Thursday 7 June 2018

Australia's large fish species declined 30% in past decade, study says



Call for fisheries changes after study says excessive fishing mostly to blame

Tue 5 Jun 2018 08.26 BSTLast modified on Tue 5 Jun 2018 08.27 BST

The number of large fish species in Australian waters has declined by 30% in the past decade, mostly due to excessive fishing, a new study says.

Marine ecology experts are calling for changes to fisheries management after publication of the study by scientists from the University of Tasmania and the University of Technology (UTS), Sydney.

The decade-long study used data from diving surveys by three different bodies – the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the University of Tasmania and Reef Life Survey, a supervised citizen science group – to compare trends in fish populations in unprotected marine areas, protected areas that allow for some fishing, and protected areas that prohibit fishing.

Data was collected repeatedly from 533 sites around Australia from 2005 to 2015 for large fish species – those bigger than 20cm in length, such as snapper, bream and parrotfish.


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