"Freshwater Fish Populations See Rapid Decline"

[gfen]

"People rarely appreciate the major impact that even a fairly moderate amount of fishing has on certain freshwater stocks," said Winemiller, who added that the loss of big predator species reverberates throughout the ecosystem. "The impact started very long ago."

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/09/01/freshwater-fish-decline.html

 

[JackM]

The researchers didn't crunch numbers or analyze data.

Rather, they looked for historical references to fish populations in "newspaper articles, diaries and other historical records," relying on fish stories such as these:

"In 1620, Captain John Smith wrote that his crew... caught enough sturgeon, salmon, eels and other species in one night to fill 12 hogsheads."

and

"In Australia, likewise, explorers caught 200-pound cod and other huge fish on demand...."

Sounds like the talk around 1:00 AM at the Jamboree fire ring!

 

[gfen]

I offered the article with no commentary...but yeah, the same train of thought stopped off in my head, too.

 

[greenghost]

It was standard procedure to keep everything you caught. Even the early part of the 20th century, photographs of huge catches were standard. This kind of harvest had to have an huge negative effect on fish populations.

There were fewer people back then, but they had a huge harvest per person. Today, many more people, but fewer kept fish per person. Which is worse for fish pops... or are they about the same? It's a guessing game, but I firmly believe things are going downhill for freshwater fish populations.