OVERFISHING

Definition

• “catching too many fish; fishing so

much that the fish cannot sustain
their population. The fish get fewer
and fewer, until finally there are
none to catch”
-Reef Ed Online
• “Fishing with a sufficiently high
intensity to reduce the breeding
stock levels to such an extent that
they will no longer support a
sufficient quantity of fish for sport or
commercial harvest”
-Fish Online
Simple definition
•a non-sustainable
use of the oceans
through catching
too much fish for
the system to
support that leads
to an overall
degradation to the
system
 CAUSES OF
OVERFISHING
•bycatch
Bycatch describes
living creatures
that are caught
unintentionally by
fishing gear. Unlike
target species,
which are animals
specifically
targeted for
capture, bycatch is
unwanted and
often unused.
•bycatch

Bycatch may be kept or sold; for

example, someone who catches a
legal-sized bluefish while fishing for
striped bass may keep the catch to
eat at home or to sell, if he has a
proper license. But in other times,
bycatch cannot be used—for
example, if it is undersized or a
protected species—and must be
thrown back. This returned bycatch is
called discard.
•Bottom trawling
destruction
Bottom trawling is towing a trawl,
which is a fishing net along the sea
floor. When improperly used in the
wrong environment, (despite of being
generally prohibited in such areas) it
may have very long lasting effects on
habitat. Actually, the UN Secretary
General reported that 95 percent of
damage to seamount ecosystems
worldwide is caused by deep sea
bottom trawling.
•Poisons

In many places, the use of poison is a

traditional practice but the effects
have been worsening by the use of
pesticides to replace poisons of
vegetable origin. As fish become
scarcer, through overfishing, or
sometimes in order to catch rare,
small and precious aquarium fish,
local fishers often resort to using
poisons such as cyanide or
pesticides.
•Poisons

Fishers can easily obtain inexpensive

cyanide used in the jewelry industry
and gold mining. Pesticides are
readily available to farmers, who
may be also part-time fishers.
Techniques used vary across
regions/localities. They are effective
at killing or stunning the fish, which
are then collected by divers, or
through netting and seining.
•Muroami

The Muroami fishing technique uses an

encircling net together with pounding
devices. These devices usually comprise
large stones fitted on ropes that are
pounded onto the coral reefs. The
pounding devices are repeatedly and
violently lowered into the area encircled
by the net, literally smashing the coral in
that area into small fragments in order to
scare the fish out of their place of safety,
the coral.
*long term domino effect

• “the marine ecosystem collapse is not

entirely due to recent factors, and that
to really understand what is happening,
we need to view the problem in its
historical perspective.”
• The depletion of certain species
through overfishing and overharvesting
sets off a domino effect that can have
impacts even centuries later.
*long term domino effect

• “The depletion
of sea turtle
populations
several years
ago has a
profound effect
on the health of Karen Bjorndal
coral reefs in the
Caribbean”
 EFFECTS OF
OVERFISHING
• 52% of fish stocks are fully exploited
• 20% are moderately exploited
• 17% are overexploited
• 7% are depleted
• 1% is recovering from depletion

*overexploited-in looming threat of

collapse
Problems
• We are losing species as well as
entire ecosystems. As a result, the
overall ecological stability of our
oceans is under stress and at verge
of collapse.
• We are in risk of losing a valuable
food source many depend upon for
social, economical and nutritional
reasons.
• Loss of biodiversity
•Loss of biodiversity

• According to a major
study, there will be
nothing left to fish from
the seas by the middle of
the 21st century. This is
due to the collapse of
Steve Palumbi
much of the stocks of sea
fisheries. Also, the rate of
their decline is
accelerating.
•Loss of biodiversity

• Historical records from coastal zones

around the world, North America,
Europe, and Australia in particular,
show declining yields, not just of fish
but of other kinds of seafood too;
thus, showing a turn down in
biodiversity. We can observe this
with the presence of more potentially
harmful algae, and closure of
beaches.
•Loss of biodiversity

