Empty Oceans by 2048?
What They Tell You About:
Sustainability
For years newspapers and TV news outlets have been reporting that the oceans will soon be empty of commercial fish. In 2006 the Washington Post quoted Boris Worm as saying, "We really see the end of the line now. It's within our lifetime. Our children will see a world without seafood if we don't change things."Sustainability
What They're Not Telling You
Far less mainstream news coverage was afforded to the 2009 update of Worm's work in which he reversed his dire prediction and told the Associated Press, "'This paper shows that our oceans are not a lost cause'' and discussed "hosting a seafood party" in 2048.
The Tough Questions:
What explains the willingness of the media to embrace a statistic that so many independent scientists stood against and just a few years later was exposed as embarrassingly off base?