Overfishing: Fish and Marine Ecosystem
Rose Smoot
Kirstein
Honors World Geography
11 January 2013
Catching A Little Too Many? Do you ever go out to eat some seafood and see the fish that is served? Have you ever thought about the abundance; how much fish there is? And have you ever thought about there being a shortage a fish; seems impossible, right? Because when we think of fish, we think of the millions or even billions of little or big swimming creatures in the huge ocean; how could there be a shortage? Overfishing is the answer. Overfishing is where we hunt fish faster than they can be replaced naturally; which causes the number to abate very quickly. People do not believe overfishing is a problem because it is not something you can easily see, unlike global warming. Global warming has visual evidence like melting snow and warming temperatures. Only fishermen are able to see the obvious subside, but they need to fish to sustain restaurants, stores and other businesses. Since no one owns the fish in the ocean, it is a goal to catch as many fish as possible as fast as they can. Due to that action, it is also hard to find storage for the fish causing the fish to spoil. This means fish that we are catching, isn’t even being used. Fishing is a big part of the ecosystem, the food chain, and the economy. We are losing many species of fish as well as entire ecosystems. Although fish is common, we need to be careful on the amounts we take. It is time for us to take action and hear out a worldwide problem. A question is how much fish has the world lost? At an average, 120 million tons of fish are caught annually, and 1.3 million tons are being wasted. According to an article by Mackenzie Yang, 200 billion pounds of seafood and 54 billion pounds of non-commercially valuable marine life are being ensnared in fishing nets as long as a football field. Not all of it is even used. Also, according to Mackenzie Yang, large predatory fish like tuna have decreased by ninety percent worldwide during the last
Kirstein
Honors World Geography
11 January 2013
Catching A Little Too Many? Do you ever go out to eat some seafood and see the fish that is served? Have you ever thought about the abundance; how much fish there is? And have you ever thought about there being a shortage a fish; seems impossible, right? Because when we think of fish, we think of the millions or even billions of little or big swimming creatures in the huge ocean; how could there be a shortage? Overfishing is the answer. Overfishing is where we hunt fish faster than they can be replaced naturally; which causes the number to abate very quickly. People do not believe overfishing is a problem because it is not something you can easily see, unlike global warming. Global warming has visual evidence like melting snow and warming temperatures. Only fishermen are able to see the obvious subside, but they need to fish to sustain restaurants, stores and other businesses. Since no one owns the fish in the ocean, it is a goal to catch as many fish as possible as fast as they can. Due to that action, it is also hard to find storage for the fish causing the fish to spoil. This means fish that we are catching, isn’t even being used. Fishing is a big part of the ecosystem, the food chain, and the economy. We are losing many species of fish as well as entire ecosystems. Although fish is common, we need to be careful on the amounts we take. It is time for us to take action and hear out a worldwide problem. A question is how much fish has the world lost? At an average, 120 million tons of fish are caught annually, and 1.3 million tons are being wasted. According to an article by Mackenzie Yang, 200 billion pounds of seafood and 54 billion pounds of non-commercially valuable marine life are being ensnared in fishing nets as long as a football field. Not all of it is even used. Also, according to Mackenzie Yang, large predatory fish like tuna have decreased by ninety percent worldwide during the last