Publication Date:
2013-04-20
Description:
Recovery of overexploited marine populations has been slow, and most remain below target biomass levels. A key question is whether this is due to insufficient reductions in harvest rates or the erosion of population resilience. Using a global meta-analysis of overfished stocks, we find that resilience of those stocks subjected to moderate levels of overfishing is enhanced, not compromised, offering the possibility of swift recovery. However, prolonged intense overexploitation, especially for collapsed stocks, not only delays rebuilding but also substantially increases the uncertainty in recovery times, despite predictable influences of fishing and life history. Timely and decisive reductions in harvest rates could mitigate this uncertainty. Instead, current harvest and low biomass levels render recovery improbable for the majority of the world's depleted stocks.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Neubauer, Philipp -- Jensen, Olaf P -- Hutchings, Jeffrey A -- Baum, Julia K -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2013 Apr 19;340(6130):347-9. doi: 10.1126/science.1230441.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. neubauer.phil@gmail.com〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23599493" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Biomass
;
*Conservation of Natural Resources
;
*Fisheries
;
Fishes/*growth & development/physiology
;
Population Density
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
