Humans Are Overfishing the Oceans Into 'Unprecedented' Mass Extinction

People are driving marine ecosystems to “unprecedented” mass extinction, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Science.

Large-bodied animals will be the first to go, the study says—blue whales, great white sharks, and bluefin tuna, for example. Their size is part of their vulnerability, making them more susceptible to fishing and hunting by humans, “the dominant threat to modern marine fauna,” the researchers found.

“If this pattern goes unchecked, the future oceans would lack many of the largest species in today’s oceans,” co-author Jonathan Payne, associate professor and chair of geological sciences at Stanford University, told the Guardian. “Many large species play critical roles in ecosystems and so their extinctions could lead to ecological cascades that would influence the structure and function of future ecosystems beyond the simple fact of losing those species.”

The study states that “The preferential removal of the largest animals from the modern oceans, unprecedented in the history of animal life, may disrupt ecosystems for millions of years even at levels of taxonomic loss far below those of previous mass extinctions…. Without a dramatic shift in the business-as-usual course for marine management, our analysis suggests that the oceans will endure a mass extinction of sufficient intensity and ecological selectivity to rank among the major extinctions” of the current era.

In fact, the researchers note, it could usher in a new one—the Anthropozoic era, meaning one created by humans. That’s not to be confused with the Anthropocene, an epoch which scientists estimate is already here.