HONG KONG – Turquoise fish with red dots stare at hungry tourists from a tank at a restaurant in Hong Kong, the capital of the world’s live reef fish industry, a lucrative trade devastating reefs across the Pacific Ocean.

Considered a delicacy, demand for coral fish has exploded in line with China’s booming economy and some species such as the humphead wrasse are already endangered.

The world’s fish stocks are in danger of complete collapse, with untold environmental and humanitarian problems waiting in the wings. Our governments’ response is to pay people to fish more.

Frank Gobas at the Simon Fraser University in British Columbia has identified a new class of organic contaminants in fish that can pose threats to human. These represent a third or organic chemicals used commercially.

Doctors are now recommending a diet with plentiful servings of fish, especially salmon and tuna, which are sources of omega-3 fatty acids. However, conservationists fear that this will put pressure on the fisheries.

“For conservationists, the question is whether the latest health trend will result in salmon and other species going the same way as eastern Canada’s cod fishery, once one of the world’s richest which utterly collapsed last decade.”

“Salmon in British Columbia will need human help to adapt to changes being brought on by global warming, but some streams may simply become uninhabitable to the cold-water fish, a government advisory body declared.”

A scientific study showed that over one third of freshwater fishes in Europe are endangered and may face extinction due to overfishing, pollution and dams causing dried up rivers.

Thousands of Canadians will be surveyed for their preferences on marine species protection, a program headed by the federal Fisheries Department. This will play a role in the allocation of scarce resources for recovery activities.

Climate change is affecting marine ecosystems in Australia by changing the acidity and temperature of seawater. This in turn may cause young reef fishes to get lost as these environmental stresses hinder their ear bone development.

Planet Ark

Climate change threatens Australia’s A$2.1 billion (US$1.6 billion) commercial fishing and aquaculture industry, but may create new wild fisheries as tropical marine species move south as sea temperatures rise.