Noelie Bangas

Carla Rust

Composition 150

A2 Argumentative

1 November 2019

“I have not given, received, or used any unauthorized assistance on my writing project.”

The Unknown Impacts of Overfishing: How Does It Affect You?

When it comes to environmental issues, well known and well advocated topics generally

come to the average person’s mind, such as global warming and pollution. These issues are not

easily resolved and making a change can be difficult for citizens without political or large-scale

power, so individuals often feel helpless in this regard. However, the subject of overfishing is not

a topic of discussion nearly as much as it should be, and a solution could potentially be easy with

the help of every day consumers. The effect of overfishing stretches much further from the coast

than most believe, but it is also potentially very easily resolved, unlike the other highly vocalized

issues. As recent generations are becoming more and more health-conscious, people have begun

to choose fish and seafood as a substitute for red meat, increasing the global demand of fish. An

article by Julia Mason, an oceanographer and marine biologist in “Nereus Program” explains

how this problem came to be, and what can be done to solve it. The consumer demand has

increased so much that the industry has had no choice but to fish in larger numbers in more

efficient ways. These industries also drive the global demand for seafood which encourages the

mass fishing or target populations (Mason). This demand pushes for the fishing industry to use

these advances and catch more fish to meet the demand do not leave enough time for the fish to

repopulate and replenish the dwindling numbers within their species. This commercial industrial
overfishing is detrimental to the cost and supply of seafood available to consumers, destruction

of marine ecosystems and the livelihood of small-scale fishermen around the world. However,

simple changes in the consumers’ shopping habits can have a significant and long-lasting impact.

Overfishing only recently became an issue because of the technological advancements

that have been made in order to enable fishing vessels to catch fish and seafood in bulk. In the

previous years, fishermen did not have access to the means of mass fishing. They simply fished

for survival and a minimal source of income (Mason.) However, commercial fishing industries

nowadays use giant fishing vessels along with trawling and drifting nets in order to catch the

most amount of fish possible in the least amount of time in order to meet the growing global

demand for seafood. In a scholarly article on “Marine Science Today,” a database for researchers

to publish their scholarly sources, written by Krysten Jetson, the changes that technology has

enforced in regard to commercial fishing are analyzed and explained. Jetson explains that this

multimillion-dollar industry has the capability to explore new fishing territories and deeper

waters in order to meet the consumer demand. Without this technology, catching massive

amounts of seafood would be much more difficult, take more manpower, and much more time.

They use massive nets that allow vessels to catch fish in large numbers by sweeping the ocean

floor and enclosing a large space, removing the species quicker than they can repopulate, causing

a massive drop in the numbers of fish (Jetson.) These technological advances are highly

unrestricted, and the government has not, and may not be able to put policies in place to limit the

number of fish that can be caught, only certain areas that are protected from the fishing. Even

then, the policies are not enforced as the local communities usually do not have the money or

means to restrict such a massive global scale industry, and as sea life decreases in the largely

fished areas, the commercial fishing fleets often move to those restricted areas. The
unsustainable fishing practices are to blame because before these technological advancements,

there was a plentiful supply of fish for everyone in the picture, including the fishing industry,

consumers, and small-scale fishermen (Jetson.) As this is a recently developed issue, and is not

often covered by the media, it does not receive nearly the amount of attention it deserves. This

problem will only grow as will the demand, as more and more people begin to follow a health-

conscious diet and choose to eat fish as a significant part of their diets, unknowingly supporting

the beginning of what could turn into a mass extinction. Educating consumers on the effects and

the alternatives of this detrimental situation is the first step in making a lasting change and

allowing the marine ecosystems to rebuild themselves.

Marine ecosystems have become very well adapted, accounting for every organism in the

habitat. The species rely on each other for balance within that ecosystem, each species having a

place in the food chain. Because of the high demand for some kinds of fish, certain species are

being removed from their ecosystems, throwing off the balance, and impacting the other

organisms (Jetson.) Without a vital piece of the puzzle, other species can lack their source of

food or become very overpopulated, which in either instance can then be detrimental to their

food sources or predators, and so on. A research article published on “Plos One,” a database for

scientific peer reviewed research articles, by Marta Coll explains the real effects of the

commercial fishing industry on the ecosystem and its’ native populations. Coll reiterates the fact

that taking one species out is very dangerous to not only the stability of their population, but that

of all the organisms in the ecosystem. The marine habitats are also being impacted by a

secondhand factor of this large-scale fishing caused by the new technology the industry has used.

