Over Fishing - an Enviromental Problem
By supersajjad, 29th Mar 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsScience
Just as deforestation causes global warming, the effect that fishing has had on fish is disastrous. It is an enviromental problem which has not been tackled enough by governments across the world.
- What Is Over Fishing?
- Problems Related To Over Fishing
- Impacts Of Over Fishing
- Solutions To Over Fishing
What Is Over Fishing?
Over fishing happens when fish are caught at a faster rate than they reproduce. This leads to a general decrease in marine biodiversity as their numbers dwindle.
Over fishing has led to the decrease in number of wild fisheries in the oceans. Other marine organisms are also affected by fishing techniques.
Drift netting is used to catch pelagic fish while trawling is used to catch deep water fish.
Problems Related To Over Fishing
One of the biggest effects of over fishing is the "Knock on effect" on other species. For example, herring is eaten by cod. If herring is over fished, then the cod population will also suffer.
Over fishing has also caused other marine life to suffer. Due to the bad methods, more than 20,000 dolphins are killed each year by getting trapped in nets.
Impacts Of Over Fishing
The problem of over fishing has increased in the last 40 years with 52% of fish stocks already fully exploited
The government restrictions and depleted fish stocks have led many fishermen to getting less profit than they used to
With increasing demand, especially from poorer countries and coastal areas such as India, the population growth has meant more fish is needed.
Solutions To Over Fishing
Fish are a renewable source, so it is important to maintain their stock levels. In response to this, there are now a large number of fish farms.
International agreements have allowed quotas to be introduced to restrict mesh size and numbers of fish caught so that young fish can live to reproduce.
There have also been closed seasons for fishing as well as enforcing exclusion zones so fish stocks can recover.
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