What would humanity stand to lose if polar bears were to go extinct?
As well as affecting the trophic cascade we have to take into account the human races potential for allowing the seals to have their quota of fish if the polar bears were to become extinct. Over fishing, disease and the legal and illegal ‘control’ of seals in our seas has caused massive population fluctuations in UK seal numbers over the past 50 years. With fish stock already dangerously low to sustain our ever growing demand for consumption of fish and fish products I do not believe that the seals in the arctic region would survive the reversal of the trophic cascade unless we took action to reduce fishing effort and catch size within this time. In an ideal environment populations will typically survive the boom/bust cycle and eventually plateau at a sustainable level but as you can see from our own country, where we removed all top predators many years ago, it is the wildlife that suffers and has to be ‘managed’ in order for use to maintain the supply of food we demand. So basically
