuna has halved over the past 40 years amid intensive overfishing, Kent Carpenter, IUCN global marine species assessment coordinator, noted. Scientists have been pushing for lower catch limits on the Atlantic bluefin tuna, but at their last meeting in November, the 48-member International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas left quotas of the sushi mainstay virtually unchanged. -- AFP

[barmby]

A bluefin tuna swim in pens at a fish farm near Ensenada, Mexico. Some 43 species of fish native to the Mediterranean Sea are threatened with extinction. -- PHOTO: AP

[Shi Xuan]

I felt that the conservation efforts on preserving fish species has been sketchy at best, if you'd notice that most high-key on-going animal conservation efforts have been more focused on mammals & recently amphibians due to the outbreak of Chytridiomycosis, a highly contagious disease which is causing a decline in amphibian populations globally. The attention paid on fishes has been minimal as compared to the rest from what I believe. Its quite unfortunate that some fish species didn't make it & went extinct, like the tecopa pupfish. At least, the researchers are getting exposed to an increasing awareness of conserving more fish species but I hope it can be better.

[barmby]

Photo by AP

The big bluefin tuna at Lee Choon-bok restaurant in Seoul on Tuesday.

Fishermen off of Jeju Island caught a giant tuna earlier this week – and pictures of its arrival at a Seoul restaurant on Tuesday were splashed in newspapers and web sites around the world.

The tuna weighed 350 kilograms, or about 770 pounds, and measured 270 centimeters, or nearly nine feet, and was said to be the largest bluefin tuna caught by rod and reel in South Korea.

It took more than eight men to carry it into Lee Choon-bok Tuna Restaurant in downtown Seoul on Tuesday. The restaurant paid about 25 million won ($23,600) for the fish.

“We delivered this tuna to the shop with human power,” manager Kim Bo-hyun said on Wednesday. “If we used any equipment, the tuna could be covered in bruises.”

Seven chefs worked for two hours to clean the tuna. And meat from fish was still being sold Wednesday. Mr. Kim said he expected it wouldn’t be finished until Thursday. He estimates the fish will feed nearly 1,000 people.

“We do not see this big tuna as often now as we saw in the past because of the warmer sea and other environmental reasons,” Mr. Kim said. “It’s especially rare to catch this size of tuna off coastal waters.”

The fish is highly prized for sushi & sashimi, but the commercial importance has led to severe over fishing of the species

from
THE NEW PAPER ' Wednesday ' June 29, 2011 Page 15
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