Alaskan Fishing

Answer: Fishing in the Atlantic has had massive problems whereas fishing in Alaska is doing very well. This is due to many factors that led to sustainable fishing. Practices such as, strong commercial fishing industry support for conservation minded rules. Also, the Alaskan people strong support conservation measures. After Alaska became a state, it amended its constitution to allow direct Alaskan control over commercial fishing. This led to strong Alaskan government regulations, large habitat conservation areas, banning of bottom trawling, sustainable harvest of fish based on good scientific catch limits, careful and frequent monitoring of the fish populations, requiring government observers onboard vessels to verify the fish that are caught.

Fishing in the Atlantic Ocean has had many problems. A particularly bad example is the Northwest Atlantic cod population, which crashed due to overfishing.[1] Simply there are too many boats hunting down too few fish. One other problem in the Atlantic is too much pollution. However, the biggest problem is overfishing. This overfishing is due to new fishing and boat technology, a strong demand for cheap fish, greed of fishing companies, not enough foresight combined with very few real government regulations especially in international waters. There was a technological advance in fishing practices and fishing boats. For example, boat engines became bigger, nets became bigger and able to go deeper, sonar and radar helped fisherman accurately target the fish, huge boats with massive refrigeration systems meant that these boats could stay out for very long time and the only limit to how much fish they could catch was how many fish the boat could hold.[2] The worst example of new fis...

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... levels. The industry group that brings together fishery management is called “The Marine Conservation Alliance” and includes 70% of the industry. This group pushes for fishing reserves based on good scientific catch levels which are environmentally stable. This group also promotes sustainable seafood products and supports strict law enforcement.[8]

In conclusion, commercial fishing is doing very well in Alaska due to a strong mentality and awareness of conservation of the Alaskan people and the Alaskan fishing industry. This is due to the destructive practices of foreign companies and destructive domestic policies from the United States federal government before Alaska was a state. After Alaska was a state, they created serious legislation with a sustainable mindset to protect their fishing stock, fish species and their future of their fishing industry.