WWF say fish stocks declining at alarming rate. The World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Living Blue Planet Report published on Wednesday 16 September is alarming: the marine animal population has been reduced on average by half globally over the last four decades. Although 3 billion people directly depend on these as a direct source of protein, fish stocks have experienced a worldwide decline and some of them are at risk of completely collapsing. The report points out that: - 49% of marine populations between 1970 and 2012 have declined. The analysis tracked 5,829 populations of 1,234 species, making the data sets almost twice as large as past studies and giving a clearer, more troubling picture of ocean health; - Species essential to commercial and subsistence fishing - and therefore global food supply - may be suffering the greatest declines. Underscoring the severe drop in commercial fish stocks, the report details the dramatic loss of 74 per cent of the family of popular food fish that includes tunas, mackerels and bonitos between 1974 and 2010; Adding to the crisis of falling fish populations, the report shows steep declines in coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses that support fish species and provide valuable services to people. Coral reefs could be lost across the globe by 2050 as a result of climate change. The WWF explains that with over 25 per cent of all marine species living in coral reefs and about 850 million people directly benefiting from their economic, social and cultural services, the loss of coral reefs would be a catastrophic extinction with dramatic consequences on communities. (Isabelle Lamberty)