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How the world's oceans are running out of fish

  2. stone246
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The future of our seas has never been more precarious. Ninety years of industrial-scale overfishing has brought us to the brink of an ecological catastrophe and deprived millions of their livelihoods. As scientific guidelines are ignored and catches become ever biggers. 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.North Atlantic fish stocks have been in decline for well over a century.Unlike global warming, the science of fish stock collapse is old and its practitioners have been pretty much in agreement since the 1950s.The Newfoundland cod fishery, for 500 years the world's greatest, was exhausted and closed in 1992, and there's still no evidence of any return of the fish. Once stocks dip below a certain critical level, the scientists believe, they can never recover because the entire eco-system has changed.
stone246

23 responses // How the world's oceans are running out of fish

  • Yet another problem with the fish industry occurs once the product reaches the retail outlet. Tons of fish are thrown away every day due to the retail practice of thawing seafood products and filling a display case in the market. Once thawed, that fish can't be frozen again, so it is thrown away. Retail outlets don't typically mark down the price to sell more before it must be disposed of because it would lower prices overall. The majority of the fish available at retail outlets in the US is thrown away. Since most of the fish is flash frozen on the boat, the fish should be individually vacuum packed first.
    Floridian
  • This is simply a tragedy of the commons.

    Over fishing occurs because the fishing companies do not own the area of ocean the fish or the fish themselves and thus overfish.

    If you are competing with another fish company for the same fish in an open ocean you will take as many as you can and as quickly. Otherwise the competition will.

    To save the fish we need to privatize them.

    If a business makes their money from a product you can guarantee they will not let that product go extinct.

    The problem isn't the market it is property rights.
    mjhavey
  • It is still puzzles me when people start being bewildered by another expose of the critical situation of the world as it is.
    If this is the world with just over 6 billion of us in it what are the prognosis when the projected 9 billion by 2050 comes in...?
    jhydo
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here, here, here, and here
    GREED, GREED, GREED. Another example of how making money is more important to Big Industry than our future.
    shelchak
  • we're running out of fish in the sea?!
    J_current
  • That is just ridiculous. I don't think we need as many fish as we harvest, yet people are not slowing down. Let some fish go!!
    Wicker_duh
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here, here, here and here
    We have the power to make sure that there will always be plenty of fish in the sea. The power is all in consumer choice. Buy fish from that comes from certified sustainable fisheries. This information is readily available either online or through the grocery store. For example, Whole Foods will tell tell you which of their fish comes from sustainable fisheries. Making educated choices as consumers is the best way to stop the overfishing of our oceans.
    jefftego
  • My mom says don't worry.
    "They're are other fish in the sea."
    Kallico75
  • http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-oceans-seri...
    Altered Oceans.

    What we are doing to our only home is a tragedy of untold proportions.
    JanforGore
  • I wonder if that huge "plasticopus" in the middle of the pacific is also contributing to the dwindling fish population.
    chiselbat
  • JanforGore: thanks for posting the LA Times link. It is difficult for me to understand why we are doing this to the oceans. I hate to say it, but it all comes back to greed. The only other reason I could think of is stupidity. But I know we are smarter than that. Which just leaves greed.
    jefftego
  • wow..i had no idea this was happening. hopefully someone with power will take notice and do something about this
    JenIllescas
  • Tribute to "all the fishes in the sea."
    joshuaheller
  • jeftego: Yes, greed and also ignorance. People on the whole don't connect the dots.They think everything lasts forever. We are now finding out that is not true not just with overfishing, but with our water and other resources with a population consistently going up with resources going down. Population simply must then be addressed in the entire conversation of climate and use of resources in any future plans to combat this. It is the 400 lb. gorilla in the room.
    JanforGore
  • their UNDERPOPULATION is caused by our OVERPOPULATION

    class dismissed!
    Wessagusset_Oracle
  • JanforGore: It is indeed the 400 lb gorilla. I have heard that the population of India will surpass China within the next 10 years. How is everyone going to have enough food and fresh water?
    jefftego
  • I think they should ban any sort of SELLING of any sea life, and that way if you want to cook a fish go out and catch it :D i think New Zealand has a law like that??
    komatous
  • clone sushi.
    pressrecord
  • Revolution! People have to strike. Thanks JanforGore for the link.
    dontipo
  • We humans have made a mess of everything on this planet. From the way we govern ourselves to the way we manage our nature given resources. I really cannot see how we are going to avoid self annihilation at the way we are progressing. What a shame to the generations yet to experience what living feels like.
    jhydo
  • Maybe the FBI may come after me by these comments~!

    We need to sink ships that belong to spain, portugal, japon, china, and from all those motherfukers who rape the oceans!

    This is our garden and it feeds us, but some of us do not care and do not respect, so, they deserve no better!

    China today around 12000 people dead and counting, Burma still counting!!

    Mother earth is and would be coming with a vengance, you better watch out, through her we come and back to her we go!
    areflection
  • way too many people and way to much consumption. we ill ourselves off sooner then later if we keep this up.
    Hockey4mnhs
  • I've been aware of the devastation caused by over-fishing and by industrial trawling for many, many years. This is why I have long boycotted seafood. The only fish I eat is from Lake Geneva and local rivers where the fish is plentiful and where they seed more fish if numbers get too low. There is a wide variety of fresh-water fish available, all very tasty and free of mercury and dioxin - unlike seafood.
    Vierotchka

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