This is a serious topic that everyone is concerned about. ‘Overfishing can be bad for the environment.’ Some say seafood can be healthy for the body. Some say that overfishing can be beneficial for the economy as it often meets business demands. But others say that overfishing can be bad for the environment, as it can destroy marine ecosystems which are important to us. So even though overfishing can be healthy, it can also be dangerous for the environment. Fishing boats should stop overfishing, as it is destroying the ocean. I take the position that overfishing is bad, and should be stopped. The main types of fishing is bottom-trawling, long-line fishing, bycatch and blast fishing. The reason is, these types of fishing can sometimes go too far.
Often, overfishing becomes so extreme that when the fish population drops, fishing boats are forced to fish illegal amounts of fish, and even fish at various illegal areas- just so they receive their salaries and meet business demands. And that’s not all. When fishing boats use these four types of fishing techniques, not only are they killing monstrous quantities of marine life. Fishing boats are forcing marine animals to migrate and therefore adapt to environments have never been into before. As a result, this might make huge impact on the marine food chain, either creating overpopulation or extinction. But if you look closely-there is a way we can all fix this.
Firstly, bottom trawling can be bad for the ocean floor, as bottom trawling includes dragging the net across the ocean floor, pulling along live corals and stirring up other unneeded marine life. This can also be called bycatch. Here is a line from the article ‘types of overfishing’ ‘'The unintended species that get caught up in the Longline or Trawling nets, sometimes up to 6 pounds of ocean species discarded per every 1 pound caught'’ This shows that six pounds of marine organism gets thrown back into the sea, and only one pound of the catch is of use. Adding on, fishing boats often do blast fishing, which uses explosives such as dynamites, so once the fish are dead, it is simpler for the fishermen to collect the fish that float to the surface. Here is an example from the article ‘Blast fishing destroying Tanzania’s marine habitats’ ''Blast fishing destroys the fish habitats under water where fish reproduce and that has had a big impact, especially on us who use ring nets to fish," a 32-year-old fisherman says. This shows that blast fishing can make it harder for other fishermen to catch their fish, and furthermore destroys the marine habitats below the water. This is why bottom-trawling, longline and blast fishing can be an extremely bad kind of overfishing.
Secondly, most common type of fishing is longline fishing. Longline fishing leave lines drifting in the ocean, and sometimes other passing marine animals, such as sharks, also get trapped. Here is a line from the article ‘the problem with a good catch: effects of longline fishing’ ‘Researchers believe such practices have contributed to a 60 percent decline in shark numbers in Costa Rican waters over the last decade. “The biggest problem is the overwhelming impact of international longline fishing fleets,” says Randall Arauz, President of Pretoma, a Costa Rican environmental group.’ This means that longline fishing fleets are also targeting and seriously overfishing sharks. This is why longline fishing should be stopped, as an effect, it is bringing down the shark population.
Adding on, illegal fishing is getting out of control. It is getting harder to tell if we are even purchasing legally caught fish. Here is an example from the article ‘WWF Illegal fishing threatens ‘State Department’s “Our Ocean” conference, President Obama announced the creation of a new initiative to prevent illegally caught fish from reaching US markets.’ This means that illegally caught fish are reaching the markets, and initiatives are trying to stop that. I feel that we should prevent illegal fishing from happening, by eating less seafood. This way, there will be less demand of seafood supply, and eventually the illegal fishing boats will stop fishing. On the other hand, some people might say that seafood is good for the heart and should be eaten. Here is a line from the article ‘Why it pays to shell out on seafood’ "If you include one portion of seafood in your weekly diet, you may halve the chances of suffering a heart attack." This means that eating seafood may halve the chances of getting a heart attack.
Although seafood can be healthy for the heart, overfishing can be bad for the marine food chain. If the fishing boats keep on targeting big fish, small fish will soon overpopulate, as there might not be a balance between the big fish and small fish. Here is an example from the article ‘Ocean’s food chain: Overfishing not just an issue for big fish’ ‘Stocks of small fish generally recover from a detrimental event faster than stocks of large fish do because small fish typically don't live as long, and reproduce faster than their predators, Pinsky said.’ This shows that small fish populate faster than big fish, who are predators to big fish. When the big fish are taken away, there is a smaller risk that small fish get hunted by their predators, so this leaves the small fish to overpopulate. If the big fish keep on being overfished, the population of big fish will die out sooner or later. Eventually, the sea will only be filled with small fish, and the food chain will topple down.
In conclusion, the question everyone's asking, ‘how do we stop all this?’ I believe that more islands should make laws on illegal fishing, and make protected areas for sharks who are being hunted down. As for eating seafood? Well, there are simply other substitutes for seafood which can also benefit your health. Walnuts, spinach, tofu, eggs, canola oil and soy milk also contain the same vitamins you get from seafood and shellfish. Overfishing is also destroying our ecosystem, fishes are rapidly disappearing from marine ecosystems, ocean floors are being scraped of what was once colorful coral reefs. So while seafood can be healthy for you, think about what overfishing is doing to our oceans.
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