
File Photo – Lehtikuva.
Fishing for large sized fishes could bar the inheritance of bulky genes to the next generation and reduce the average size of fish, according to an international study.
According to one researcher, fishing of large sized fish also works against natural selection and when fishing of large sized fish prolongs generation after the other, the average size of fish starts to decline.
“Big fish are increasing more frequently and they reproduce more and bigger eggs. Also large fish are often those which survived for a long time,” Post-doctoral Researcher Silva Uusi-Heikkilä said.
According to the researcher, setting of overhead measurement on fishing could be of the interest of fishermen in the long-term.
According to the study, the removal of large sized fish has already caused heritable changes in the course of five generations.