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Over Fishing the World

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Over Fishing the World
April 18th, 2013
CHV-20

Over Fishing the World

What is the Issue

“There are plenty of fish in the sea,” is a classic quote, but it may not be true for much longer. If we continue abusing and exploiting the wildlife living beneath our earth’s water. Ocean overfishing is simply the taking of wildlife from the sea at rates too high for fished species to replace themselves. This is a crisis continuing to happen every day and getting worse by the minute. We are all responsible for this, because of the selfishness and greed in all of us.

The oceans cover over three quarters of our planet. Their biodiversity is unmatched and they contain over 80 percent of all life on earth, mostly unexplored. Millions of people worldwide are depending on the oceans for their daily livelihoods. (National Geographic. (2012). Retrieved April, 17th, 2013 from http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-overfishing/
) More and more all this is endangered because of ignorance and a lack of respect for the world.

Why Should We Care

Not only are fish levels decreasing year-by-year, species disappearing, and many other issues. Every time a mass amount of tuna, cod, or salmon is taken out of the water, every other fish is affected too. The food chain goes out of order with over population and endangered others, the migration of species are altered to adapt to healthier living conditions, and every fish pulled out of the water brings them just a little closer to extinction.

“In the 1900’s, our oceans contained at least six times more fish than in 2009”. (Overfishing.org. (2012). Overfishing. Retrieved April 17th from http://overfishing.org/pages/Overfishing_in_one_minute.php?w=pages) We are fishing down our own waters. We have enough fishing boats worldwide to provide another planet. Is it too late to stop overfishing and safe the fish? For some species such as the Bluefin tuna, it may already be too late to save extinction. Other fish still have the chance to


Bibliography: Nuttall, N. (2013). Overfishing. Retrieved April, 17th from http://www.un.org/events/tenstories/06/story.asp?storyID=800 National Geographic (2012). Overfishing. Retrieved April, 17th from http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-overfishing/ CBC. (2013). Overfishing- the issues. Retrieved April 18th from http://oneocean.cbc.ca/pledge/issues/overfishing
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