Today in the Sixth Extinction
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Well, we’ve finally just about done it–eliminate the cod from the north Atlantic, which people in the past would have seen as unthinkable.
Consumers should “completely avoid” buying UK-caught cod, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) has said, as it warned that populations have reached a dangerous point of decline despite zero-catch recommendations.
The MCS, an environmental charity, publishes a Good Fish Guide to help consumers and businesses make sustainable seafood choices.
On Thursday it downgraded all UK-caught cod to the worst possible rating, recommending consumers choose European hake as a flaky white fish alternative.
Kerry Lyne, Good Fish Guide manager, called the downgrade a “warning signal”, and said the UK government needed to “address these concerns to allow stocks to recover”.
The ratings for trawled scampi have been downgraded for the same reason – now, only pot- or creel-caught scampi are recommended by the guide.
Cod populations have been in decline since 2015. The main cause is overfishing, although changing sea temperatures and other ecosystem pressures have affected breeding and juvenile survival.
Humans are the only species in global history with the brains to impact all the other species, but humans are also evidently too stupid to manage those changes. I’m sure this will totally work out for humans in the end too…..