Reference
- overfishingFishing at rates that exceed the sustained-yield cropping of fish species, resulting in a net population decline. For example, in the North Atlantic, herring has been fished to the verge of extinction, and the cod and haddock populations are severely depleted. In the developing world, use of huge factory ships, often by fisheries from industrialized countries, has depleted stocks for local communities who depend on this food source. In 2005, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that 52% of the world's marine stocks were fully exploited, 16% over-exploited, and 7% depleted. See also fishing and fisheries.
Environmentalists have long been concerned at the wider implications of overfishing, in particular the devastation wrought on oceanic food chains. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that worldwide overfishing has damaged oceanic ecosystems to such an extent that their ability to support increased fish numbers is significantly reduced. With better management of fishing programmes the fishing catch could in principle be increased; however, it is estimated that, annually, tens of millions of tonnes of fish are discarded from fishing vessels at sea, because they are not the species sought, a practice known as catch and discard and also used to avoid fines where fishing catches exceed local quotas.
The decisions governments have to make regarding the conservation of remaining fish stocks are not simply based on scientific recommendations but include economic and social factors too. The imposition of fishing bans can have an immediate and highly damaging impact on fishing communities and their support industries. In some cases, such as on the east coast of Canada and the USA and many ports along the North Sea coast, fishing quotas have permanently driven long-established fishing communities from their traditional livelihoods.
In 2013, reforms to the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy were agreed, banning catch and discard in open ocean fishing of certain species (such as mackerel and herring) from 2015, and extending this to other fisheries in 2016. The reforms also include a commitment (legally binding from 2014) to sustainable fishing, to be achieved by member countries working together in regions, with annual quotas based on scientific advice.
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Perspectives
All the Boats on the Ocean
"Finley makes her point--that government subsidies to deep-sea fishing are a main cause of the current catastrophe--dramatically clear. Her descriptions of the damage that factory trawlers did to the ocean floor and the speed with which they wiped out fisheries in the '60s and '70s are especially powerful. Relevant not only to people who are interested in fisheries and oceans, but also to those concerned with global resource crises generally, this interdisciplinary, pragmatic book surpasses most of the work of historians in this area. Synthesizing scientific material with international law and politics, as well as the internal affairs of government agencies and private businesses, Finley links the fisheries story to the 'great transformation' of global ecology in the postwar period by way of the technology, policy, and politics of food production.All the Boats on the Oceanis a significant, original book." -- Arthur McEvoy, Southwestern Law School, author of "The Fisherman's Problem: Ecology and Law in the California Fisheries, 1850-1980" "In this compact and highly readable book, Finley argues that overfishing since the 1950s is less a tragedy of the commons than a tragedy of the Cold War.She shows how geopolitics, science, law, and greed combined to generate a scramble for the oceans and a regime of overfishing that lasts to this day.A welcome addition to several scholarly literatures." -- J. R. McNeill, Georgetown University, author of "Something New under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World" "Those of us who thought we understood how the oceans' plight came about will find much that is new in this thoroughly researched and highly engaging work. Weaving history, politics, and science, Finley shows how the seeds of the current predicament were sown during the Cold War Era, as government subsidies fueled the rapid acceleration of fishing. Her call for a reinterpretation of the role of fishing within government is long overdue. A must-read." -- Ellen Pikitch, Stony Brook University
World Without Fish
A KID'S GUIDE TO THE OCEAN "Can you imagine a world without fish? It's not as crazy as it sounds. But if we keep doing things the way we've been doing things, fish could become extinct within fifty years. So let's change the way we do things!" World Without Fish is the uniquely illustrated narrative nonfiction account--for kids--of what is happening to the world's oceans and what they can do about it. Written by Mark Kurlansky, author of Cod, Salt, The Big Oyster, and many other books, World Without Fish has been praised as "urgent" (Publishers Weekly) and "a wonderfully fast-paced and engaging primer on the key questions surrounding fish and the sea" (Paul Greenberg, author of Four Fish). It has also been included in the New York State Expeditionary Learning English Language Arts Curriculum. Written by a master storyteller, World Without Fish connects all the dots--biology, economics, evolution, politics, climate, history, culture, food, and nutrition--in a way that kids can really understand. It describes how the fish we most commonly eat, including tuna, salmon, cod, swordfish--even anchovies-- could disappear within fifty years, and the domino effect it would have: the oceans teeming with jellyfish and turning pinkish orange from algal blooms, the seabirds disappearing, then reptiles, then mammals. It describes the back-and-forth dynamic of fishermen, who are the original environmentalists, and scientists, who not that long ago considered fish an endless resource. It explains why fish farming is not the answer--and why sustainable fishing is, and how to help return the oceans to their natural ecological balance. Interwoven with the book is a twelve-page graphic novel. Each beautifully illustrated chapter opener links to the next to form a larger fictional story that perfectly complements the text.
