Shark Deaths Endanger Scallop Population

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2007/mar/29/032901793.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Overfishing of powerful sharks - a top predator in the ocean - may endanger bay scallops, a gourmet delicacy.

With fewer sharks to devour them, skates and rays have increased sharply along the East Coast and they are gobbling up shellfish, particularly bay scallops, researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Ecologists have known that reducing key species on land can affect an entire ecosystem, but this study provides hard data for the same thing in the ocean, said lead author Charles H. Peterson of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina.

Co-author Ransom A. Myers of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Peterson were studying different ends of the food chain, Peterson said in a telephone interview.

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edit: Ransom Myers passed away yesterday - he was 54.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20070328/API/703282970