The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #85366   Message #1585100
Posted By: Cod Fiddler
18-Oct-05 - 04:19 AM
Thread Name: BS: Evolution is Here to Stay
Subject: RE: BS: Evolution is Here to Stay
Indeed. A good example comes from the decimated stocks of Atlantic cod. Fishing mortality is intense and the largest fish are most easily caught. Consequently, the natural strategy of growing big before reaching maturity no longer pays off. It has now been proved that cod are reaching maturity much earlier and at smaller sizes as a direct result of fishing. This strategy gives them a chance to breed before they're caught, though such fish are nowhere near as productive as the big fish of the good old days.

Further details can be found here:
Olsen et al. 2004 Maturation trends indicative of rapid evolution preceded the collapse of northern cod. Nature 428, 932-935

As soon as fishing pressure is removed, cod stocks will return to the most productive strategy, with size- and age-at-maturity gradually increasing. Unfortunately, as the selection pressure is nowhere near as strong as the pressure exerted by our fishing mortality, the stocks could take hundreds of years to return to their former productivity, even if left entirely alone.

Richard