Problems+in+the+fishing+industry

Bycatch, is the incidental catch of non-target animals during fishing. It includes species that should not be captured, such as sea turtles and seabirds, and species that are targeted, but are undersized. Bycatch has also become a leading factor in population declines of a wide range of marine wildlife, mostly turtles, in the Gulf of Mexico. Using not well eqiped fishing gear and fishing in nursery areas are major contributing factors to the problem.

Governments and researchers all agree that the only way to stop overfishing, reduce bycatch, and protect and improve habitat since commercial fishing attracts mostly to the economy. In the United States NOAA ( national oceanic and atmospheric administrtation) fishieries which is trying to stop all of the over fishing. Their activities include maintaining healthy stocks that are very important, recreational and subsistence fisheries, and getting rid of overfishing and rebuilding overfished stocks important to many fisheries.

Other efforts to address the problem include activities by the National Coalition for Marine Conservation and the Reef Guardian International. Their main purpose includes building public awareness of the threats to marine fisheries, providing solutions to stop obrfishing and bycatch, and convincing state, national and international fishery managers to take action to emilmate the overfishing effects on marine fish. http://www.ypte.org.uk/environmental/over-fishing/29 http://oceans.nrdc.org/issues

ACTUAL PAPER!

The fishing industry although might be a respectable profession and career choice, has some problems that need to be worked out on account of our planet. Our planet is has an on going food chain that most of us rely on. If something is removed from that food chain than our planet is in trouble. This is where the fishing industry comes in. Over fish had become a large issue across our planet. We are taking so much fish that some species are on the borderline of being extinct. Other problems such as pollution, which has been a problem on our planet for some time now, is a big factor for the fishing industry. Fishermen’s large bycatch has also become an issue in the fishing industry. Bycatch is unwanted marine creatures that are caught in the nets while fishing for another species. The fish usually end up dying. Over fishing has become a huge problem in fishing industries. Some people as still trying to catch the fish that are becoming endangered. Can you believe nine of the world's 17 major fishing grounds are declining rapidly? 70 percent of the world's marine fish stocks are being overused. People are using up too much of the supplies too fast and its difficult for the animals to keep up with our hungry stomachs. Industrial vessel take almost 60 percent of the global fish catch even there are only 1.7% of theses types of vessels. One of the most famous cases is the decline of the Atlantic cod fish Overfishing has overused cod stocks in the Atlantic. The cod catch has dropped over throughout the past 30 years. Some fisheries have been shut down completely. FAO warns that cod and many other overfished species with reproduce and slowly recover only if the catches decrease dramatically.

Pollution has also become a large issue in our fisheries. Most of our waste today is made of plastic. Plastic is a material that the Earth cannot breakdown or digested. Every bit of plastic that has ever been created still exists, except for a small amount that has been burned, releasing toxic chemicals into our earth’s atmosphere. All of this plastic and rubbish ends up going straight into the ocean. Plastic to sea life ratios are 6:1. Not only are our sea animals being affected by this but also land animals such as birds that are dying due to starvation and dehydration with bellies full of plastics. Fish are taking in toxins at such a fast rate that soon they will no longer be safe to eat. Most of this is happening in the place we call The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is about the size of Texas, containing an estimate of 3.5 million tons of trash. Shoes, toys, bags, pacifiers, wrappers, toothbrushes, and bottles have been dropped in this “accidental dump” that floats between Hawaii and San Francisco. Not only is this affecting our fisheries, but also is damaging our food chain. First, little fish are ingesting these toxins surrounded by them. Not only one toxin is being ingested but also numerous little fish are eating these toxins. Then other larger fish and so on and so on eat those fish. As the toxin makes its way up the food chain through bigger fish is were we come in. We usually catch the large fish, such as tuna, to eat but if we are not carful enough and make sure that there aren’t any dangerous toxins in the fish they could pass though our bodies and cause damage. This explains what I stated earlier about toxins being ingested so quickly that it is traveling up through the food chain and making some fish inedible. AMAZING FACTS ABOUT THE GLOBAL FISHERIES CRISIS." //Site Has Moved//. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. . Frightening Facts about Overfishing and Pirate Fishing." //Greenpeace | Greenpeace//. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. . Overfishing, a major threat to the global marine ecology. United Nations Environment Programme. August 2004. [|www.grid.unep.ch/product/publication/.../ew_**overfishing**.en.pdf] //Garbage Patch//. Web. 09 Oct. 2011. .

Holland Townsend GD Paper 10/10/11

__Problems__ Bycatch is the incidental capture of marine life such as dolphins, marine turtles, seabirds, sharks, juvenile fish, corals,starfish and many other creatures. Numerous amounts of unwanted animals are caught every year by fishing boats. Animals are killed or put back into the ocean when in the process of dying. Bycatch destroys technology, equipment and is driving animals to their extinction.

Government Organizations are involving throughout the world. Many are preventing overfishing, pollution, bycatch and methods of fishing. The [|__United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea__] lays down extensive control on the law of fishing. It arranges the world's oceans and seas creating orders for governing all bodies of water and their habitats. It set down the rulesthat all complications of the oceans are closely interrelated and that rules are to be followed. ("United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea." //Welcome to the United Nations: It's Your World//. United Nations, 21 July 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <[|__http://www.un.org__]>). The plan set out a program for conserving the UK’s biodiversity. It also led to the building of 436 plans between 1995 and 1999 to help many of the UK’s most jeopardize species and natural environment to get stronger.("UK Biodiversity Action Plan." //Natural England - Home Page//. Natural England, 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <[|__http://www.naturalengland.org__]>).**The Global Ocean Observing System, GOOS, is another international** scanner for **bodies of water that deals straight with ocean observers. It mostly applies to the marine observational data needed to meet the** demand **of the world community and the** consumers **of the oceans. It has developed an international co-coordinated strategy for the gathering information that is nessary to stop overfishing. This process has protected a large amount of the marine environment.** Kopetchny, Anthony M. "European Union as a Super Fleet." //Page Has Moved//. European Union as a Super Fleet, 2005. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <[|__http://www1.american.edu__]>.

Technology is occurring abundantly through this generation. Today in the fishing industry we are coming up with more high tech machines which are larger and develop more pollution to the earth. These machines are capturing large amounts of fish in a certain time period. Soon those fish will go extinct, and will not be able to breed with the same species. This year, another study funded by Pew organiztion found that many different fish populations, including shark, tuna, and North Atlantic cod, continue to rapidly spiral downward, with many species dying 90% or more in the past 40-50 years. (antheau, Mark. "Over Fishing Problems around." //Clean Funny Cartoons / Environmental Issues ... on Grinning Planet//. Mark Jeantheau, 2005. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <[|__http://www.grinningplanet.com__]>. Other Technologies being used are **satellites for monitoring the oceans. Satellite technology on the planet has now become accessible to all fisheries and boats. This new resource is enforcing fishing codes** further then before**. Scientists have developed technology specifically ment for monitoring the location and movement of different kinds of fish.** Konopay, Anthony M. "Satellites and Their Use as Devices for Monitoring." //Page Has Moved//. European Union as a Super Fleet, 2005. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <[|__http://www1.american.edu__]>.

Many consumers, fisheries, and markets all reli on fish. No one ever thinks about; What if their are no more fish? Today our technology is becoming more advance, coming up with new ideas on developing strategies to make the earth less polluted, more breeding of species, and less bycatch. Governments and organizations are becoming more aware of the issues. Coming up with new ideas on how to protect the extinction of fish, animals, and plants. I know many people make their income off of fish or it’s part of their diet, and culture. But does this mean we have to kill every last fish just so people can get a little cash in their pockets?