LONDON — The number of fish and other species in the sea has
been almost halved since 1970, according to a new report from
the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Zoological Society of
London (ZSL).
Numbers dropped some 49% between 1970 and 2012, the report says,
with global population sizes of the Scombridae family of food
fish that includes tunas, mackerel and bonitos falling by 74%.
The study, which hasn't been peer reviewed, tracked 5,829
populations of 1,234 species, which its authors say makes up a
data set almost twice as large as previous studies.
They identify overfishing as the main threat to ocean
biodiversity, but also conclude that climate change is causing
the ocean to change faster than it has for millions of years. An
increase in temperatures and increased acidity levels caused by
carbon dioxide are compounding problems brought about from
overfishing and pollution, they say.
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