The paper:
R.A. Myers et al., “Cascading effects of the loss of apex predatory sharks from a coastal ocean,” Science, 315:1846–50, 2007. (Cited in 73 papers)
The finding:
Using over 30 years of species abundance data from 17 different fishery and scientific surveys, a team led by Charles Peterson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed that the overfishing of great sharks along the east coast of the United States led to a proliferation of smaller sharks and rays, which in turn devastated scallop, clam, and other bivalve communities.
The relevance:
By demonstrating the ecological consequences associated with diminishing shark populations, the study was the first to convincingly link these top predators to shellfish populations, says James Estes, a marine ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “It adds another dimension to why we should strive to maintain or recover shark populations.”
The shut down:
In ...
