Global warming. Destruction of the rain forest. Depletion of fossil fuels. Whatever you do, don't forget to include mass extinction of marine life to the list of maladies currently threatening our ecosystem. Many marine biologists biologists fear that we are fast approaching a wave of marine extinctions.

For years, many scientists and regulators believed the oceans were so vast there was little risk of marine species dying out. Now, some suspect the world is on the cusp of what Ellen K. Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, calls "a gathering wave of ocean extinctions." Dozens of biologists believe the seas have reached a tipping point, with scores of species of ocean-dwelling fish, birds and mammals edging toward extinction. In the past 300 years, researchers have documented the global extinction of just 21 marine species -- and 16 have occurred since 1972.

Since the 1700s, another 112 species have died out in particular regions, and that trend, too, has accelerated since the mid-1960s: Nearly two dozen shark species are close to disappearing, according to the World Conservation Union, an international coalition of government and advocacy groups.

The vastness of the ocean and our relative inability to explore its depths tends to create an "out of sight, out of mind" situation regarding the state of undersea life. However, human actions have an impact on the sea just as they do terrestrially.

Large-scale fishing accounts for more than half of the documented fish extinctions in recent years, Nicholas K. Dulvy, a scientist at Lowestoft Laboratory in England, wrote in 2003. Destruction of habitats in which fish spawn or feed is responsible for another third. Warmer ocean temperatures are another threat, as some fish struggle to adapt to hotter and saltier water that can attract new competitors.

But nothing has pushed marine life to the edge of extinction more than aggressive fishing. Aided by technology -- industrial trawlers and factory ships deploy radar and sonar to scour the seas with precision and drag nets the size of jumbo jets along the sea floor -- ocean fish catches tripled between 1950 and 1992.

In some cases, fishermen have intentionally exploited species until they died out, such as the New Zealand grayling fish and the Caribbean monk seal; other species have been accidental victims of long lines or nets intended for other catches. Over the past two decades, accidental by catch alone accounted for an 89 percent decline in hammerhead sharks in the Northeast Atlantic.

It's becoming readily apparent that human beings are endangering mass quantities of marine life. The remaining question is whether steps will be taken to remedy the situation

CaffeineHeadache

Santa Ana, CA

October 2003

AUG 24, 2005 03:55 PM

no. no one gives a shit.

its very sad

MisterSatan

Portland, OR

August 2002

AUG 24, 2005 03:57 PM

I'm sure at least some of those species will return after we've all killed each other off, if that makes you feel any better.

illrevue

Winter Park, FL

October 2004

AUG 24, 2005 03:58 PM

I've always said that i would eat a cow before eat tuna again. its an resource thing. We cannot possibly sustain a balance when we dont allow the populations to replenish.

it really is too bad, but you know, too many people will be affected if we stop

Subrosa

San Francisco, CA

July 2004

AUG 24, 2005 03:59 PM

That's got to, be a record, for, the most commas, ever used, in a headline.

waldo

I'm lost

June 2004

AUG 24, 2005 04:03 PM

You think this is bad?
Watch when the ocean's acidity increases with carbon dioxide levels.
I don't know how bad a catastrophe that will be, but it will be a catastrophe. We're fucked and I try not to believe we deserve it.

Vestril

Coronado, CA

February 2003

AUG 24, 2005 04:16 PM

Look on the bright side, huge numbers of people will die out after a mass marine extinction too. You have to find the silver lining in these things. I'll do my part by not eating any fish and supporting the industry doing the most damage. Sweet, I'm ahead of the game, I've been doing that for 22 years already!

NinjaTech

Minneapolis, MN

November 2003

AUG 24, 2005 04:17 PM

Don't worry. I'm sure the end of the world will happen long before the fledging eco-system of the ocean has anything to say about it.

pananarama

Worcester, MA

August 2003

AUG 24, 2005 04:28 PM

Add one more name to the memorial, I took out a Cod at dinner last night!

I think the answer, at least in part, is fish farming, it is growing in poularity and is becoming easier and more fruitful an endeavor.