Over Fishing the Oceans

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Over Fishing the Oceans
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WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
Fishery industry of catching, processing or
selling a fish, shellfish, or other aquatic
organisms Worldwide 40 to 50 of commercial
fisheries are fully exploited (fished at their
maximum biological productivity) with an
additional 24 either over-exploited or depleted
(fished to the point that reproduction is
reduced)
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Up to 90 decrease since WW II in large ocean
fish, including bottom-dwelling groundfish like
cod, and swimmers like tuna, swordfish, marlin,
and sharks
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As a result of intense, unrestricted fishing many
shark species populations have decreased by more
than 95, and 42 of species are threatened with
extinction.
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Pacific cod halibut fisheries have been closed
all along the West Coast since September 2002 to
save rockfish, which are down to 4 of former
numbers in many areas
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As fish stock decrease smaller fish are being
captured, many before they mature (become able to
reproduce), i.e. swordfish
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• In Alaska spawning pink salmon average size has
  decreased by 35 over two decades, because only
  those small enough to fit through the mesh of a
  gill net survive to reproduce
• (these are genetic changes, are they permanent?)

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• Orange Roughy, that live 150 years and take
  decades to mature, have gone from abundant to
  scarce in a few years. Now, newly discovered
  species are following the same pattern.

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• The North Pacific crab industry has collapsed,
  and an 80 catch reduction has been imposed. The
  fishery is looking for 100 million in federal
  assistance.

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Shrimp stocks in the Gulf of Mexico have dwindled
to 30 of their historic levels and may soon
reach a point where reproduction will not be able
to replenish stocks.
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The northwest Atlantic cod has been regarded as
heavily overfished throughout its range,
resulting in a crash in the fishery in the U. S.
and Canada during the early 1990s. Newfoundland's
northern cod fishery can be traced back to the
16th century. On average, about 300,000 tonnes of
cod were landed annually until the 1960s, when
advances in technology enabled factory trawlers
to take larger catches. By 1968, landings for the
fish peaked at 800,000 tonnes before a gradual
decline set in. With the reopening of the limited
cod fisheries in 2006, nearly 2,700 tonnes of cod
were hauled in. In 2007, cod stocks were
estimated at one per cent of what they were in
1977.
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The Visayan Sea Marine Triangle is considered to
be the most biologically diverse marine area in
the world. Elpido de la Victoria, a leader in a
campaign to persuade the Philippine government to
close the Visayan Sea Marine Triangle to
commercial and destructive forms of fishing, was
shot in the back and killed on April 13, 2006.
Commercial fishing interests collected 20,000
for a bounty to have him killed.
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Why is there still so much fish available at the
market?
There is no need to worry about endangered
Chinook salmon because you can buy a can of
salmon off the shelf at the grocery store. Helen
Chenoweth, R, Idaho
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Most salmon, shrimp, shellfish come from fish
farms or aquaculture, not wild sources. Over 80
of the seafood Americans eat is imported.
Historical shrimp aquaculture
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1998 U.S. Aquaculture ProductionValue of
Prominent Farmed Marine Animal by Key-Producing
States The major marine animals farmed in the
United States are salmon, clams, oysters, and
shrimp. The 1998 production of these organisms is
recorded here as the value of the farmed product
in millions of dollars.
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Increased Harvest Previously fishing was a
matter of wresting sustenance from a hostile sea
using tiny boats and simple gear, but modern
Industrialized Fishing uses new equipment
technology with international fleets that fish
year-round
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Amount of fish caught has increased by over 5
times in 50 years
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Food webs contain fewer trophic levels when
overfishing occurs, which disrupts ecosystems
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Improved technology to find fish

• Fishfinders (sonar)
• Satellites
• Aircraft

With todays improved technology a recreational
fishfinders motto has become the truth The Fish
Have Nowhere to Hide
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Improved methods for capturing fish

• Drift nets

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Drift nets are up to 150 miles long and catch
many species indiscriminately, often becoming
lost and continuing to fish for years.
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Improved methods for capturing fish

• Long-lines with baited hooks

Longlines can be many miles long and carry
thousands of hooks. Longlines are not anchored
and are set to drift near the surface of the
ocean with a radio beacon attached so that the
vessel can track them to haul in the catch.
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A single boat can set 60 miles of line baited
with 10,000 hooks. Longlines are the most
widely used fishing gear on Earth. They catch
many unintended species, including 40,000 sea
turtles, 300,000 sea birds and millions of sharks
per year.
Thrown dead or dying back into the ocean, these
unwanted species make up at least 25 of the
global catch each year.
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Improved methods for capturing fish

