A new research that uses Google Earth images has unveiled perils of over-fishing in the Persian Gulf.
Scientists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver took the help of Google Earth and claim that Iran pulls in more than 12,000 tonnes of fish every year from its 728 weirs. A weir is a large structure built in intertidal zones to trap fish.
The study is first of its kind, which used images captured by Google Earth to estimate how much fish is caught by the Persian Gulf nations in a year, when compared to what was reported to relevant authorities.
Researchers and authors of the study, Dalal Al-Abdulrazzak and Daniel Pauly, studied Google Earth images between 2005 to 2010 and estimate that in 2005 the approximate fish catch by Persian Gulf nations was 31,433 tonnes, which is six times what the nations actually reported. The researchers also document the unreliability of data reported by Persian Gulf nations. They also highlight that this under-reporting of fish catch is a small part of the global misreporting problems.
"Time and again we've seen that global fisheries catch data don't add up," said Pauly, principal investigator with the Sea Around Us Project and the study's co-author. "Because countries don't provide reliable information on their fisheries' catches, we need to expand our thinking and look at other sources of information and new technologies to tell us about what's happening in our oceans."
Misappropriating yearly fish catch can have a result in many problems such as risking the food security of a country, economy and the most important of all, dire impact on marine ecology. The study also highlights that fisheries in the Persian Gulf are the second most important natural resource in the region and misreporting its data can jeopardize the nations involved.
The researchers say that using Google Earth has been very helpful for their study and will be helpful for any future researches.
