A recent article in Science has shown how a marine protected area in shallower habitat has been effective. Additionally, we have seen the call for reduced fishing mortality on deep-sea stocks in the Northeast Atlantic and believe that could be an appropriate conservation measure. |
No population fluctuates as much as 90% naturally, especially in such a stable environment as the deep-sea. Any changes made to halt these population declines would not be evident for several generations?approximately 100 years. |
Relative abundance is an index of what's out there. We know a lot of these species move, but within what we have the data for, we are seeing this decline range. |
Species declines change predator-prey dynamics, energy flow through systems, and ecosystem resilience, stability, function, and form. |
The declines occurred on a timescale equal to, or slightly less than, a single generation of these species. |
These are species no one really cares about, but they play a key role in the ecosystem. |
They meet the IUCN [World Conservation Union] criteria for being critically endangered. |
We expected to see declines, but we didn't expect such severe declines. If nothing changes, we could be facing barren oceans or oceans of fish we can't utilize. |
We're learning time and time again as fishery after fishery collapses that you reach such low numbers that they can be considered extinct. |
We're talking about species whose generation time, which is the amount of time (they need) to replace themselves, is 17 to 21 years. So it will be a century before we see any recovery. |