• Bottom trawlers

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Imagine burning down a forest to flush a few
quail. By razing seafloor ecosystems, trawlers
the brutal equivalent of fishing the seafloor
with bulldozers level an area 150 times larger
than the total area of forests clearcut on land
each year.
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Atlantic Cod Fishery as an example of the
problem Technologies that contributed to the
collapse of Atlantic cod include engine-powered
vessels and frozen food compartments aboard
ships. Engine-powered vessels had larger nets,
larger engines, and better navigation. The
capacity to catch fish became limitless. In
addition, sonar technology gave an edge to
catching and detecting fish. Sonar was originally
developed during WWII to locate enemy submarines,
but was later applied to locating schools of
fish. These new technologies, as well as bottom
trawlers that destroyed entire ecosystems,
contributed to the collapse of Atlantic cod.
They were vastly different from old techniques
used, such as hand lines and long lines. The
fishery has yet to recover, and may not recover
at all because of a possibly stable change in the
food chain. Atlantic cod was one of the top-tier
predators, feeding upon smaller prey, such as
herring, capelin, shrimp and snow crab. With the
large predatory fish removed, their prey have had
population explosions and have become the top
predators, affecting the survival rates of cod
eggs and fry.
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Extinction is forever
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Bycatch is the nontarget fishesand other marine
life that are caught
Bottom trawling, is responsible for 80 of all
bycatch incurred globally.
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Other Contributors to the Overfishing Problem

• Government subsidies of unprofitable fisheries
• 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea which
  allowed countries bordering the ocean to claim
  exclusive economic zones reaching 200 nautical
  miles from shore
• Aquaculture, or fish farming, requires three
  pounds of wild fish to produce every pound of
  salmon that goes to market which depletes
  additional fisheries that had been spared intense
  fishing pressure.
• Aquaculture also creates considerable pollution
  and infects wild populations with disease.
• Increasing demand for seafood.

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WHAT ARE SOME SOLUTIONS?

• The task at hand is to manage the fisheries with
  a view to ensuring sustainable utilization of the
  food available in the oceans for the benefit of
  present and future generations without harming
  the ecosystems capacity to support human life
• Dr. Jacques Diouf, at an international
• conference on responsible fisheries

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Ecosystem-based management including marine
reserves or no-take zones
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Consumer Choices for Healthier Oceans
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Greenpeaces Carting Away the Oceans (CATO)
project tracks and reports on progress being made
in the seafood sector. Public support for
conservation measures has pushed groceries of all
sizes to offer sustainable seafood and eliminate
the unsustainable alternatives. Unfortunately,
there are still numerous seafood retailers that
have yet to take any responsibility for the
seafood they sell, or for the damage they are
doing to our oceans.
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Dramatically reduce global fleet
capacity Enforce restrictions on gear that harms
habitats or that capture bycatch species that
will be thrown away.
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Abolish government subsidies that keep
unprofitable fishing fleets afloat

• The fish harvesting industry in the U.S. isnt
  run like a business, and you cant prove the U.S.
  fish harvesting industry is financially solvent
• Zeke Grader Jr. executive director of the largest
  active trade association of commercial fisherman
  on the U.S. west coast

U.S. taxpayers paid more than 6.4 billion in
subsidies to the commercial fishing industry
between 1996 and 2004, possibly accelerating the
ongoing collapse of fish stocks worldwide and
adding to the devastation of large ocean fish
species.
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• According to new report in Conservation Biology
  if global fisheries are to be made sustainable
  the amount of subsidies large-scale industrial
  fishing receives must be reduced
• For this study, small-scale refers to operations
  which use
• boats 15 meters or shorter
• less energy-intensive fishing gear (in general)
• operate close to shore
• The report says
• Large-Scale or Industrial Fisheries
• generally use destructive fishing techniques
  (e.g. bottom trawling)
• discard 8-20 million tonnes of unwanted fish
  annually
• mostly target fish not intended for human
  consumption but instead for processing into
  fishmeal used as livestock feed
• Small-Scale Fisheries
• generally use more benign fishing methods
• can target different fish species based on local
  availability.
• create more jobs, employing 25 times the number
  of people as large-scale industrial fishing
• use 75 less fuel to catch the same amount of
  edible fish as industrial fishing

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• Fuel Subsidies Make Industrial Fishing Viable
• The prime reason that industrial fishing is
  viable, according to this report, is that
  government subsidies--in particular fuel
  subsidies totaling globally some 6.3 billion
  annually--tilt the playing field in favor of
  large-scale fishing.
• Given that small-scale fisheries catch four times
  as many fish per liter of fuel consumed as do
  large-scale fisheries, if these fuel subsidies
  were removed it "would render the 200-strong
  fleet of high-seas bottom trawlers unprofitable."
• Additional annual subsidies detailed in the
  report, which favor large-scale fisheries more
  than small-scale, are
• 8 billion in fishing port construction and
  renovation
• 5.8 million in fisheries management programs and
  services
• 1.9 million in boat construction and renovation
• 1 million in fishing access agreements
• 0.7 million in tax exemptions.

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