Overfishing May be Taking its Toll on Marine Gene Pools
Overfishing isn’t just eating away at fish populations, but also genetic diversity in entire ecosystems, a new study finds.
Scientists have long assumed that badly overfished species would maintain their genetic diversity because of the sheer numbers reaching into the billions of the most at risk species. However, a new study from Stanford University found that the increased rate of overfishing and decreasing genetic diversity is leaving some species far more venerable.
The study compared the genetic diversity in 37 overfished species with 51 lesser fished populations and discovered something quite startling: on average, the overfished species carried 18 percent less genetic variance.
"Contrary to what we expected, it looks like the [genetic] effects of overfishing are quite widespread," explains researcher Malin Pinsky.
Pinsky has suggested shorter fishing seasons and an increase of monitored no-fishing zones; but at the end of the day, he believes we just need to catch less fish.
