Unsustainable Planet: Overfishing

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Overfishing has been a crime of mankind repeatedly since the early 1800's.  Back then it wasn't because of a demand for food like it is today, but rather the need for whale blubber.  This was primarily due to the fact that the blubber served as great slow-burning lamp fuel in a time when the light bulb had not yet been invented.  Obviously with the discovery of electricity and light harvested from such, the whale population would edge out extinction.  Nowadays the outlook is much worse as there will likely not be an invention to replace the delicious taste and health benefits of fish.  

The demand for fish really started to pick up around the mid 20^th century.  Investors saw the opportunity to make a killing and began organizing commercial fishing fleets.  By about the 90's this became a serious issue.  With technology such as fish finding sonar, GPS and drift nets easily available the fish were colossally outmatched and the fish population began to steadily decline.  Many species of fish such as tuna and cod have seen their species decrease by as much as 90%.

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In an attempt to save the fish population different laws and regulations have been passed, though many have resulted in utter failure.  There have been laws passed that limit the pocket of fishing time to specific seasons and though, in theory, this may seem to be a reasonable solution, it has only led to mad dashes among fisheries to catch as much fish as they can in that span of time and population numbers have still plummeted.  Other restrictions such as a limited amount of fish allowed to be brought into port also seem like a promising approach but when enacted the results have been catastrophic; fishermen will sort through the fish they catch to find the “keepers” and toss back the less worthy candidates until they have the allowed amount.  The big issue here is that through this process most of the fish die before they are thrown back, still hurting the fish population as much as if the restriction was not in place.  In fact, if this restriction did not exist there would me more fish to meet the demand and less fish wastefully killed.  

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Thus far there hasn't seemed to be any substantially successful methods to solve the overfishing crisis.  High human population means a high demand for fish and with the population exponentially rising and the ever more serious issue of oceanic pollution the outlook doesn't look good.  At the current rate marine biologists and ecologists estimate that the fish population will be depleted by 2048.  One thing is for sure, we are in serious need of a true solution or the consumption of seafood will be a tale we tell to future generations.  

Next time you or someone you're with is about to let some seafood go to waste, remember what you have just read...

Works Cited

http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-overfishing/

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/ocean-health-suffers-overfishing-index-finds-8C11406915

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/29/just-how-badly-are-we-overfishing-the-ocean/

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2013/0325/A-better-way-to-prevent-overfishing