17 June 2010

Fishing was easier then... ( maybe )

High-tech fishing boats in the UK have to work seventeen times harder for their catches than their sail-powered counterparts from 118 years ago, a new study has revealed.

The startling inefficiency is due to a drop of 94 per cent in stocks of seabed-dwelling species over the period, according to information that is routinely collected at ports but has long been overlooked.
When the data began to be collected in 1889 - after a government inquiry into the damage caused by bottom-trawlers - sail-powered vessels around the UK were landing twice as many fish as today's fleet of high-tech vessels.

Source: Nature Communications 4th May 2010.
For the full article see Nature website
(Opens in a new window)