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Trends in global fisheries: implication for food security
By Professor Daniel Pauly University of British Columbia, Canada
Daniel Pauly, one of the 50 most influential scientists in the world according to Scientific American, is a world authority on declining fish stocks and how they respond to environmental pressures, ecosystem fluctuations and commercial fishing. For years, he has carefully documented the devastating effects of over-fishing, particularly on large predator species such as cod, snapper and tuna, and has become an outspoken and often controversial critic of modern fishing practices. Pauly has suggested that current fishing patterns will leave little but jellyfish and plankton for future generations to eat, and argues that the only solution is to abolish government subsidies to fishing fleets and establish marine reserves to allow fisheries to recover. Without a wholesale change in the way fish are harvested we will lose most of the species forever.