Overfishing

Over 70% of the world's species of fish have been exploited or depleted. This is due to overfishing by humans. Overfishing is considered one of the biggest, if not the biggest threat to our oceans. Overfishing occurs when too many fish are being caught out of the sea and the breeding population becomes too small to recover from this fishing. It is lead by illegal fishing and subsidies provided by the fishing industry. About 34 billion dollars of illegal fishing production occurs each year and it is estimated that the Earth's fishing fleet is 2.5 times the size needed to catch enough fish. The act of overfishing affects the whole ecosystem that the fish live in. Overfishing opens up more opportunity for bycatch, in which other species that are not being fished for, are pulled out of their habitat and end up dying. Among other effects, the removal of many fish species from their ecosystems leaves those ecosystems more susceptible to the already increasing pollution. While overfishing has an extreme effect on the oceans, it is also a problem for humans. Around 3 billion humans rely on fish as part of their diet. So in a way, we are sabotaging ourselves by continuing overfishing. Unfortunately, the path to the end of overfishing is not an easy one. It would require a complete revamping of fishing policies which would require support by every country. These changes would restrict borders to cut back on illegal fishing, eliminate most fishing subsidies, and create more protected areas in the ocean. To combat overfishing, we will need to implement a combination of these solutions and a large group of countries and organizations backing the effort. This problem really explores the relationship between humans and our earth and shows how our actions affect the environment and affect ourselves. If the deteriorating ecosystem of the ocean isn't enough to induce change, hopefully, the depleting food supply is. You can read more about overfishing and see what World Wildlife Foundation is doing to help using this link.