Oceans Might Go Fishless by 2048
The fact that the world’s oceans might go fishless by 2048 was predicted by a revealing study published in the journal Science (Worm et al., 2006). Overharvesting or overexploitation of the world’s oceans is a plaguing reality of the present times. According to a UN report of 2012, global fish consumption amounted to 17 kg (37 pounds) per capita per year which is four times higher than what people consumed in the 1950’s (Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations, 2012). Thus, the persistent and growing demand of sea food has led to overharvesting of the world’s marine resources. This leading environmental and socio-economic problem threatens biodiversity and smooth functioning of the marine ecosystems (Worm et al., 2009). Overharvesting of marine organisms results in removal of the living marine resources from the oceans to a point of diminishing returns and also pushes the endangered marine species to the brink of extinction (Coleman & Williams, 2002; Sadovy, 2001)
Overexploitation of Marine Organisms
![By National Observer Program, NMFS/SEFSC [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carcharhinus_isodon_in_net.JPG){kind=link}
650,000 Whales, Dolphins And Seals Killed Annually
According to a review report by the United Nations FAO, ‘World Review of Fisheries and Aquaculture’, around 90-100 million tonnes of fish are harvested from the oceans each year (Food and Agriculture Organization, United nations, 2012). However, not all of this harvest is utilized as human food. According to reports, about 40% of the global marine catch (63 billion pounds) is bycatch or wasted catch (Davies et al., 2009). This bycatch of non-target fish and other ocean wildlife is one of the greatest threats to maintaining sustainable marine wildlife populations. Bycatch often involves threatened and endangered species like whales that get entangled in fishing nets used to catch lobsters, sea turtles caught in shrimp trawl nets, dolphins harvested as bycatch with tuna and the flounders wasted to catch scallops (Keledjian et al., 2014). In the 1990’s, 650,000 whales, dolphins and seals were killed annually after being caught as bycatch (Read et al., 2005). According to research estimates, around 100 million sharks are caught and killed annually on a global scale as a result of bycatch or illegal fishing (Worm et al., 2013). Shrimp trawlers in the Gulf of Mexico alone harvest 50,000 turtles each year where most of them belong to endangered or threatened species (National Marine Fisheries Service, 2010).
Absence of proper fishery management rules and bycatch documentation, improper implementation and execution of fishing practices and lack of incentives for responsible fishing are the contributing factors for overharvesting of marine organisms (Keledjian et al., 2014). Establishment of bycatch limits for all marine species (Hall et al., 2000), use of fishing practices involving modified or innovative gear like turtle excluder devices (TED’s) that reduce bycatch (Brewer et al., 2006) and provision of incentives to fishermen who use responsible fishing practices (Kraak et al., 2011), could be some of the ways to dampen the effects of overexploitation or overharvesting of the world’s marine organisms.
100 Million Sharks Are Caught And Killed Annually
References (Overexploitation of Marine Organisms)
Brewer , D., Heales, D., Milton, D., Dell, Q., Fry, G., Venables, B., & Peter Jones. (2006) The impact of turtle excluder devices and bycatch reduction devices on diverse tropical marine communities in Australia's northern prawn trawl fishery. Fisheries Research, 81, 176-188. doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2006.07.009
Coleman, F. C., & Williams, S. L. (2002) Overexploiting marine ecosystem engineers: potential consequences for biodiversity. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 17, 40-44. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(01)02330-8
Davies, R., Cripps, S., Nickson, A., & Porter, G. (2009) Defining and estimating global marine fisheries bycatch. Marine Policy, 33, 661-672. doi:10.1016/ j.marpol.2009.01.003
Hall, M. A., Alverson, D. L., Metuzals, K. I. (2000) By-Catch: Problems and Solutions. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 41, 204-219, doi:10.1016/S0025-326X(00)00111-9
Keledjian, A., Brogan, G., Lowell, B., Warrenchuk, J., Enticknap, B., Shester, G., Hirsh M., & Cano-Stocco, D. (2014) Wasted Catch: Unsolved Problems in U.S. Fisheries. Oceana, Retrieved from http://oceana.org/sites/default/files/reports/Bycatch_Report_FINAL.pdf
Kraak, S. B. M., Reid, D. G., Gerritsen, H. D., Kelly, C. J., Fitzpatrick, M., Codling, E. A., & Rogan, E. (2012) 21st century fisheries management: a spatio-temporally explicit tariff-based approach combining multiple drivers and incentivising responsible fishing. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 69, 590-601. doi: 10.1093/icesjms/fss033
National Marine Fisheries Service. (2012) Reinitiation of ESA Section 7 Consultation on the continued implementation of the sea turtle conservation regulations, as proposed to be amended, and the continued authorization of the southeast U.S. shrimp sheries in Federal waters under the Magnuson-Stevens Act. NOAA Southeast Regional Of ce, Protected Resources Division, St. Petersburg, FL.
Read, A., Drinker, P., & Northridge, S. (2005) Bycatch of marine mammals in U.S. and global sheries. Conservation Biology, 20, 163-169. doi: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00338.x
Sadovy, Y. (2001) The threat of fishing to highly fecund fishes. Journal of Fish Biology, 59, 90-108. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2001.tb01381.x
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizaion. (2012) World Review of Fisheries and Aquaculture. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i2727e/i2727e01.pdf
Worm, B., Barbier, E. B., Beaumont, N., Duffy, E., Folke, C., Halpern, B. S., Jackson, J. B. C.,…Watson R. (2006) Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services. Science, 314, 787-790. doi: 10.1126/science.1132294
Worm, B., Davis, B., Kettemer, L., Ward-Paige, C., Chapman, D., Heithaus, M., Kessel, S., & Gruber, S. (2013). Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding optinos for sharks. Marine Policy, 40, 194-204. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2012.12.034
Worm, W., Hilborn, R., Baum, J. K., Branch, T. A., Collie, J. S., Costello, C., Fogarty, M. J.,…Zeller D. (2009) Rebuilding Global Fisheries. Science, 325, 578. doi: 10.1126/science.1173146
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