Contrary to earlier beliefs, a new study indicates that professional fisheries do not go for what is left at the top of the food chain, but rather focuses on what is most profitable: shrimp pays better than cod.
The depletion of stocks high in the food web, such as cod and tuna, has earlier been seen as a consequence of the sector “fishing down the food chain”.
The new study, however, undertaken by scientists at the Universities of Washington (Seattle) and British Columbia (Vancouver) and evaluating 55 years of global catch data, shows no correlation between a marine animal’s position in the food chain, or trophic level, and its market value. On the contrary, the researchers noted that the lowest-level marine invertebrates, such as shellfish and shrimp, tended to command the highest prices.
A possible interpretation of the findings would be that fisheries management should see more to the profitability of marine species in order to protect both the commercial fishermen’s economic interests and the marine ecosystem.