Human-induced evolution reverses for shrunken fish once fishing
stops  Blogging on Peer-Reviewed ResearchEarlier this year, I
wrote about how the human obsession with size is reshaping the
bodies of other species at an incredible pace. Unlike natural
predators that cull the sick, weak and unfit, human fishermen
prize the biggest catches and throw the smallest ones back in.
Silverside.jpgAs a result, fish and other species harvested by
humans are shrinking, often within a few generations, and are
becoming sexually mature at an earlier stage. These changes are
bad news for populations as a whole, for smaller individuals
often have lower odds of survival and produce fewer offspring.
But David Conover from Stony Brook University has found a silver
lining in this tale – selectively harvesting fish can lead to
dramatic changes in body size, but these changes are reversible.
Release them from the pressure of constant hunting, and some of
the animals start to rebound to their previous state.  Conover
spent ten year