Condition and Health Indicators of Exploited Marine Fishes
This important and informative new book outlines and discusses details of the basic principles and methods that are central to any study of fish condition, from a fish ecology and fisheries biology perspective. Condition and Health Indicators of Exploited Marine Fishes describes the potential capacities of condition indicators, providing examples showing the use of these indicators to solve practical problems in connection with fish ecology and fisheries research. By focusing on wild fish populations, the book complements the increasing number of scientific works that are contributing to show how fish condition studies are key to reveal problems in marine aquaculture, the effects of pollution, fish disease, and the importance of fish in human nutrition and medicine. Condition and Health Indicators of Exploited Marine Fishes provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of fish condition that will assist advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and professionals, working in marine ecology and biology, fisheries biology, environmental sciences and fish pathology. All universities and research establishments where biological and environmental sciences, fisheries and aquaculture are studied and taught should have copies of this book on their shelves.
Fishing Communities: Poverty and Vulnerability
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Today, 150 million people work in the fishing industry; 90% of them live in developing nations, especially Africa and Asia. This way of life is becoming extinct. Governments and world powers leave local fishermen with little chance for survival.
Shark Fishermen
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowShark fisherman value their catch. Every part of the shark is used up, the fin the most coveted prize. Asian businessmen buy the fins for exorbitant prices.
Overfishing, Depletion, and World Commercialization
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowExcessive fishing uses up existing resources, especially among small populations of fish. Well-known species of fish are on the brink of extinction. Fish products are commercialized at a world level thanks to refrigerated transport.
Online Resources
- Climate change and overfishing increase neurotoxicant in marine predatorsMore than three billion people rely on seafood for nutrition. However, fish are the predominant source of human exposure to methylmercury (MeHg), a potent neurotoxic substance. In the United States, 82% of population-wide exposure to MeHg is from the consumption of marine seafood and almost 40% is from fresh and canned tuna alone . Around 80% of the inorganic mercury (Hg) that is emitted to the atmosphere from natural and human sources is deposited in the ocean , where some is converted by microorganisms to MeHg. In predatory fish, environmental MeHg concentrations are amplified by a million times or more. Human exposure to MeHg has been associated with long-term neurocognitive deficits in children that persist into adulthood, with global costs to society that exceed US$20 billion . The first global treaty on reductions in anthropogenic Hg emissions (the Minamata Convention on Mercury) entered into force in 2017. However, effects of ongoing changes in marine ecosystems on bioaccumulation of MeHg in marine predators that are frequently consumed by humans (for example, tuna, cod and swordfish) have not been considered when setting global policy targets. Here we use more than 30 years of data and ecosystem modelling to show that MeHg concentrations in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) increased by up to 23% between the 1970s and 2000s as a result of dietary shifts initiated by overfishing. Our model also predicts an estimated 56% increase in tissue MeHg concentrations in Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) due to increases in seawater temperature between a low point in 1969 and recent peak levels-which is consistent with 2017 observations. This estimated increase in tissue MeHg exceeds the modelled 22% reduction that was achieved in the late 1990s and 2000s as a result of decreased seawater MeHg concentrations. The recently reported plateau in global anthropogenic Hg emissions suggests that ocean warming and fisheries management programmes will be major drivers of future MeHg concentrations in marine predators.
- Ecosystem overfishing in the oceanFisheries catches represent a net export of mass and energy that can no longer be used by trophic levels higher than those fished. Thus, exploitation implies a depletion of secondary production of higher trophic levels (here the production of mass and energy by herbivores and carnivores in the ecosystem) due to the removal of prey. The depletion of secondary production due to the export of biomass and energy through catches was recently formulated as a proxy for evaluating the ecosystem impacts of fishing-i.e., the level of ecosystem overfishing. Here we evaluate the historical and current risk of ecosystem overfishing at a global scale by quantifying the depletion of secondary production using the best available fisheries and ecological data (i.e., catch and primary production). Our results highlight an increasing trend in the number of unsustainable fisheries (i.e., an increase in the risk of ecosystem overfishing) from the 1950s to the 2000s, and illustrate the worldwide geographic expansion of overfishing. These results enable to assess when and where fishing became unsustainable at the ecosystem level. At present, total catch per capita from Large Marine Ecosystems is at least twice the value estimated to ensure fishing at moderate sustainable levels.
Overfishing
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowAsian ships gather fish from Senegal. A Senegalese fisherman says there is overfishing because government grants licenses to foreign ships with advanced technology.