Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:21 am
dbrock wrote:You hit the nail on the head there that's exactly what I'm saying, it's amazing how we think killing macs or whiting is dif to say a shark or a Bass (god forgive)

But killing a mackeral or whiting IS hugely different from killing a shark. You don't go out and trawl for mako's or blues because they are not abundant like mackeral. A single mako has a much greater impact/influence on the ecosystem than a mackeral. Mackeral stocks can therefore 'apparently' be managed 'sustainably' whereas mako stock can't. Sharks can only survive if their is an abundance of prey (e.g. mackeral) for them to consume which means that as long as sharks exist, there will always be a greater number of prey fish (meaning the prey fish populations can sustain the impact of fisheries). The removal of these more abundant fish therefore will have much less of an effect than the removal of a keystone species such as the mako