• Experiments performed in small,

comparatively contained ecosystems
show that decreases in diversity tend
to bring reductions in the size of local
fish stocks. The conclusion says that
loss of biodiversity is driving the
declines in fish stocks seen in the
large-scale studies.
*Additional Statistics from the
study
• Experiments show that reducing the
diversity of an ecosystem lowers the
abundance of fish.
• Historical records show extensive
loss of biodiversity along coasts since
1800, with the collapse of about 40%
of species. About one-third of once
viable coastal fisheries are now
useless.
*Additional Statistics from the
study
• Catch records from the open ocean show
widespread decline of fisheries since 1950
with the rate of decline increasing. In
2003, 29% of fisheries were collapsed.
Biodiverse regions' stocks fare better
• Marine reserves and no-catch zones bring
an average 23% improvement in
biodiversity and an increase in fish stocks
around the protected area.
Canada Tragedy: An
Example
The single best example of the ecological
and economical dangers of overfishing is
found in Newfoundland, Canada. In 1992,
the once booming cod fishing industry
came to an abrupt and full stop when at
the start of the fishing season no cod
appeared. This disaster that resulted in
almost 40, 000 people losing their source
of revenue and an ecosystem in complete
state of decay. Now, fifteen years after the
collapse, many anglers are still waiting for
the cod to return and communities still
have not recovered from the sudden
event.
Drying cod at
Pêcheries Rivière-
au-Renard, on the
northern coast of
Quebec's
Gaspesie. While
Canada no longer
harvests cod due
to a ban, the
Gaspesie remains
the best location
on earth for the
curing of cod in
open air. 
Tracking down the food
web/chain •Populations of top
predators, a key
indicator of ecosystem
health, are disappearing
at an alarming rate.
•90 percent of the large
fish that many of us love
to eat, such as tuna,
swordfish, marlin, cod,
have been fished out
since large scale
industrial fishing began
in the 1950s.
Tracking down the food
web/chain
• The total amount of fish taken from
the system and consumed is rising
every year. In 2005, we consumed
95 million tons of fish
-86 million tons from marine fisheries
-9 million from local fisheries
• Fish farming:
-today: 43% of production
-1980s: less than 10%
Tracking down the food
web/chain

• At current
exploitation rates,
many important
fish stocks will be
removed from the
system within 25
years (that is by
the year 2031). Dr. Daniel
Pauly
ACTIONS THAT COULD BE
TAKEN
Laws for the Sea
United Nations Convention on the Law
of Sea

• Article 61
requires all coastal states to make sure that
the preservation of living resources in their
exclusive economic zones is not
endangered by over-exploitation. The
article also concentrates on the
maintenance or restoration of populations
of species above levels at which their
reproduction may become seriously
threatened.
• Article 62
• provides that coastal states: "shall
promote the objective of optimum
utilization of the living resources in
the exclusive economic zone without
prejudice to Article 61“
• Article 65
• provides in general for the rights
of coastal states to prohibit,
limit, or regulate the exploitation
of marine mammals.
What Fisheries Should
Do
• Save catch limits
A constantly reassessed,
scientifically determined, limit on the
total number of fish caught and
landed by a fishery. Politics and short
time economical incentives should
have no role in this.
What Fisheries Should
Do
• Controls on bycatch
the use of techniques or
management rules to prevent the
unintentional killing and disposal of
fish, crustaceans and other oceanic
life not part of the target catch
What Fisheries Should
Do
• Protection of pristine and
important habitats
The key parts in ecosystems need
full protection from destructive
fisheries; for example, the spawning
and nursing grounds of fish, delicate
sea floor, unique unexplored
habitats, and corals.
What Fisheries Should
Do
• Monitoring and Enforcement
There must be a monitoring system
to make sure fishermen do not land
more than they are allowed to. No
one must fish in closed areas and
cheat as less as possible. Strong
monetary enforcement is needed to
make it uneconomic to cheat.
What Fisheries Should
Do
• Underfishing
In Australia, underfishing is proposed to
fishermen. In underfishing, it turns out that
profit-seeking fishermen should want to
catch even fewer fish than the
“sustainable” number calculated by
biologists, because leaving more fish in
the ocean leads to bigger populations that
make for easier and more lucrative fishing
in the long run.
What Ordinary People Can
Do
• Be aware
Read up a bit on the issues of
overfishing, have a look at some
articles on the internet, magazines,
journals. See if you can find some
information regarding your local
situation. Keep in mind that while
this is a global problem but every
local situation is different.
What Ordinary People Can
Do
• Spread the word
Let your voice be heard!
– Friends - Mention to your friends the
problems we are facing.
– Elected officials - Write to your elected
officials or political parties and tell them
you are concerned about overfishing
and destructive fishing methods. Ask
them what they think of the fisheries
problem and what they are doing to
manage our oceans in a sustainable
What Ordinary People Can
Do
• Spread the word
Let your voice be heard!

-Media - Your local newspaper

certainly has a section dedicated for
letters by readers or articles. Writing
a letter to the editor is a good way of
getting a wide audience.
What Ordinary People Can
Do
• Supporting products with eco labels
*Eco labels are based on the idea of
consuming without detrimental
effects on the environment.
Principles for ecolabelling of
fish
• Principle 1
the condition of the fish stocks- This
examines if there are enough fish to
ensure that the fishery is sustainable.
• Principle 2
the impact of the fishery on the marine
environment - This examines the effect
that fishing has on the immediate marine
environment including other non-target
fish species, marine mammals and sea
birds.
Principles for ecolabelling of
fish

• Principle 3
the fishery management systems - This
principle evaluates the rules and
procedures that are in place, as well as
how they are implemented, to maintain a
sustainable fishery and to ensure that the
impact on the marine environment is
minimized.