Tasty But Costly

Tasty but Costly 

What comes to mind when you hear the word fishing? When I hear the word fishing I think about going on a jetty or pier and casting some cheap lines with friends and drinking, eating and talking and not paying attention to the lines that we cast unless we hear the reel spinning. What most of us fail to think about is the large scale fishing industry and the amount of fishermen that work in our oceans daily. Do you know that approximately 1.2 billion people eat fish on a daily? That fish yields have decreased dramatically over the last 50 years? Or that marine scientist have estimated that our oceans are going to run out of fish by the year 2060? Probably not. The amount of fish that we eat every year has increased since the early 2000s due to more people consuming only fish and vegetables on a daily. Although this maybe healthier for us it has been costly on our oceans.

What is overfishing?

Overfishing occurs when the rate of fishing is inversely proportional to the rate at which fish replenish their species, that is, the rate at which we catch fish is higher than that at which they are able to breed and reach maturity. The rate of overfishing has increased dramatically and in return fisherman yields have been steadily declining.

Impact of overfishing:

1. Changes in the ecosystem
2. Loss of food source
3. Loss of income
4. Extinction of species of fish
5. Destruction of coral reefs

Fig2: Overfishing Model by Greenpeace

With this bit of information in mind I think that we can all come together to help our oceans and stop overfishing, because after we all we need them more than they need us.
Check out this cool and informative video before you leave.

Video by: OCEAN2012EU