Humanity has not live by hunting and gathering as a once - with one important exception. Fish is the only wild animal, which we hunt in large quantities. And yet, we may be the last generation that was engaged in this trade.

Whole species of marine life will never see the light in the anthropocene (the age of man), not to mention the fact to be tried on taste if we don't curb our insatiable voracity in relation to fish. Last year, the world consumption of fish has reached a record high of 17 kg per person per year, and this despite the continued decline in global fish stocks. On average, people now eat four times more fish than in 1950.

About 85 percent of the world's fish stocks are overexploited, depleted, fully depleted or are recovering after the operation. Only this week in one message was hypothesized that in the North sea between Britain and Scandinavia can be less than one hundred units of cod in the age of 13. This is an alarming sign, indicating that we lose the fish, enough to produce offspring that fills the population.

Large areas of the seabed in the Mediterranean and North seas now resemble a desert - sea released from the fish with the use of more effective methods such as bottom trawling. And now these generously subsidized industrial fleets clean and tropical oceans. A quarter of the catch EU now produced outside European waters, mostly in the once rich seas West Africa, where one trawler may be out hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish per day. According to the Food and agriculture organization of the United Nations all West African fishing spots now preexploration, stocks of coastal fisheries in the last 30 years has decreased by 50 percent.

It is expected that by 2050 the volume of the catch in the tropics will be reduced by 40 percent, and yet in Africa and South-East Asia on prey fish (mainly through traditional forms of fishing as a source of protein and minerals are counting about 400 million people. Taking into account the expected adverse effects of climate change on agricultural production, to meet their dietary needs people will be more than ever to rely on fish.

Policy provide huge subsidies to fishing fleets to fish all over dwindling reserves unacceptable from an environmental point of view. For example, in Spain, one of the three game fish paid for by subsidies. The government, concerned with the preservation of jobs in the fishing industry in the short-term relationship, in fact, pay for them to put an end to their long-term employment prospects - not to mention the consequences for the next generation of fishermen. The share of traditional fisheries account for half of the fish world, despite the fact that it provides 90 percent of the jobs in the industry.

Protection from depletion

Of course, industrialized countries do not think to return to traditional methods. However, the disastrous consequences industry management needs reform if we are going to restore fisheries to a self-sustaining level. In only one EU restore stocks would lead to larger catches are estimated components of 3.5 million tons per year of $ 2.7 billion pounds.

Instead of a system in which EU members are working hard elbows to get a larger quota is already installed in size, far exceeding what can make biosphere experts on fisheries suggest that governments of countries with quotas, based on the level of reserves in the surrounding waters. Fishermen should be given responsibility for the fish that they catch in the end, they will have a vested interest in increasing reserves - and this could take the form of individual traded in the market share from quota for fishing. This course will put an end to the tragedy of the Commons (the term of game theory, refers to a problem of use of the public good community members; approx. mixednews.ru), when each is raking in the ocean as much as he could until his competitors did not get the last fish, and this practice has been successfully used in countries from Iceland to New Zealand and the USA. The research results show that the management of trades in this way means that they have twice increased the chances to avoid a collapse in comparison with crafts with unlimited access.

In a highly degraded areas the only way to restore reserves, the establishment of nature reserves, when prohibited any fishing. In other parts require appropriate supervision over the observance of quotas and fishing vessels can be licensed and equipped with tracking devices, so they could not deviate in legally protected areas; may be conducted random inspections of fish in terms of size and species composition; fish can even mentioned that the authorities and consumers to have confidence in the security environment of the method of its production.

Another way is to adopt the usual method by which mankind was able to cope with food shortages, and the transition from hunting-gathering to farming.

