Over Fishing
My second branch idea is the topic of overfishing. Overfishing is when we catch too many fish for the system to support and this leads to a degradation to the marine system. There are three main factors which are the causes of the oceans' overfishing which are over capacity, unsustainable fishing, and economic and food needs. Over capacity due to the fact that our population is rising. A lot of the food we consume comes from the ocean, and many countries and economies run on the products they get from the marine ecosystem. Since we depend on the ocean so much, we tend to overuse it. The boats that we developed can stay at sea up to months catching fish. If we combined all the globes fishing equipment, we could outfish 4 earth like oceans. OMG!!! Unsustainable fishing is when we use too many nets and other fishing equipment to catch too many fish to a point where they become endangered. This also includes other sea animals like sharks, dolphins, turtles, crustaceans, birds, etc. The by-catch that ends up on the ships gets thrown back into the ocean, dead. This is a huge waste of food and the unwanted species that get caught repeatedly are ending up endangered. Also, the nets that the fishermen are using are catching dolphins and sharks in them. This is causing endangerment of many dolphin and sharks species. The third cause of overfishing is that we are trying to meet the economic and food needs of the population. Our population today is growing at an exponential rate. With the growing population, fishing industries need to meet the needs of the consumers and catch more fish. Since the needs are so high, the ocean cannot sustain the amount of fish that is being taken out of it. Places where there used to be a vast amount of fish, are now barren because of what we have caused. Over fishing have caused many impacts on the globe. The destruction of ecosystems is one. When we over fish, it destroys the marine ecosystem because everything depends on each other to live. If one thing is altered or removed from the food chain, it causes a ripple effect and soon almost everything is destroyed. Whole populations of people can get wiped out from one species of fish becoming extinct because that society might depend on that species for income and food. Biodiversity is also affected. If we only fish one species of fish, for example the blue-fin tuna, then we will cause the extinction of this species and will not have anymore in the oceans. Finally, water pollution is an impact of over fishing. This is caused by the thousands of fishing vessels on the ocean for months at a time. The fuel, oil, and waste the ships are using are ending up in the ocean killing a vast amount of species. To stop over fishing, we can do many things. We can join organizations that protect the ocean and its life, have safe catch limits, control our by catch by checking nets more often, protect the ocean life habitats, know what we eat and if it is endangered or not, and finally SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE DANGERS OF OVER FISHING!
#saveourwaters
#saveourwaters