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<div class=Section1>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Over-fished
species go into evolutionary overdrive: study <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><!-- BEGIN STORY BODY -->Wed
Apr 16, 2:39 PM ET</span></font></i></em> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/sciencegeneticsevolutionfishfoodbiodiversity">http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/sciencegeneticsevolutionfishfoodbiodiversity</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>PARIS (AFP) -
Relentless commercial fishing can trigger rapid evolutionary changes when
only smaller, younger fish are left behind, a study released Wednesday shows.
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Moreover,
those changes among fish populations -- a desperate bid to adapt -- may be
difficult or impossible to reverse.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><span id="lw_1208371555_0"><span class=yshortcuts><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Boom-and-bust cycles</span></span></font></span>
in over-fished species can wreak economic havoc on fishing communities, and can
trigger a downward spiral toward extinction.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
study, experts say, could provide important clues on how to restore fish
populations that have, in many cases, been reduced by 90 percent due to decades
of industrial-scale fishing.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Scientists
have long puzzled over the fact that populations of heavily harvested fish,
from sardines to tuna, fluctuate in size more erratically than species that are
not plucked from the sea for food.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>To find
out why, a team of researchers led by George Sugihara at the <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on"><span class=yshortcuts><span id="lw_1208371555_1">University</span></st1:PlaceType><span
class=yshortcuts> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">California</span></st1:PlaceName></span>
in <st1:City w:st="on"><span class=yshortcuts><span id="lw_1208371555_2">San
Diego</span></span></st1:City> poured over a rare set of data tracking both
fished and unfished species off the coast of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> over a period of five decades.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In
considering three possible explanations, they found no evidence for the first:
that fluctuations in population simply mirrored the intensity of commercial
fishing.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>They did
find that the young fish left behind as too small to bring to market were
somewhat more vulnerable to the vagaries of the sea, whether changing sea
surface temperatures, currents or winds.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
critical factor, however, was not the impact of environmental conditions on
these age-imbalanced populations, but an intrinsic lack of stability caused by
such "juvenescence," as scientists call it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
disappearance of older, bigger fish from the population induced early
maturation in the survivors in two ways, the study found.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>In some
cases the smaller fish actually adapted physically to new conditions, changes
that could be reversed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But the
researchers also found evidence for a genetic impact, adding weight to a recent
body of evidence suggesting that environmentally-driven evolutionary changes
can occur far more quickly than once believed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"The
implication is that fisheries management need to give priority to precautionary
measures," said Nils Stenseth and Tristan Rouyer, both from the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on"><span class=yshortcuts><span
id="lw_1208371555_3">University</span></st1:PlaceType><span class=yshortcuts>
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Oslo</span></st1:PlaceName></span></st1:place>, in
a commentary, also published in Nature.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"When
the ecological effects of fishing a particular population are observed, the
evolutionary consequences may have already set it, and may be
irreversible."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Average (<span
id=numvotes>187 votes</span>)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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12.0pt'><img border=0 width=94 height=18 id=ratestars
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