Wageningen IMARES: fish stocks evolving to counter commercial fishing
03 Dec 2007
New research shows that fish are evolving to escape their human hunters, who are using increasingly bigger trawlers and better technology to meet public demand for their catch.
This is one of the findings of new research due to be published by IMARES, the Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem Studies in Wageningen, together with 12 other European marine research institutes. The study by IMARES focused on plaice and sole.
The strategy adopted by the most hunted fish stocks appears quite straightforward: they concentrate on reproduction rather than growth. The gap between generations is small, making sure that stocks remain large. Smaller fish are able to swim through the holes in commercial fishing nets. According to news published by Wageningen University, these evolutionary changes have appeared in the space of only a few decades.
The national governments of countries in Europe and the European Union itself have been taking measures in recent years to combat the problem of overfishing. Generally that means imposing fishing quotas. The researchers argue however that the measures adopted by politicians should also take account of the way fish stocks are evolving.
If they don’t, their policies may prove to be little more than a red herring.