OUR OCEANS IN COLLAPSE

1

• OUR OCEANS IN COLLAPSE

World Trade Organization Geneva, Switzerland 24
May, 2007
Andrew Sharpless Chief Executive Officer Oceana
2
Big Fish Are All Gone (catch per hundred hooks)
Source Myers, R.A., and B. Worm, Nature. 2003
3
Declines in Fish Populationsin the North Atlantic
Source Christensen, V., S. et al. Fish and
Fisheries. 2003
4
Fish Populations in North Africa
(Fish populations per square km)
Source Pauly, D., Symposium on Marine fisheries,
ecosystems and societies in West Africa half a
century of change held in Dakar, Senegal, June
24-28 2002
5
have also declined
(Fish populations per square km)
Source Pauly, D., Symposium on Marine fisheries,
ecosystems and societies in West Africa half a
century of change held in Dakar, Senegal, June
24-28 2002
6
The situation is similar in Southeast Asia
1960
2000
Source Christensen et al. 2003
7
Same thing in North West Africa, here largely
due to Distant Water Fleets
Source Christensen et al. (in press) Dakar
Conference Proceedings
8
Global Catch Over Time
Source Watson and Pauly, Nature, 2003 (catch
data excludes Latin American Anchoveta)
9
Fisheries Collapse Over Time
Source Boris Worm, et al, Science, 2006 Impacts
of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem
Services (Diamonds show collapses by year
triangles cumulative collapses black are all
large marine ecosystems blue are species poor,
red are species rich)
10
(No Transcript)
11
Decrease in Trophic Level
Trophic Level
Source Pauly, D., et al. Science. 1998
12
Jellyfish Fisheries
Source LA Times, 2006, Altered Oceans, by Ken
Weiss
13
State of European Marine Fish Stocks
Source ICES  Biological advice for 2006 Western
waters and North Sea
14
State of the World Marine Fish Stocks
1974
2002
Source FAO. 2004
15
Potential WTO Legacy