Categories: News

What will it take to stop Atlantic mackerel populations from dwindling?

Atlantic Mackerel populations have been dwindling for decades. But a 2021 fisheries assessment revealed in stark terms just how severe the decline has been, estimating that today’s stock is equal to just 8 percent of what it was in the 1980s, reports Hakai magazine. Mackerel play a crucial role within both marine food webs and the human food system alike: Indigenous harvesters catch them as part of their ​​food and cultural ceremonies, and the fish is also commonly used as bait for recreational and commercial fisheries. Due to decades of overfishing, however, regulators are now strictly curtailing their harvest—a last-ditch effort to protect the species, with the hope that it can thrive again in the future. —Jessica Fu

Related Post
The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter

Recent Posts

Grist acquires The Counter and launches food and agriculture vertical

Grist, an award-winning, nonprofit media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices,…

6 months ago

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

3 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

3 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

3 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

3 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

3 years ago