Swordfish victims of overfishing

This 2015 video is called Skin & Bones – Animal Life: Swordfish.

Another video says about itself:

14 May 2014

The Census of Marine Life – a ten-year effort by scientists from around the world to answer the age-old question, “What lives in the sea?” It was an international effort to asses the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in our ocean, and the project offically concluded in October 2010.

Down to the depths of the ocean and observe some of the fascinating creatures that scientists documented during the Census. Watch the piglet squid, snake pipefish, sea angel, and football octopod swim by your screen in this video.

Explore the depths of the ocean on the Alvin, see a bigfin squid and learn more about deep ocean exploration in the Ocean Portal’s Deep Ocean Exploration section.

Award-winning nature and science writer Erich Hoyt tells the riveting story of the discovery of the deep ocean. Weaving together details from the latest scientific research about sharks, giant squid, dragonfish and the huge tube worms, clams and tiny microbes of the deep-sea vents, Hoyt embarks on a magical journey to the bottom of the sea, which is inhabited not by vicious monsters but by diverse species of pale starfish and mud-eating sea cucumbers.

Roaming across the abyssal plains and descending deep-sea trenches, he presents as much about the character and charisma of these and other so-called monsters as about the extraordinary world in which they live. The deep sea is not one place but many, and the animals living in each of these marine habitats have developed fascinating and vital ecological relationships with one another. Hoyt unravels the complex predator-prey relationships, from “killer” copepods to battles among giant squid and sperm whales, presenting compelling portraits of animals that are superbly adapted denizens of a dark high-pressure world.

From Wildlife Extra:

Decades of overfishing causes swordfish decline

Overfishing has caused swordfish numbers to decline considerably since the 1980s and the population is now 70 percent lower than what is considered sustainable, the marine conservation charity Oceana has warned the EU.

They are asking the European Union to urgently adopt a Mediterranean swordfish management plan that will restore the stock to sustainable levels before it is too late. This the charity says should include the setting of a catch limit take measures that will ensure its recovery

“The European Union is blatantly ignoring its obligation to manage stocks at sustainable levels by 2015, or by 2020 at the very latest,” said Maria Jose Cornax, Fisheries Campaign Manager for Oceana Europe.

“By not adopting measures now, the EU would be duplicating the same costly mistake that brought bluefin tuna to the verge of collapse in the past.”

Swordfish are currently being overfished by more than 12,000 vessels, of which 90 percent are EU-flagged and 60 percent are Italian, and at the moment 75 percent of their catches are juvenile swordfish that will never have the chance to reproduce.

Dr. Ilaria Vielmini, Marine Scientist with Oceana in Europe, said: “The stock remains mismanaged despite a decade of overfishing. Italy, as the nation that both dominates the fishery and holds the Presidency of the EU, has a particular obligation to lead the recovery of such an important species.”

The warning comes ahead of the upcoming International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting on 10-17 November in Genoa, Italy, which Oceana will be attending as an observer. They will be calling for precautionary management of Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna, Mediterranean swordfish, and sharks.