Agriculture
Role of inland fisheries often underreported, undervalued, study says
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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Inland fisheries and aquaculture account for more than 40 percent of the world’s reported fish production but their harvest is frequently under-reported and ignored in the Great Lakes region and elsewhere, a new study says. “The central role of inland fish in aquatic ecosystems makes them good indicators of ecosystem change,” said the study by scientists at Michigan State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, Carleton University in Canada and the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. Ecosystem change includes threats from agriculture, hydropower projects and deforestation, as well as overfishing and invasive species. Although the study focused primarily on inland fisheries in the developing world, it also addressed the situation in the Great Lakes and the region’s inland waters. “Fish respond directly to some environmental stressors such as toxic and thermal pollution, flow change and climate change,” according to the first global review of the value of inland fisheries and fish.