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fish are in trouble the cod population
off Canada's East Coast collapse in the
1990s intense recreational and
commercial fishing has decimated goliath
grouper populations in South Florida and
most populations of tuna have plummeted
by over 50% with the southern Atlantic
bluefin on the verge of extinction those
are just a couple of many examples
overfishing is happening all over the
world how did this happen when some
people think of fishing they imagine
relaxing in a boat and patiently reeling
in the day's catch
but modern industrial fishing the kind
that stocks our grocery shelves
looks more like warfare in fact the
technologies they employ were developed
for war radar sonar helicopters and
spotter planes are all used to guide
factory ships towards dwindling schools
of fish long lines with hundreds of
hooks or huge Nets round up massive
amounts of fish along with other species
like seabirds turtles and dolphins and
fish are hauled up on two giant boats
complete with onboard flash freezing and
processing facilities all of these
technologies have enabled us to catch
fish at greater depths and farther out
at sea than ever before and as the
distance and depth of fishing have
expanded so has a variety of species we
target for example the Patagonian
toothfish neither sounds nor looks very
appetizing and fishermen ignored it
until the late 1970s then it was
rebranded and marketed to chefs in the
US as Chilean sea bass despite the
animal actually being a type of cod soon
it was popping up in markets all over
the world and is now a delicacy
unfortunately these deepwater fish don't
reproduce until they're at least ten
years old making them extremely
vulnerable to overfishing when they
young are caught before they've had a
chance to spawn consumer chase and
prices can also have harmful effects for
example shark fin soup is considered
such a delicacy in China and Vietnam
that the fin has become the most
profitable part of the shark
this leads many fishermen to fill their
boats with fins leaving millions of dead
sharks behind
the problems aren't unique to toothfish
and sharks almost 31 percent of the
world's fish populations are overfished
and another 58% are fished at the
maximum sustainable level wild fish
simply can't reproduce as fast as seven
billion people can eat them fishing also
has impacts on broader ecosystems wild
shrimp are typically caught by dragging
nets the size of a football field along
the ocean bottom disrupting or
destroying seafloor habitats the catch
is often as little as five percent
shrimp
the rest is bycatch unwanted animals
that are thrown back dead and coastal
shrimp farming isn't much better
mangroves are bulldoze to make room for
shrimp farms robbing coastal communities
of storm protection and natural water
filtration and depriving fish of key
nursery habitats so what does it look
like to give fish a break and let them
recover protection can take many forms
in national waters governments can set
limits about how when where and how much
fishing occurs with restrictions on
certain boats and equipment harmful
practices such as bottom trawling can be
banned altogether and we can establish
marine reserves close to all fishing to
help ecosystems restore themselves
there's also a role for consumer
awareness and boycotts to reduce
wasteful practices like shark finning
and push fishing industries towards more
sustainable practices past interventions
have successfully helped depleted fish
populations recover there are many
solutions the best approach for each
fishery must be considered based on
science respect for the local
communities that rely on the ocean and
for fish as wild animals and then the
rules must be enforced international
collaboration is often needed too
because fish don't care about our
borders
we need to end overfishing ecosystems
food security jobs economies and coastal
cultures all depend on it
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