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Plenty more fish in the sea?

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 15:37 authored by Reginald WatsonReginald Watson, Pitcher, TJ, Jennings, S
Only in the last century did humans overwhelmingly accept that fisheries resources are finite. Consequently, ‘there are more fish still in the sea than ever came out of it’ served as a popular metaphor for unbounded expectations for half a millennium, expectations that also extended to use of the planet in general. By reconstructing historical fishing back 1200 years, we identify when this metaphor actually ceased to be true. For some of our most important stocks, it has not been true for centuries, although surprisingly, for fishes globally, it applied until the last century. We demonstrate, however, that there can still be ‘plenty more fish in the sea’ and that with effective management they provide a continuous flow of benefits for our future.

Funding

Australian Research Council

History

Publication title

Fish and Fisheries

Volume

18

Pagination

105-113

ISSN

1467-2960

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Place of publication

9600 Garsington Rd, Oxford, England, Oxon, Ox4 2Dg

Rights statement

Copyright 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Social impacts of climate change and variability

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    University Of Tasmania

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