There is a big problem going on in our oceans and waterways all around the world, this problem is commercial fishing. Although there are many good commercial fishing regulations already in place, they need to be improved because there is still an extreme impact on endangered species and current practices are still killing untargeted populations. This problem has been going on for many years and it’s time to do something about it for good. There are many laws already in place regulating commercial fishing but not enough. Endangered species need to be saved, before they are gone for good.
There are many different forms of commercial fishing, it all depends on the targeted species. One example is harvesting shrimp. The most popular method is drag
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“The metal grids allow large bycatch to escape. They cannot pass through the metal grid into the "catch" part of the net. Instead, these large bycatch species get stuck at the grid and can pass out of the net through an opening above or below the metal grid.” If there was a requirement that all nets had to have this devise included in them, it would save many turtles. A requirement that they already have is “Maximum length of shrimp seine 40 feet, maximum depth 6 feet, minimum mesh size, 1/2 inch square (1 inch stretch), maximum mesh size 7/8 inch square (1.75 inch stretch).” (DNR) All gill nets need to be banned because of their huge impact on the environment. There are other safer more environmentally friendly ways to catch fish. There is no need to wipe out many species of untargeted fish and turtles. Gill nets are regulated to try to limit the use of them. If people are still using these nets fish species will continually be traveling closer and closer to extinction. These nets need to be banned all together. There are many laws already set into place to help the environment and save fish and turtles from commercial fishing but are not good enough. Such as “Commercial Saltwater Fishing License, Vessel Decal and Gear license required.”(DNR) another regulation they have on shrimping is seasons such as catching them with bait is a “60-day season set by the SCDNR beginning at noon on the last Friday on or before September 15. 2016 Shrimp baiting season Sept. 9 (Noon) - Nov. 8 (Noon)”. (DNR) A lot of people say that there shouldn’t be fishing regulations because these people are trying to support a family with what they catch. Regulations need to consider not only the livelihood of fisherman, but also the impact to our environment. The supply and demand is too high to ban commercial fishing all together but it can still be improved by enforcing regulations upon fishermen. . A good start,
In the past twenty years a large amount of bottlenose dolphin have been killed due to the tuna fishery. In the Eastern Pacific swim large schools of tuna, these shoals tend to be under herds of dolphins, for some unexplained reason. Because of this, fishermen can easily find schools of tuna. The tuna are being caught under purse seine nets, which encircles the shoals of tuna and then is pulled back on board the fishing vessel, catching both tuna and dolphin. Initially the mortality rate was 500,000 each year for dolphins alone. Although some efforts are made to encourage the dolphins to leave the net by backing down part of the net, which allows the dolphins to escape, there are still a large number of mortalities (Bryant). On the other hand, in the last few years there has been dramatic progress in stopping the fishing industries from using purse sine nets. It has been found that dolphins are in immediate danger of extinction if these fishing techniques don’t stop.
