Overfishing Is a Complication That Is Affecting the World

People around the world rely on fish and seafood as a direct source of nutrition and a income in their daily lives. It is predicted that in the next fifty years, most of the fish that we eat today will no longer exist. Overfishing is one of the biggest threats to the health of seas and their inhabitants. Overfishing also affects many people directly above all in developing countries and in poor areas. Daily, gross amounts of fish are being removed from the ocean. Overfishing occurs when more fish are caught than the species can replace through reproduction. Gathering as many fish as possible may seem like a profitable practice, but in the end fishing to much has serious consequences.

Overfishing occurs in water bodies of any sizes, such as ponds, rivers, lakes or oceans. Overfishing has been a huge problem for centuries and has not completely stopped. Removing too many species from the water can result in resource depletion, reduced biological growth rates and low biomass levels. Overfishing that continues for a long period of time without interruption can lead to a stage where the fish population can no longer sustain itself. The ability to recover from this depends on how strong the the conditions are in the ecosystem.

Due to the consequences of overfishing on the world, action needs to be taken. Oceans are extremely important to the economy. Covering almost three-quarters of our planet, oceans produce the air we breathe, hold the fish we eat and provide us with many of the products we use on a daily basis. And importantly, the oceans play a huge role in creating employment opportunities and sustaining coastal economies. “According to a new report from the National Ocean Economics Program for the Center for the Blue Economy, the oceans economy comprised more than 2.7 million jobs and contributed more than $258 billion to the GDP of the United States in 2010”. (Strauss #1). The amount of jobs that the ocean creates is incredible and is important to keep alive.

If the ocean economy were a part of the United States of America, it would be the twenty-fifth largest state by employment and the twentieth largest state. A pretty astounding statistic that shows its economic impact is, “overfishing costs over 100,000 jobs and up to $3.2 billion each year”.(Green Chip #1). This is way to much money to be loosing every year. It’s only going to continue to get worse if we cannot figure out a way to enforce harsher rules on overfishing. The oceans economy supports employment almost two and a half times larger than other natural resources industries like farming, mining, and forest harvesting. In Tokyo, overfishing is becoming a big problem for local fisheries and big businesses. A four hundred and sixty seven pound bluefin tuna is being sold for 64,200 dollars.

The overfishing of this type of fish is putting a huge impact on the economy. This is partially due to the fact that the majority of the bluefins that are being caught are not yet old enough to reproduce, because they are being caught during adolescence. This presents many problems, as depleting resources of bluefin tuna are causing fishermen who practice sustainable fishing to not be able to meet their levels to provide a living for themselves or their dependents. Jaime Gibbon points out that “short-term profits are being put ahead of long-term conservatism”. (Reed #2). This is stating that the fisheries and the businesses aren’t thinking about the long term profits, just the current profits. A long term plan can make a significant difference in the businesses income.

Everyday overfishing is putting more stress on the ocean and is killing the fish and the homes the fish love in. Certain types of fishing methods destroy or damage the seafloor habitats where the fish and many other seafloor animals live. These fishing methods are meant for catching large amounts of fish at the same time. Bottom trawling, which is still used today is the most destructive to our ocean. Bottom trawling is an industrial fishing method where a large net with heavy weights is dragged across the seafloor, scooping up everything in its path even the fish the workers don’t want. These nets sometimes contain endangered species and even pieces of the reef. “Bottom trawling is unselective and severely damaging to seafloor ecosystems. The net indiscriminately catches every life and object it encounters.

Thus, many creatures end up mistakenly caught and thrown overboard dead or dying, including endangered fish and vulnerable deep-sea corals that can live for hundreds of years or more”. (Maxwell #2). This a easy way for catching more fish using less work. Even just the weight and width of the bottom trawl can destroy large areas of seafloor habitats that give marine species food and shelter. Most of this destruction is even permanent. Even though these methods are destroying the ecosystem, some fishermen use methods to make the destruction less severe. Fishermen have the ability to use hook-and-line fishing gear that allows them to quickly release unwanted catch from their hooks because they are reeled in soon after a fish takes the bait. Also newly shaped hooks have been formed to make the chances of catching a sea turtle less. A destructive method using explosives is called blast or dynamite fishing. This method shatters coral colonies and kills the coral tissues on adjacent colonies. Since this method is used on the shallower reefs, it’s almost impossible for the reef to discover.

Another method is when the fishermen use cyanide to stun the fish and capture them alive. This method is notorious for selling live fish to aquarium stores. The cyanide that is used to stun the fish is being dumped on the reefs and damaging them and killing coral. Reef Resilience Network states “destructive fishing methods like dynamite, gill nets and beach seines are highly unsustainable because they typically do not target particular fish species and often result in juveniles being killed in the process”. It’s clear that regulations need to be put into action for these methods of fishing to stop. Coral reef ecosystems support important commercial, recreational, and subsistence fishery resources in the U.S and its territories.

The importance of the coral reefs is something that fishermen take lightly and don’t understand the long term consequences of the reefs. “Coral reef fisheries, though often relatively small in scale, may have disproportionately large impacts on the ecosystem if conducted unsustainably. Rapid human population growth, increased demand, use of more efficient fishery technologies, and inadequate management and enforcement have led to the depletion of key reef species and habitat damage in many locations.” (NOAA #2).

Overfishing isn’t all just about the consequences to the ecosystem. It’s also good to know what causes overfishing. “The reasons that cause overfishing are in a large part due to the worldwide fishing fleets that are five times as large as then what is actually necessary to catch fish that our oceans can realistically support. Globally our active fishing fleets have the capacity to cover at least four planets that are the size of earth”. (Smith #1). A main problem of overfishing is the “open access” nature of fisheries. Only about 1.5 percent of water bodies have been declared protected areas. And most of those areas still remain accessible to fishermen, exposing them to destruction and depletion. Because there are no or few property rights there is a lack of incentive for fishermen to leave fish in the water. Poor fisheries management is a huge cause of overfishing.

The current rules and regulations aren’t strong enough to limit the fishing capacity to a fair level. Even if their are rules fishermen put them aside and fish illegally. It occurs across all types of fisheries, within national and international waters, and small scale to large industrialized operations. “Illegal fishing accounts for an estimated twenty percent of the world’s catch and as much as fifty percent in some fisheries. The costs of illegal fishing are significant, with the value of pirate fish products estimated at between $10-23.5 billion annually”. (Fox #4). The illegal rules of fishing aren’t being put into play.

In conclusion, people need to stop overfishing and realize overfishing is destroying the oceans ecosystem and the life will soon be deceased if the issue is not resolved. Overfishing is causing a mass destruction on the ocean and the fish and other species living too. Also is causing fish to becoming close to extinction. New fishing methods destroy shelter, feeding and breeding grounds that are essential for species survival. Stricter rules and regulations can be a great start to resolve overfishing. Once a species is gone, it’s lost forever and can’t be brought back to life. In fifty years, the next generations can enjoy the hobby of fishing if the problem is resolved. Overfishing is a serious problem that people take lightly, and needs to be resolved very quickly.