90% Of Coastal Sea Life In Decline - BBC

[hatrack]

Human activity has had a devastating effect on coasts since Roman times, research suggests.
More than 90% of coastal life has declined and there is widespread degradation of water quality.

Scientists studied 12 estuarine and coastal regions in Europe, North America and Australia from the onset of human settlement until today. Their findings, reported in Science, suggest that 20th Century conservation efforts have had only limited success.

A team from nine research centres in the US, Canada, Australia and Panama used archaeological, historical and ecological records to study the human footprint on coasts and estuaries over the past 2,500 years.

The group found that depletion of natural resources began during Roman times, then accelerated in Medieval times and in the wake of European settlement in North America and Australia.

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5107692.stm

[Dead_Parrot]

1. Ooh, warm fuzzy feelings.

I guess we should be grateful it's not 99%

Yet. :(

[NMDemDist2]

2. true that, look what we've done to the Colorado Delta

In 1932, Herbert Hoover made an unexpected visit to what was then the largest construction project on Earth. Looking across the Colorado River on the Arizona-Nevada border, he declared:

"The waters of this great river, instead of being wasted in the sea, will now be brought into use by man. Civilization advances with the practical application of knowledge, in such structures as the one being built here in the pathway of one on the great rivers of the continent. The spread of its values in human happiness is beyond computation."

Now named after the man who sang its praises, Hoover Dam and a myriad of other dams, diversion canals and channelization have converted much of the river to little more than a conveyance canal for delivery of water to sprawling southwestern cities and big agribusiness. Over years, the federal government has signed contracts and a treaty for delivery of water to river basin states Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming and to Mexico for far more water than actually flows downstream in any given year. So today dust blows where water once flowed in most of the delta region at the river's mouth – in many areas barren salt flats are all that remain.

more at link: http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/programs/watersheds/lcr/index.html

[eppur_se_muova]

3. And what little water Mexico gets is high in salt. Think they're pissed?nt

[NMDemDist2]

4. the families are devasted and shrimping is no longer an option for

most people

yeah, they're probably pissed when they aren't exhausted from picking our lettuce in Yuma