Throughout history, the oceans have been one of man's treasured resources. The ocean has provided many a community to sustain itself, even in times of harsh climates and environments. There has never been a more urgent time for businesses and fishing nations to commit to the sustainability of fish. For centuries, humans have believed that the ocean would provide an unlimited amount of fish for us. We have never thought of a time that the ocean would run out of fish but we are getting dangerously close.
There are currently 7 billion people who are living on 30% on earth\'s surface and all of them are dependent on the remaining 70% percent, the ocean.
The demand for the seafood industry and the continuing advances of our technology has to lead us to think that any fishing practices would not deplete fish or endangered fish over the world. Annually, each year there is an approximate amount of 81 billion kilograms of fish are removed from their homes and none of them are coming back.
At this rate, we would all be reasons for a once sustainable environment to collapse.
The backbone of this problem is overfishing. Overfishing is when fishers catch an exceeding amount of fish from the ocean at a rate where it can reproduce. As a result of overfishing, fish lose their capacity to survive which can cause a whole ecosystem to fall. Some of the consequences of overfishing are disruptions in the food web, damage to the seabed, bycatch on marine species, also a result of extinction.
Species such as the Bluefin tuna have been fished so much along the coast of Japan, that it has become an endangered species and had a decrease in the biodiversity of the ocean.
Overfishing is done in many ways, but there are some methods which cause huge destruction in the ocean. Trawling, for example, is an act where huge nets are dropped in the ocean where they are dragged on the ocean floor. The negative impact is when they scoop up the many fish, they also scoop many other species. This results in a massive bycatch. Furthermore, another method is longlining. Longlining is a type of fishing where a very long line is set and dragged behind a boat. These lines have thousands of baited hooks attached to smaller lines stretching downward.
Now, what can we do to stop overfishing? By using sustainable fishing methods. Sustainable fishing is a guarantee of an everlasting population of ocean wildlife for the near future. One of the sustainable methods is to reduce bycatch by using sustainable methods. It is crucial to choose fish that are caught using
sustainable methods like traditional, hook and line fishing and avoiding fish caught by destructive techniques.Bycatching is when fisherman concentrates on high-value fish like tuna, salmon, bass where when trying to capture it unintentionally other life forms are caught.
Endangered Species in the Ocean. (2021, Oct 31). Retrieved from http://envrexperts.com/free-essays/essay-about-endangered-species-ocean