...s to remove the selfish entertainment from nature and focus instead on its intrinsic value. This in situ approach to conservation of cod, although seemingly surface level transcends the boundaries of economic, cultural, or any of such approximations and places the value on the existence of the species. Another projected solution for the crisis of the overexploitation of fish is the institution of moratoria, which establish that a certain species can no longer be hunted or fished in this context. This in situ attempt at regulating the consumption of cod allows the cod for time to replenish themselves and their populations. Yet, this type of regulation suggests that all humankind must do is step back and let for the problem to take care of itself, and as has been proven several times before stepping back and letting things resolve themselves do not end accordingly
Due to the demand many packaging for the fish can find its was back to sea, or when fishermen are out at sea they can leave their garbage. Many nets from the boats and gears can also be found in the water, that fish can later see as food, eat it, and die; this ties back to extinction in fish. There is much pollution and decline stocks in fish because it is very hard to regulate the seas. To fulfill the growing demand for seafood, many companies are forced to fish beyond areas that are supposed to be non-fishing zones. This is because there are hardly any laws or restrictions telling them where they can and cannot fish. Sally Driscoll and Tom Warhol report in, ‘Overfishing’, that itt wasn’t until 1956 where we saw our first regulation, the United Nations organized the first UN Convention of the Law of the Sea or the NCLOS which helped promote rights of all countries by establishing boundaries off shore. Meaning that some seafood fished in certain areas of the ocean cannot be sold in certain countries, and in some areas it is illegal to fish unless you have a permit from that country. Economy also helps make it harder to regulate the seas, in ‘Overfishing’ it is explained that Preisdent Barack Obama brought up Antiquities Act of 1906, that let fishermen expand their fishing areas. The United Nations FAO estimates that 25 percent of all fish trapped in nets are labeled unusable or not licensed for fishing by the
The fishing off the coast of New England provided jobs for many people in the New England area. The fisherman and those that worked in the canneries were first and foremost the beneficiaries of the plentiful fishing. These people were very independent group and were passionately against any form of regulation by the U.S. Government. It was recognized very early that over fishing was going to be a problem in a 1930 report done by Harvard University. A recommendation was to increase the mesh size of the net then however; it was not until 1953 that regulations occur. (www.nefc.noaa.gov, 2004) History shows 23 years to make a decision was too little to late. The fishermen took a very anthropocentric view of the entire situation. ...
In the late 1990s fishermen were getting stressed and many of them turned in their boats. This is because the government made new rules and regulations for the fishing industry. These rules are supposed to help endangered fish, although some are not helping at all. The government allows small boat fishermen to catch only 500 pounds of cod per day and requires them to toss any extra overboard before they reach shore.
Earth's oceans make up over 75% of the Earth as a whole. With that being said, it is vital to understand the significance on the contents of the oceans. Since fish and marine products make up a large portion of our diet, fishing practices need to be properly managed. In this essay, overfishing will be defined, its consequences will be revealed, and plans for proper fish distribution will be executed.
Why does bycatch occur? To start many of the modern fishing gear used today are not very selective because most fishermen would like to catch lots of fish not just one specific type. This means fishing gear has to be large and cover lots of areas without being selective. There are also reports of devices that have been made to stop bycatch of a certain type of specie, like the turtle, but they are not always used due to lack of enforcement or political will (Rayment paragraph 3). This shows that even though there are measures being taken to prevent bycatch, sometimes they do not always work because of other hidden agendas. Another reason that affects fishermen is that, “Some policies actually create incentives to discard
There are many impacts that fishing and land animal farming have on the ocean, which are detrimental to ocean ecosystems as well as many other aspects of the environment. Overfishing, killing fish at a much quicker rate than the fish can repopulate, is one major problem. Three-fourths of the world’s fisheries are either fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted (Cowspiracy). Researchers have estimated an end of all viable fisheries by 2018 if the current trends of fishing continue (Mason). According to the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch, hundreds of thousands of animals die every year as bycatch, with one of the worst offenders being shrimp fisheries, catching up to six pounds of bycatch per pound of shrimp. Endangered species are also caught, including predators which are important in keeping the balance in ocean ecosystems (Smith). While many organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch recommend consumers to eat more “sustainable” fish, this will not stop the massive environmental impacts. Sustainable fishing for one does not account for the natural flux in the population of species of fish; what is considered a sustainable amount of fish to harvest one year may deplete the fishery in another year (Smith). Sustainable fish also are becoming even less sustainable as companies that label sustainable fish must find more For example, after Wal-Mart pledged to selling Marine Stewardship
Therefore, managing human activity on the ocean is very complex because there is competing objectives within the fishing industry. The ability to make sure economic efficiency, optimizing employment, and conservation standards has fisheries management objectives operating at an unequal balance. Some laws and regulations get more enforcement based on the influence created by the political agenda. Indigenous Rights includes self-governance and this is not the case in the Prince Edward Island lobster fishing
With a coastline of over 202 000 km and over a fourth of the world’s freshwater resources, it is no wonder why Canada’s fishing industry is a huge part of its economy.1 Canada exports more than 75% of its fish to over 130 countries worldwide. Many of the 7 million people who reside on the coast depend on the ocean’s resources. In total, Canada’s entire fishing industry is worth around 5$ billion dollars a year, being one of the world’s most valuable. However, the coasts have not been treated by respect; overfishing, over consumption, and wasteful practices has deteriorated, not only the industry, but the ecosystems and fish populations. This is a huge global issue; the worldwide collapse of fisheries has been project for 2048. Slowly, as the trends continue, we will inevitably see many fish species start to disappear. In fact, the ill-treatment of species on the Canadian border has already devastated a large specie, the cod.
