A balanced kettle of fish – IUCN suggests a novel approach to
fishing 01 March 2012 | International news release An IUCN study
published in the journal Science suggests major rethinking of
fisheries management that could increase food security and
minimize the negative impacts of fishing on the environment. The
new approach, put forward by a group of fisheries and
conservation scientists of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem
Management (CEM), introduces a fundamental change to the way
fisheries have been managed so far. “For centuries, it has been
believed that selective fishing that avoids young, rare and
charismatic species and focuses on older and larger individuals,
is key to increased harvest and reduced impacts on the
environment,” says François Simard, IUCN’s Senior Adviser for
Fisheries. “But old individuals largely contribute to
reproduction and removing them distorts the environment’s
structure and functioning. It can also have serious ecological
and evolutionary side effects.” On the Eastern Scotian