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Can humans angling for the prize-winning fish shift the course of evolution? Research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that predation by humans through hunting, fishing, and gathering has had significant influences on the rate of evolutionary change in a wide variety of species. Traits such as body size and first reproductive age shift significantly in species that are ‘harvested,’ the authors say.

“Fishing regulations often prescribe the taking of larger fish, and the same often applies to hunting regulations,” said Chris Darimont, one of the authors of the study. “Hunters are instructed not to take smaller animals or those with smaller horns. This is counter to patterns of natural predation, and now we’re seeing the consequences of this management.” Darimont and colleagues found that human predation accelerated the rate of observable trait changes in a species by 300 percent above the pace observed within purely natural systems, and 50 percent above that of systems subject to other human influences, such as pollution,. We’ll talk with Darimont about the team’s findings

CFAX  Radio’s Murray Langdon speaks with Raincoast’s marine mammal scientist, Kathy Heise about the lawsuit that Raincoast and several other NGOs, filed against the federal government to protect Canada’s two populations of resident killer whales.  The case was filed on the basis that Fisheries and Oceans Canada, under the Species At Risk Act, is obligated to protect the critical habitat of threatened and endangered species.

With Bob McDonald:  It’s perhaps not surprising that humans are having an impact on the evolution of other animals on the planet. What is surprising, according to Dr. Chris Darimont, an NSERC postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is the way we’re doing it. Dr. Darimont and his colleagues looked at several examples of species that humans prey on: fish, plants and animals.  What they found is that these species are forced to change far more quickly than happens with more “natural” selection. What’s more, since humans tend to choose the largest and healthiest animals, the kind of selection we do is very different from natural predators that ordinarily take the sick and the weak.

Examination of droppings reveal that timber wolves pooh-pooh venison, in favour of salmon.  Raincoast’s Dr. Chris Darimont is on CBC Radio’s As It Happens talking about BC’s salmon-eating wolves, Sept 2, 2008.