根據針對石斑魚種的首次詳細報告,如果沒有盡快提出更好的管理保育措施,全球162種石斑魚當中的20種將面臨絕種。石斑是香港和全世界價值數百萬美元活珊瑚食用魚市場的主要魚種,每公斤售價高達50美元(2.2英鎊)。
世界保育聯盟(IUCN)已將8種石斑列為瀕臨滅絕物種,而此最新研究評估提議再加入12種。世界保育聯盟研究石斑和蘇眉魚專組主席、香港大學副教授莎多維博士(Dr. Yvonne Sadovy)表示,這是第一次對於重要經濟魚類的系統性深入評估,是在香港大學生態和生物多樣性系工作坊中提出的。
主持此工作坊的莎多維博士表示︰「評估結果並不樂觀,且點出我們急迫需要漁業管理、較有效的海洋保護區,以及石斑魚消費者更為永續的食用習慣。」工作坊的參與人員總結說,為因應消費者永不滿足的需求而增長的國際交易,對於石斑魚數量形成嚴重威脅。
維吉尼亞州國際保育(Conservation International)海洋計畫高級主管麥內斯博士(Roger McManus)表示:「過度捕魚會扼殺另一個人類主要食物和經濟來源,就像新英格蘭與加拿大因鱈魚存貨喪失而造成千人失業的情形。」
Twenty of the world’s 162 species of grouper are headed towards extinction unless better management or conservation measures are introduced quickly, according to the first in depth assessment of these important commercial fish.
Groupers are the basis of the multimillion dollar live reef food fish trade based in Hong Kong, and around the world, consumers pay up to $50 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) for grouper.
Eight grouper species already are listed by IUCN-The World Conservation Union as being in danger of extinction, and the new assessment proposes adding 12 more species.
The workshop at the Department of Ecology and Biodiversity of the University of Hong Kong, KHU, was the first systematic assessment of the commercially important species, said Dr. Yvonne Sadovy, chair of the IUCN Grouper and Wrasse Specialist Group and associate professor at HKU.
"The results are worrying and highlight the urgent need for fishery management, more effective marine protected areas, and more sustainable eating habits for consumers of these fishes," said Sadovy, who organized the workshop.
Increasing international trade to meet "an insatiable demand for grouper" poses a major threat, workshop participants concluded.
"Overfishing could decimate another major food and economic resource for humans, similar to the loss of the cod stocks off New England and Canada that has put thousands of people out of work," says Roger McManus, senior director of the marine program at Conservation International based in Arlington, Virginia.
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