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The following is an excerpt from another fishing site. I'm not in the habit of posting such things, but in this case, it does have some interesting "discoveries".
"scientists are discovering more startling effects: According to a study being carried out by the National Marine Fisheries in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, overfishing is making fish smaller. As more and more larger fish are removed from waters with increasingly sophisticated fishing gear, the majority of fish left to breed are the smaller fish that are able to slip through the nets. The study also points out a potentially dangerous evolutionary trend: younger fish are maturing earlier, in turn producing some offspring that are both small and programmed to be young mothers. As reports the Boston Globe (7/15/01), a case in point is Boston haddock. In the 1960s, most haddock matured to three years old or later before spawning. Now, even one-year-olds are reproducing. According to Steven Murawski, chief of the population dynamic branch of National Marine Fisheries in Woods Hole, "It's like (eliminating) all the people who are 7 feet tall, they will become rarer and rarer and you'll have only small people left. It's fascinating to think humans are having this effect on fish. " Scientists are not sure whether the change is truly genetic or evolutionary, or if it is a short-term physiological adaptation that will end when excessive fishing pressure ends. Some fish may be maturing sooner because overfishing is leading to less competition and more food. In that case,the trend is not genetic and populations could return to their historic maturation levels. But if the change is genetic, then fish that mature early and produce less viable offspring could put the fishery in danger of collapse."
I don't think I would have used the word "fascinating" to describe what we humans are doing to the fish
Carl
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