What Should Society do to Stop Overfishing in Our

Oceans?
By: Siera Downes
Billions of people around the world rely on fish and other seafood for
protein, and fishing provides employment for millions. For centuries, our
oceans, and seas have been considered a limitless supply for food. However,
increasing fishing efforts over the past 50 years as well as illegal fishing
practices are bringing many fish stocks to a collapse. The effects of
overfishing, if nothing is done to stop it will be devastating in more ways
than one. So then, what should society do to stop overfishing in our oceans?
In this essay we will discuss what overfishing is, what the effects are and
most importantly how we can stop it.
What is overfishing? Overfishing occurs when more fish are caught
than the population can replace through natural reproduction. When more
fish or seafood is caught than can be replenished naturally, that results in
serious degradation of the ecosystem. Extinction as a result of overfishing
precedes all other human disturbances to costal ecosystems; including
pollution, diminishing water quality and climate change. More than 85
percent of the world's fisheries are being pushed to or already past their
biological limits and in order to restore them strict management plans need
to be put into place. Several important commercial fish populations have
declined to the point where their survival as a species is threatened. Target
fishing of top predators, such as tuna and groupers, is changing marine
communities, which lead to an abundance of smaller marine species, such as
sardines and anchovies. Many fishers are aware of the need to safeguard fish
populations and the marine environment, however illegal fishing, unreported
fishing and unregulated fishing are severe problems. A large crisis of
overfishing is the open accessibility of fisheries. Because the property rights
are little to none fisherman dont feel the need to leave fish in the water. The
World Wildlife Fund listed the statistic that only 1.6% of the worlds oceans
are MPAs (marine protected areas) and 90 % of that 1.6% is open to fishing.
All these aspects of overfishing greatly impact the natural balance of the
ocean, sea life, human lives and overall our planet. It is crucial that we keep
our oceans safe and healthy so we can feed the planet. Overfishing, illegal
fishing, bycatch, poor governance and lack of enforcement threaten our
oceans ecosystems and species, we dont want to lose them. Now that we
have a greater understanding on what overfishing is, next we will examine
the affects and results of overfishing.

What are the effects of overfishing? In the last paragraph we talked

about MPAs, because of the lack in MPAs results in marine habitats such as
coral reefs being destroyed by destructive fishing practices. Dynamite fishing
is a destructive fishing practice used to kill or stun fish in shallower depths
for retrieving, this decimates all coral and live rock mass in the area making
it difficult or impossible to recover. Also fisherman use large nets to catch
fish in mass numbers but often these nets get snagged on coral or sea
grasses and rips them out. These careless fishing practices ruin habitats and
the natural ecosystem of the ocean. Overfishing also is an unrecognized
reason for a large number of endangered species. Some of the endangered
species include sharks, sea turtles, tuna, dolphins, seabirds and sea lions.
Targeted fishing of predators at the top of the food chain disrupts the
balance in marine communities because we end up with an abundance of
smaller marine species that are at the bottom of the food chain. As a result
of overfishing predators the entire marine ecosystem is thrown off balance
and algae growth is increased and coral reef health is endangered. Wherever
there is fishing, there is bycatch. Bycatch is the incidental capture of nontarget species such as dolphins, marine turtles and seabirds. Thousands of
miles of nets and lines are put out in our oceans daily. A horrifying amount of
marine life including turtles, dolphins and juvenile fish are hauled up with the
catch, and then discarded overboard dying or already dead. As a result of
this multiple species above are on the brink of extinction and stand no
chance if overfishing is not stopped. One of the key driving aspects to
overfishing is illegal and unreported fishing. This type of fishing is a threat to
marine ecosystems, it puts food security at risk, and is linked to major
human rights violations and even organized crime. The global supply chain is
intricate and complex and illegal fishing can easily by pass the regulations.
Once the illegal and legal supplies are mixed it is almost impossible to detect
which is which. Although it is difficult to be exact World Wildlife Fund
estimates that the global losses of illegal fishing cost up to $23.5 billion
annually. Illegal fishing tampers with the economy and often puts regulated
small fishers in danger of losing business. Illegal fishing effects the
consumers because some stocks of fish are better managed than others and
we want to purchase fish that we know came from a well-managed and
regulated fishery. Consumers like us want to be sure it was harvested legally,
according to the rules designed to protect ecosystems and achieve
sustainability. These regulations state that the catch needs to be fully grown,
in season, and from legal, regulated areas. Unfortunately, the commercial
fishing market lacks sufficient tracking and labeling regulations to ensure
these are the characteristics of the product we as consumers can choose
from. When we grocery shop and select a piece of fish, we often depend on
the sign or the label on the packaging to identify the species. Fish like

salmon and some tuna are easy to spot given their unique color and
appearance. But white fish such as pollock, codfish, and halibut, they are
much more difficult to distinguish; many of them look identical after theyve
been processed and packaged. So really there is no guarantee that we are
buying or eating what we may think we are. So overfishing can also be
hazardous to our health in case we have an intolerance to something.
Overfishing has extremely devastating consequences that will only continue
to get worse if action is not taken against overfishing. Next we will look at
what action is required in order for society to stop overfishing.
What should society do to stop overfishing? We need to work together
and with organizations to engage key government stakeholders around the
world and put in place a policy solution that clearly details a system of
legality and traceability that includes catch documentation, full chain
traceability and verification, to prevent illegal fish from entering into the US
marketplace. There needs to be consequences put in place for those caught
illegally fishing. These types of changes wont only benefit our ocean and
marine life, but also us as consumers, and the legal fisherman that are
responsible and respectful to the ocean and its sea life. Bycatch mortalities
can often be reduced by modifying fishing gear so that fewer non-target
species are caught or so that non-target species can escape. In many cases,
these modifications are simple and inexpensive. WWF is working to create a
network of MPAs in places like the Coral Triangle. WWF works to ensure MPAs
are designed and managed well and that they benefit both people and
nature. We also monitor the impacts of reserves on local communities. For
those of us who dont hold seniority in the governments around the world it
is crucial that we support and join organizations that are actively trying to
implement solutions and raise awareness for world issues such as
overfishing. Also for the time being when fish supply is at an all-time low,
buy seafood that is sustainable. The reason I chose this topic was because I
have a passion for the ocean and when I researched issues that threaten its
resilience I found overfishing to be one of the greatest, surpassing pollution.
Yet I had yet to hear of it being this significant of an issue, hence why I chose
it, to raise awareness. Even if only a few people read this essay it will make a
difference. By choosing this for my culminating topic I learned so many
important facts and came across so many incredible organizations that are
raising awareness as best they can and that is half the battle, so lets fight it
with them and put an end to overfishing before overfishing puts an end to
our oceans.
In conclusion society should stop overfishing in our oceans because not
only is it a threat to each human being but it is a threat to the planet we live
on. Oceans make up 95% of all space available to life so lets look after that

habitat. In this essay we talked about what overfishing is, the affects it has
on us and our planet and most importantly what we as society can do to stop
the number one threat to our ocean. We are all wildlife and so it is important
we take care of our own. As a society we want to keep our oceans safe a
robust, this will ensure a future for people and nature.