Letters from the August 6, 2005, issue of Science News
By Science News
Empty threat?
“Empty Nets: Fisheries may be crippling themselves by targeting the big ones” (SN: 6/4/05, p. 360) reads as if there is something to be alarmed about. By selectively catching large fish, we have reduced “the mean size [of food fish to] one-fifth of what it was.” This is not cause for alarm. It is cause for a decision: What do we want, small fish or large fish? Humans are the only creatures on the planet who care about fish size, and the only ones empowered to change it.