Environmental Impact of FishingEnvironmental Impact of Fishing

Over-fishing and Ecological Distribution:

     The ocean has always been a sustainable source of food for generations of people. However, in our current day and age technology is a driving force that is helping to drive fish stocks into extinction. Far apart from the old ways before the 19 Century, modern fishing vessels use powerful sonar to locate th

with pinpoint accuracy large schools of fish. The amount of fish that these vessels can contain outmatches the fish's ability to repopulate its populations. As a result large populations of carnivorous fish have difficulty finding food and these populations also begin to decline. The entire ecosystem of the ocean is then displaced and other species then try to fill in the gaps that have been created.

     Throughout the world any, if not all, of the world's ocean fisheries have been over exploited or have collapsed by intense fishing practices. This was made evident in Canada in 1992 when the cod fishery completely collapsed. Incidents such as these can be significantly reduced by enforcing government regulations the quota of fish that can be obtained at any given time or place as well as what species can be captured. Other ideas such as fish farming have also been propped to help combat the decrease of fish populations in the earth's oceans.

Habitat Damage:

(Underwater Trap(Photo Brian J. Skerry/ National Geographic))     

     Fishing methods have a tremendous effect on the environmental impact of fishing. Equipment such as trawls and dredgers that are dragged along the sea floor destroy many sponges and coral that may have developed there. It is possible to prevent disasters to the environment by placing traps along the sea floor. This would significantly reduce the amount of damage delivered to the sea floor.

By-Catch:

( By-Catch (Photo Stephen McGowan/ Australia Maritime College 2006))     

     By-catch is the term used when referring to the capture of unwanted creatures in fishing nets. By-catch catch is becoming an increasing problem and affects all of the oceans creatures from sardines to sea turtles to whales. The most effective way to prevent by-catch would be to eliminate the use of bottom trawls and fishing lines that exceed fifty miles in length. Shorter lines mean that the fisherman can easily release the unwanted species due to the speed if which the line is reeled in. 

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