Overfishing Remains Biggest Threat to Mediterranean
Overfishing is still the most important threat to Mediterranean underwater ecosystems, “more than pollution, invasive species, or climate change”
“Without these radical changes, we’re just going to reduce the Mediterranean Sea to a soup of microbes and jellyfish.”
In an interview for Ocean Views, Sala said the new study confirms the prognosis that the Mediterranean is on a trajectory to become a sea dominated by small tropical species that no one likes to eat. “Fishes will not be abundant, and the native species that the Greeks and Romans started to fish commercially will be rare — and most fisheries and the jobs they support will collapse,” he predicted.
But this could change “if we stop all the irrational overfishing, including both legal and illegal fishing, and protect a large chunk of the Mediterranean,” Sala added. “Without these radical changes, we’re just going to reduce the Mediterranean Sea to a soup of microbes and jellyfish.”
The solution is to create more marine sanctuaries that successfully prevent fishing, Sala said. “Paper Parks”, or sanctuaries that exist in name only, are a futile effort, he added.
This newest research reinforces a study published in PLoS ONE in February, 2012, in which Sala and others reported that the healthiest places in the Mediterranean were in well-enforced marine reserves. “Fish biomass there had recovered from overfishing to levels five to 10 times greater than that of fished areas. However, marine ‘protected’ areas where some types of fishing are allowed did not do better than sites that were completely unprotected. This suggests that full recovery of Mediterranean marine life requires fully protected reserves,” said a National Geographic news release about that study. (Overfishing Leaves Much of Mediterranean a Dead Sea, Study Finds)
Enric Sala discusses in this interview below what the 2014 research paper says about the state of the Mediterranean Sea and the scenarios for its future:
What are the most important findings of this latest research?
The bottom line here is that the only protected areas that universally and successfully restore marine life are no-take reserves where fishing is prohibited. “Protected” areas that allow some types of fishing, evidently, are not very effective at saving marine life.
How does this inform future ocean policy with regard to protected areas as well as fishing?
Our results clearly indicate that dedicating public resources to “paper parks,” or areas that are protected only in the imagination of some, is a waste. If we want the fish back, and if we want a future for coastal fisheries, we need to create more no-take marine reserves. They are investment accounts.
What does the research tell us about non-indigenous species?
The Mediterranean is a sea with hundreds of alien species, most of which have come through the Suez Canal. We thought that native predators would keep the invaders in check, but that’s not what we have found. Current reserves in the Mediterranean have not been able to stop species invasions. There are factors other than fishing that make this a complex story. Or maybe it is that most reserves are too small and have not yet developed the large biomass of predators needed to control the populations of the alien species.
Does the study tell us anything about the changing marine environment with regard to climate change? Does it set a new baseline to monitor the impact of warming seas?
Climate change is warming Mediterranean waters, and thus facilitating the spread of tropical species that use the Suez Canal to migrate from the Red Sea. In other words, climate change is “tropicalizing” the Mediterranean, and displacing native species that prefer colder waters. Our study provides the first quantitative baseline across the Mediterranean to track how alien species increase in abundance over time.
What have you learned about the assemblage of species in different parts of the Mediterranean Sea, specifically in the context of the impact of fishing, protected areas, and climate change?
Our major finding was that overfishing is the most important factor affecting Mediterranean underwater ecosystems, more than pollution, invasive species, or climate change. Taking fish out of the sea in massive quantities is what changes the underwater landscape the most. More than anything else. Period.
Can this research give you a glimpse into what the future of the Mediterranean might look like, such as the species that might decline or become extinct and those species that might have an opportunity to survive and flourish? What is your prognosis for the future of fisheries in the Mediterranean if nothing is done? What might the future be if we opt for remedies available to us?
If we project from our current baseline, the Mediterranean of the future will be a poor sea, dominated by small tropical species that no one likes to eat. Fishes will not be abundant, and the native species that the Greeks and Romans started to fish commercially will be rare — and most fisheries and the jobs they support will collapse. But this could change if we stop all the irrational overfishing, including both legal and illegal fishing, and protect a large chunk of the Mediterranean. Without these radical changes, we’re just going to reduce the Mediterranean Sea to soup of microbes and jellyfish.
This study is part of your ongoing global research. What investigations do you have in the pipeline?
I continue research in two main areas: 1) the most pristine marine habitats, to understand what the ocean was like before humans (pristineseas.org), and 2) the benefits of marine reserves, in terms of both restoration of marine life and economic benefits.
Marine reserves bring back large predators like Mediterranean dusky grouper at Cabrera National Park, Spain.
The Eastern Mediterranean, like this rocky reef on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, looks like a lunar landscape. Historical overfishing has eliminated most fishes.
Abstract: Marine protected areas (MPAs) were acknowledged globally as effective tools to mitigate the threats to oceans caused by fishing. Several studies assessed the effectiveness of individual MPAs in protecting fish assemblages, but regional assessments of multiple MPAs are scarce. Moreover, empirical evidence on the role of MPAs in contrasting the propagation of non-indigenous-species (NIS) and thermophilic species (ThS) is missing. We simultaneously investigated here the role of MPAs in reversing the effects of overfishing and in limiting the spread of NIS and ThS. The Mediterranean Sea was selected as study area as it is a region where 1) MPAs are numerous, 2) fishing has affected species and ecosystems, and 3) the arrival of NIS and the northward expansion of ThS took place. Fish surveys were done in well-enforced no-take MPAs (HP), partially-protected MPAs (IP) and fished areas (F) at 30 locations across the Mediterranean. Significantly higher fish biomass was found in HP compared to IP MPAs and F. Along a recovery trajectory from F to HP MPAs, IP were similar to F, showing that just well enforced MPAs triggers an effective recovery. Within HP MPAs, trophic structure of fish assemblages resembled a top-heavy biomass pyramid. Although the functional structure of fish assemblages was consistent among HP MPAs, species driving the recovery in HP MPAs differed among locations: this suggests that the recovery trajectories in HP MPAs are likely to be functionally similar (i.e., represented by predictable changes in trophic groups, especially fish predators), but the specific composition of the resulting assemblages may depend on local conditions. Our study did not show any effect of MPAs on NIS and ThS. These results may help provide more robust expectations, at proper regional scale, about the effects of new MPAs that may be established in the Mediterranean Sea and other ecoregions worldwide.