Every year more and more fish are being taken out of the ocean by humans. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people go out on their own boats, stand on the beach, sit on docks, and carefully wait for a fish to swim by their feet. The bottom line is that all of these people are catching fish for themselves to eat. This has been going on for thousands of years and really has not impacted the populations of most fish that much, the exception of course being sharks. If you walk into the sea food section of a store and take a look at the amount of different fish that are on display stop and think for a moment. Ask yourself, how long did it take for someone to catch just the fish that you are looking at. For your average person catching fish, it would take at least a few days to catch the amount of fish that you can find in your local supermarket. However there is an industry in this world that does much more than that in the blink of an eye.
Commercial fishing is a large part of the reason fish populations have been dropping worldwide. Take this into consideration. Certain species of fish that are sought after by people as a food source lay over a million eggs at one time. Those eggs hatch into baby fish that are eaten by larger fish. Generally only a few thousand will survive to become adults. Then comes man with their gigantic nets that scoop up literally thousands of fish per scoop. Out of one litter... Possibly 1,000 or less of a potential litter would survive. Of course even as adults, those fish are targeted by other species of fish and birds. It may take a while, but as a result, those fish populations decline. Not only does commercial fishing target literally millions of fish every year, but is also indiscriminate.
In a school of fish there is often more than just one species of fish. Young fish of many different species can be seen schooling together and as a result get caught together. This includes some species of shark that reproduce slowly and often in litters of 4 or less. Hence these populations are even more at risk from this industry. There are regulations that suggest that workers sort through the fish they catch, but when the fish look so similar, it is hard to hand sort through thousands of fish and pick out one baby shark. Another problem is that many people just don't care. They are getting a paycheck for their catch regardless and in many cases in restaurants around the world, random fish are found in a flat of say herring. In those cases, the fish are just tossed into the trash literally dying for nothing.
Commercial fishing is also full of lies. When you go into the supermarket and purchase a package of scallops... What you are actually purchasing is not always scallop. Often times stingray is marked as scallop. In Japan, dolphin meat has been advertised and sold as whale meat, and around the world various fish have been marked as one thing when in fact they are another. So the next time you visit the store. Think before you purchase something because what you buy may not be what is labeled!
I am not saying that I want to see an end to commercial fishing. What I am saying is that in the near future the demand for commercial sea food MUST decrease. In the case of Aquariums, there literally needs to be a commercial fishing industry otherwise every Aquarium around the world would have to close thanks to there literally being no food. For people though, we are far more than capable of catching our own fish. I do not feel that the local food store should have a seafood section let alone entire restaurants dedicated to it. We are taking way too many fish out of the ocean and the evidence is all over the place. Overfishing is thought to be a massive threat to African Penguin populations. Not because people are eating the bird, but because people are taking all of the food away from them. Closer to home, shark populations have decreased and as a result some species have seen a spike in population, but other animals like clams have seen a sharp drop off in population as a result. Basically we are messing with the food chain and in the end the only thing that can happen is disaster! I just want to stress again that I do not wish to see an end to commercial fishing, but I do feel that it needs to be toned down a great deal. Ideally I would like to see it reserved for Aquariums, Zoos, and other places that animals cannot naturally get their own food. I know that this will probably ever happen, but at the same time I would love to see more people become aware of what is going on in the ocean and help to fix what is quickly breaking!
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