By Brianne Hogan / Source: Ecorazzi

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A new report by the WWF released on Wednesday says that pollution, industrial fishing and climate change have killed off half of marine life since 1970.

If you think there’s plenty of fish in the sea, think again.

A new report by the WWF released on Wednesday says that pollution, industrial fishing and climate change have killed off half of marine life in the last four decades.

The Scombridae family of fish that includes tuna and mackerel, for example, has declined by 74% since 1970.

The study, which was also conducted by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) alongside the WWF, surveyed 5,829 populations of 1,234 species, which is double the amount of samples from previous studies.

Sushi favorites like bluefin and yellowfin tuna are highlighted in the report as causes for concern. But fish are not the only marine organisms in steep decline. The report found that leatherback turtles and porbeagle sharks are also decreasing as well as huge pieces of coral reef, mangroves and sea grasses, which has decimated fish populations.

“In the space of a single generation, human activity has severely damaged the ocean by catching fish faster than they can reproduce,” Marco Lambertini, head of WWF International, said in a statement.

The WWF’s recommendations include calling on world leaders to prioritize climate change and ocean recovery, creating Marine Protected Areas to help wildlife and habitats recover, and looking for more sustainable foods on the consumer level.

“The ocean works hard in the background to keep us alive, generating half of the world’s oxygen and absorbing almost a third of the carbon dioxide produced from burning fossil fuels,” Ken Norris, Director of Science at ZSL, said in a press release.

“It also feeds billions of people around the globe, some of whom rely solely on the oceans to survive. These devastating figures reveal how quickly human beings are changing the wildlife in our oceans and are a stark warning of the problems we might face as a result.”

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