TY - JOUR T1 - Let more big fish sink: Fisheries prevent blue carbon sequestration—half in unprofitable areas A1 - Mariani,Gaël A1 - Cheung,William W. L. A1 - Lyet,Arnaud A1 - Sala,Enric A1 - Mayorga,Juan A1 - Velez,Laure A1 - Gaines,Steven D. A1 - Dejean,Tony A1 - Troussellier,Marc A1 - Mouillot,David AD - MARBEC, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, IFREMER, IRD, Montpellier, France. AD - Changing Ocean Research Unit, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. AD - World Wildlife Fund, Washington, DC 20037, USA. AD - National Geographic Society, Washington, DC 20036, USA. AD - University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. AD - Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. AD - SPYGEN, 17 rue du Lac Saint-André, Savoie Technolac, Le Bourget du Lac, France. AD - Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France. UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00658/77008/ DO - 10.1126/sciadv.abb4848 N2 - Contrary to most terrestrial organisms, which release their carbon into the atmosphere after death, carcasses of large marine fish sink and sequester carbon in the deep ocean. Yet, fisheries have extracted a massive amount of this “blue carbon,” contributing to additional atmospheric CO2 emissions. Here, we used historical catches and fuel consumption to show that ocean fisheries have released a minimum of 0.73 billion metric tons of CO2 (GtCO2) in the atmosphere since 1950. Globally, 43.5% of the blue carbon extracted by fisheries in the high seas comes from areas that would be economically unprofitable without subsidies. Limiting blue carbon extraction by fisheries, particularly on unprofitable areas, would reduce CO2 emissions by burning less fuel and reactivating a natural carbon pump through the rebuilding of fish stocks and the increase of carcasses deadfall. Y1 - 2020/10 PB - American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) JF - Science Advances SN - 2375-2548 VL - 6 IS - 44 ID - 77008 ER -