Mediterranean turning into a DEAD SEA as its creatures disappear at shocking rate
THE beautiful blue waters of the Mediterranean are fast turning into a “dead sea” as its wild riches disappear at a shocking rate.
By STUART WINTER
Express.co.uk
Tue, Apr 4, 2017
Over the past 50 years, almost half the sea’s mammals have been lost along with more than a third of its fish population.
Experts say that 93 per cent of the fish stocks are exploited, with several on the verge of depletion.
Only a few months after an “obituary” was written for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef because of coral loss, the planet’s most used and abused sea is now in a parlous state.
A new report by scientists from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) warns that although as many as 12,000 marine species inhabit the Mediterranean its “extraordinary biodiversity is in grave danger” as it is threatened by pollution, climate change and overfishing.
The JRC, the EC’s science and knowledge service with experts to carry out research to provide independent scientific advice and support to EU policy, is warning these pressures might push the Mediterranean ecosystem “beyond the point of no return” and says delays could cause the collapse of key fishing stocks.
Looking at historical changes in the sea’s “food web”, scientists have concluded it has lost 41 per cent of the marine mammals and 34 per cent of the total amount of fish since the mid-1960s.
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