Overfishing depleting world's stock

by cynthia yoo | May 13, 2008 at 03:11 pm | 768 views | 8 comments

A recent Guardian article highlights how the world's fish stocks are being depleted by wasteful practices of industrial-scale fishing.

The writer cites stats that highlight these wasteful but standard industrial practice.

Is anyone not aware that wild fish are in deep trouble? That three-quarters of commercially caught species are over-exploited or exploited to their maximum? Do they not know that industrial fishing is so inefficient that a third of the catch, some 32 million tonnes a year, is thrown away? For every ocean prawn you eat, fish weighing 10-20 times as much have been thrown overboard. These figures all come from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which also claims that, of all the world's natural resources, fish are being depleted the fastest. With even the most abundant commercial species, we eat smaller and smaller fish every year - we eat the babies before they can breed.


And so the fish is running out.
Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at York University, predicts that by 2050 we will only be able to meet the fish protein needs of half the world population: all that will be left for the unlucky half may be, as he puts it, 'jellyfish and slime'. Ninety years of industrial-scale exploitation of fish has, he and most scientists agree, led to 'ecological meltdown'. Whole biological food chains have been destroyed.

Many of those fish you can see in such glorious abundance in Spanish markets - and on our own supermarket shelves - come not from European seas but from the coasts of the continents of the poor: Africa, South America and parts of Asia. Fishermen have always roamed far afield - the Basques began fishing the great cod populations off Newfoundland at least 500 years ago. And when serious shortages in traditional stocks around Europe began to be commercially apparent 30 years ago, the trawler fleets began to move south.

Add a comment Comments (8)

ken e williams photos

The issues of fresh and local food are important to me. My conflicts with the practices of the fishing industry, dams on rivers, clear cutting forests, over consumption are all, I beleive, part of the bigger picture. I do not have an answer to these conflicts other than to consume less, buy local and live simply. Having access to fresh and local food may be one wise response to the excesses of market forces. Being conscious of and frugal about my food purchases may be the best I can do.

ken e williams photos has contributed a photo to this story.

gerdaindc

Was is because of overfishing or an unusual current in the sea that all these dead (or dying...) fish were on the beach that morning? I don't know, but it was certainly an eerie walk on a beach in Bali.

gerdaindc has contributed a photo to this story.

Hobo Suze

This is something we should all be concerned about and we must act now to leave enough stocks for future generations.  The thing is it's not just the big trawlers.  I see people fishing where I live and some are taking under-sized and young fish.  When asked to put the fish back, people just shrug their shoulders and keep them.  Not enough people care and while those of us who do care read these articles, how do we get the message across to people who are ignorant to the issue or who just choose to ignore it?

MrBLeedy

 

wiggett

I agree with your points about wasteful industrial fishing practices. My photos were taken in Africa however where the fishing methods are perhaps not as hi-tech as other parts of the world. These peoples very likelihood depends on selling there small amount of all important marine produce.

wiggett has contributed a photo to this story.

iAlexander1234
good stuff:

cynthia yoo, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Urbans Pix

I was visiting the domed market in the Bessarab'ska area of Kyiv where just about every kind of meat, fowl and fish are sold. I was just taking interesting photos. No other comment.

Urbans Pix has contributed a photo to this story.

Julz Photography

These were interesting shots taken in two different Vietnamese markets. It shocked me to have so many live fish awaiting sales. Many families make their living from selling their live catch, day after day.

Julz Photography has contributed a photo to this story.

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May 13, 2008 at 03:11 pm by cynthia yoo, 768 views, 8 comments

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iAlexander1234
First Flagged at 3:31 PM, May 15, 2008 by iAlexander1234
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