You’ve probably heard about the massive codfish fishery collapse off New England and Canada. It’s worth noting that the fishery had been a staple since Colonial times — until a few years ago.
Now a new study published in the Transactions of the American Fisheries Society — importantly, a peer-reviewed journal — says there could be more at work than just overfishing. Climate change might also be at work, mucking around in the food chain that has always supported cod, says researcher Brian Rothschild of the University of Masschusetts Dartmouth. Strikes us as a pretty fishy explanation, although Rothschild does scurry to add:
When fishing is superimposed on top of an unfavorable environment, it appears to accelerate the negative effects of the environment in bringing about a decline.
Here is the only news story I could find, a meager effort by United Press International (which was still a thriving news service when I worked for them in the Paleozoic Era.)