Currently half of the fish we eat, already comes from farms in China, the figure is 80 percent or more - but in the realization of this variant on an industrial scale are their problems. Farm fill wild fish, which then need to be fed - larger fish such as salmon and tuna eats at least 20 times its own weight in the form of smaller fish like anchovies and herring. This has led to over-fishing of this small fish, but if grown on the farm fish to keep to a vegetarian diet, it lacks valuable omega-3 acids that make it nutritious, so will look and taste, they cannot compete with their varieties of natural habitats. Scientists are working to create an artificial version of omega-3 - existing synthetic options are created from natural fish oils.

Fish farm are also the factors of increased environmental pollution. They exude toxic waste - the feed slurry - which is a fertilizer for algae in the ocean, reduces the amount of oxygen available for other species, and leads to the formation of dead zones. So, salmon aquaculture Scotland produces the same amount of nitrogen waste, what contain raw sewage 3.2 million people, i.e. more than half of the population. The result was the campaign to ban aquaculture in coastal areas.

Farmed fish is also a breeding ground for infectious diseases and parasites, which killed a significant portion of fish - fugitives then often infect populations in the wild. Breeders are trying to control infestation with antibiotics, but usually succeed only in creating bigger problems in the form of resistance to antibiotics.

Dangerous predator

Human impact on the environment is not limited to fish, which often can be found in the menu. Exotic underwater creatures from turtles to the ramp-Manty and marine mammals are being hunted to extinction. The number of sharks worldwide, for example, have decreased by 80 percent, a third of shark species is now on the verge of extinction. The main predator of the sea is not a shark is ourselves.

The decline in the number of sharks significantly affects the condition of the marine ecosystem: it can lead to an increase in the number of fish that are located below in the food chain, which in turn may lead to catastrophic consequences for the population of this very small forms of marine life, as plankton. In the absence grohotali creatures are placed at risk the whole system.

One consequence is the increase in the number of jellyfish, but on the marine ecosystem beat and over-fishing, pollution, and climate change and acidification (the process of absorption of CO2 by the ocean; approx.). Warmer water displace species in other habitats, due to which some of them extinct, while others adapt by creating entirely new hybrid species. Meanwhile, trawlers collect networks bycatch, which includes marine mammals and sea birds die each year not less than 320 thousand sea birds falling in fishing gear, which puts populations of albatrosses and petrels to the brink of extinction.

Some ways of solving problems easier than you might think. Sea birds can be protected using the weighted cables (for faster dive hooks with bait in the water; approx.) and scaring birds cables connected waving a long narrow strips - alone these techniques in their application has reduced the mortality of sea birds more than 85-99%.

The call to preserve the environment

To protect species, strengthen and extend protected marine reserves long way to go. Currently under the protection is less than 1 percent of the ocean, while the international community and agreed to raise this figure to 10 percent. Reserves, provided adequate patrolling and monitoring, really save marine life, and one for another, the government chooses this path. For example, the tiny Pacific Islands (we are talking about the cook Islands; approx.) teamed up to create a giant protected areas area of 1.1 million square kilometers. Not wanting to be outdone, the world's largest marine protected area created Australia, and these efforts are attached countries from around the world, from Britain to New Zealand.

However, useful as such marine reserves are often created around such points as coral reefs and rocky Islands - effective only if the state has the resources to patrol and protection. In addition, many sea creatures, from whale sharks to whales are migratory they do not remain on protected areas, which facilitates hunting them fishermen. What should prove many, this mobile reserves that follow migratory animals, as well as those who change their habitat because of the currents and climate phenomena such as El Nino.

These areas shall be carefully selected and should not have a negative impact on the livelihood of fishermen. For example, in one study, it was found that the definition only 20 stations - 4 percent of the world ocean as protected areas can protect 108 species (84 %) of marine mammals of the world.

To the middle of XX century the river in many European cities have undergone such merciless fishing, were so dirty and partitioned off with dams that they left almost no fish and many species disappeared at local scale. But thanks to measures for cleaning, restoration of river banks and restrictions on fishing, fish returns to water, even in the Central part of cities. Ten years ago, few could even imagine that the salmon will return to my local river Thames. If you can return the fish back in the "dead" river, in the case of the world ocean certainly not all is lost.