The nets used to capture fish do not account for the other species that may be coexisting with the

targeted species, so many other animals are captured as the ocean floor is swept, such as turtles,
dolphins, and many unwanted fish (Jetson.) When they arrive at the surface and are dragged into

the fishing vessels, many of them have already died in the struggle, and they are simply thrown

back into the ocean, having been captured and killed with no purpose (Coll.) The bycatch issue

only arose due to the technological advancements that have played the leading role in turning

commercial fishing into overfishing. These organisms, along with the targeted fish populations

are being harmed only because of the greed of the fishing industry, having no regard that

trawling nets and other technology may be efficient but is in no way ethical. This not only affects

the ecosystem but it effects consumers as well because in just a few years, some of the seafood

people use as staples in their diets such as tuna could be overfished to the point of extinction or

near extinction.

As consumer demand and the commercial fishing industry grows, the availability of the

targeted species dwindles. This pushes the companies to fish outside their usual areas,

approaching the fishing territories of developing nations. As the companies are pushed to fish

there, the fish supply available to those developing coastal nations decreases (Coll.) Fishing

being these local people’s only means of nutrition and income, this is a detrimental result of

commercial overfishing on a global scale. Many of these people have relied on fishing as their

primary food source since they were established thousands of years ago. Having to change their

way of life after so long because of an industry’s greed shows the range of the impact, as the

effects are not only from an environmental standpoint. Finding a new source of income is the

least of these people’s worries, as many of them rely on fish as a primary food source and would

not be able to eat without it. As previously mentioned, there are often policies put in place

banning or limiting foreign fishing fleets from entering certain waters, but these developing

nations rarely have the money or law enforcement presence to enforce these policies and punish
those who disobey, leaving them in a helpless situation. Without the supply of seafood that

consumers are demanding, prices could skyrocket, forcing people to find other options to

maintain their healthy lifestyles.

Most consumers are unaware of the impact they have by continuously buying their fish

from unsustainable companies instead of fisheries. Between the wild-caught and farm raised

options, the common misconception is that one is of better taste or quality than the other. People

believe wild-caught fish are better and healthier because they thrive in their natural environment,

where they have their natural food source and have been evolving for generations. An article on

Scientific Reports written by Trevor D. Davies and Julia K. Baum clears this misconception up

through the explanation of the real differences between the origins of the fish and how fisheries

are more sustainable and cost efficient. In terms of quality and taste, there is little to no

difference. In terms of sustainability, farm-raised fish are by far the better choice for the future of

our planet’s oceans. As the demand continues to grow and the wild fish supply continues to

dwindle, the price will increase, making it harder for the consumer to form their diet around fish

(Davies, Baum.) The cheaper, more sustainable way for consumers to buy fish is through

fisheries that maintain their numbers and prices, as well as their ecological footprint. They only

fish a certain number of their population in order to maintain the numbers, and only remove the

fish after reproduction in order to maintain a steady supply for consumers at market price

(Davies, Baum.) These farmed fish are available nearly everywhere wild-caught fish are sold,

such as grocery stores and markets, making the change a very simple and effortless action that, if

done in mass, can make a significant impact on marine ecosystems and small-scale fishermen.

This would considerably decrease the commercial fishing industry’s demand to a number that

would not remove the fish more quickly than they can repopulate. If consumers are educated
about their choices and began to choose farmed fish over wild caught fish, they would benefit in

the long run in the aspects of cost, being able to eat their favorite seafood, and knowing they are

taking action to preserve our oceans for further generations. This step forward benefits

consumers because their seafood prices would remain constant, they would have a plentiful

supply, and they would not have to find alternatives to their favorite kinds of seafood. Taking

action in such way that is effortless to consumers can be the deciding factor in whether or not

overfishing will continue to threaten the well-being of small-scale fishermen along with the other

organisms in marine ecosystems.

Coll, Marta. “Ecosystem Overfishing in the Ocean.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, 10

Dec. 2008, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003881.

Davies, Trevor D., and Julia K. Baum. “Extinction Risk and Overfishing: Reconciling

Conservation and Fisheries Perspectives on the Status of Marine Fishes.” Nature News,

Nature Publishing Group, 7 Aug. 2012, www.nature.com/articles/srep00561.

Jetson, Krysten. “Impact of Overfishing on Human Lives.” Marine Science Today, 8 Apr. 2014,

http://marinesciencetoday.com/2014/04/09/impact-of-overfishing-on-human-lives/.

Mason, Julia. “Overfishing & Overpopulation: Too Many Fishers Chasing Too Few Fish?” Nereus

Program - The Nippon Foundation, 14 Oct. 2017, nereusprogram.org/works/overfishing-

overpopulation-too-many-fishers-chasing-too-few-fish/.