Fishing trends threaten marine predators

Current fishing trends are making iconic marine predators such as sharks, tuna, swordfish and marlin increasingly rare, Canadian researchers say.  Half of the North Atlantic and North Pacific waters under national jurisdiction have experienced a 90 percent decrease in the populations of top predators since the 1950s, researchers from the University of British Columbia report in the journal Marine Ecological Progress Series. Exploitation of marine predators started in coastal areas of northern countries, and then expanded to the high seas and to the southern hemisphere, they said. So in the future these problems can truly affect the growth of fish in those areas that are bieng affected.