Native Americans and U.S. commercial fisheries started catching Atlantic salmon in the 1600s. The catches in Maine exceeded 90 metric tons in the late 1800s and 45 metric tons in the 1900s. However since 1948, U.S. commercial fisheries have remained closed. For recreational purposes, fishermen have angled Atlantic salmon since 1932. In the Dennys River in Maine,...
To fish or not to fish is a personal choice. The fact that the oceans are being overfished is a growing concern for individuals, organizations, and governments throughout the world. In this paper I want to discuss the effects of overfishing on the restaurant industry, and possible solutions to solve the problem. Fishing is an ongoing source of food for people around the world. In many countries it is a food staple in their everyday diet. In more modern societies eating fish has become a sensual experience, and not just for the wealthy. It hasn't been until population explosions in the last century that the demand for seafood has led to more effective fishing techniques and technologies. Now the demand for popular fish like the salmon, tuna, sea bass, cod and hoki, which is the key fish in McDonalds filet o' fish, is diving wild populations to dangerously low levels. The methods used to catch the amount of fish demanded by the industry do not leave sustainable populations in the wild. In an attempt to preserve the fish population, governments have set limits on the minimum size that may be harvested and how many of each may be taken. Boundaries have been set up saying which areas can be fished and which ones should be left alone. A number of smaller fisheries have gone out of business because of the limits imposed by the government. This leads to even less fish being harvested and brought to market. Therefore the amount and varieties of fish at markets are smaller and can cause shortages for wholesalers and restaurants. Some restaurants will no longer have the variety on their menus that they used to enjoy. If a restaurant thrives on its seafood menu they may be unable to cope with the shortages and will go out of business. In the ...
Many of the methods used in commercial fishing are very destructive to the aquatic systems. Industrial ocean trawlers scrape the bottom of the water, often dragging up the seafloor with them. This destroys the habitat and kills many of the bottom dwelling organisms that are vulnerable to these practices. There is also a large amount of marine animals that are unintentionally caught by the large nets. These animals are considered bycatch, having no value to fishermen and are usually killed. These large fishing vessels also add a significant amount of pollution to the water. Fishing vessels cause oil spills as well as discharging chemical elements and wastes into the water. The thousands of of trawlers that pass through Japanese waters create large quantities of water pollution that can devastate aquatic life by changing the chemical composition of the water and affecting all the organisms that inhabit these
Wild planet. Sustainably caught wild seafood: sustainability and fishing methods, 2014. Web. 3 April 2014.
Did you know that more than 90 percent of all organisms that have ever lived on Earth are extinct? According to Pandey, the author of Humans Pushing Marine Life toward ‘Major Extinction’, nearly 10,000 species go extinct each year, and this rate is estimated to be 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate (1). Human beings are causing irreversible damage to the oceans and their wildlife, which is being led by two major reasons: Commercial fishing or over-fishing, which damaged the marine environment and caused a loss in the marine life diversity, and pollution, which is a primary way of the extinction causes that drastically modifies the marine life habitat. As a result of the commercial fishing and pollution, many of the marine species will start disappearing of the oceans. Briggs emphasizes that over-fishing “has induced population collapses in many species. So instead of having less than a hundred species at risk, as was the case some 30-40 years ago, there are now a thousand or more (10).”