Commercial Fishing
Traditionally they have been little exploited for human food, but are a major target of "industrial fishing" for animal feed and fertilizer. Increasing fishing of them is thought to be causing problems for some of their natural predators, especially the auks which take them in deeper water.
An instance of this was the RSPB linking a population crash of sea birds in the North Sea to fishing for sand eels. This led to political pressure for the closure of this fishery; the seabird populations subsequently improved. However, a second population crash of seabirds which occurred with no effect on the stocks of sand eel, cast doubt on this link.
Read more about this topic: Sand Eel
Famous quotes containing the words commercial and/or fishing:
“The commercial class has always mistrusted verbal brilliancy and wit, deeming such qualities, perhaps with some justice, frivolous and unprofitable.”
—Dorothy Nevill (1826–1913)
“I confess I was surprised to find that so many men spent their whole day, ay, their whole lives almost, a-fishing. It is remarkable what a serious business men make of getting their dinners, and how universally shiftlessness and a groveling taste take refuge in a merely ant-like industry. Better go without your dinner, I thought, than be thus everlastingly fishing for it like a cormorant. Of course, viewed from the shore, our pursuits in the country appear not a whit less frivolous.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)