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Scientist: Will still be plenty of fish in sea, despite gloomy study

US - A well-publicized story that forecast the collapse of most of the world's fish stocks is flawed and full of errors, an American fisheries scientist says.

Ray Hilborn, a fisheries scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, said a study published in the journal Science — which said present trends could lead to the collapse of most stocks by 2048 — cannot be taken seriously.

"This particular prediction has zero credibility within the scientific community," said Hilborn, a professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.

The study, written by a team led by Dalhousie University researcher Boris Worm, attracted international headlines with a dire warning, which said current trends of overfishing and climate change were putting most species at risk.

However, Hilborn said the researcher was based on faulty methodology, including how catch rates were interpreted.

"The authors were just incredibly sloppy in how they used that data," Hilborn told CBC News.

Source: CBC News