You might remember the interview published here with journalist Charles Clover about his new documentary, End of the Line. Part of that movie reports on a study by a group of scientists led by Boris Worm at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Using world catch data, they predicted that most of the fish we eat would be extinct by 2048–a complete collapse of global fisheries.
A second group of scientists, led by Ray Hilborn at the University of Washington, doubted the study’s validity. Hilborn even called it "mind-boggling stupid." But after a debate on NPR, Worm and Hilborn realized that they had more in common than not, and that they should join forces rather than snipe about details. So the two groups of scientists collaborated on a study of the world’s fisheries, which was published yesterday in the journal Science. (The abstract is here.) This study relied on population surveys, statistical analysis, and ecosystem data to figure out what is going on out there in the depths.
There’s good news and bad news.