WASHINGTON, DC (March 3, 2009) – As people continue to go after the biggest fish in the sea, global fisheries are shrinking—both in number and in the actual body size of their catches. But that rapid evolution can be reversed, according to a new 10-year study published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Previous research has shown that the size of plants and animals harvested from the wild—from cod to ginseng—is actually decreasing two and a half times the rate Mother Nature would dictate. Many scientists pin this on the human tendency to go after the biggest and best food—and our technological ability to do so with extreme efficiency. Although the new study shows the changes are reversible, it also found that the return to normal size was much more gradual, probably taking more than twice as long as the original downsizing.
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