Overfishing

Overfishing is one of the biggest environmental issues in modern world. Overfishing causes huge marine biodiversity loss. Many fish species experienced large decline in population over the last couple of decades due to overfishing. One of the best ways how to decrease effects of overfishing would be to ban most commercial fishing in the deep sea. Deep sea is the world's largest ecosystems and many deep sea fish species don't have the ability to repopulate quickly after being overfished.

Since many coastal fisheries are being overexploited fishing fleets tend to move offshore and into deeper waters in order to catch more fish. In order to make fishing more sustainable fisheries would have to focus on small-scale fish population that grow more quickly and use shipping gear that doesn't destroy fish habitats.

World needs to increase productivity of coastal waters by rebuilding declining fish populations in order to stop global overfishing. Overfishing has reduced some commercial fish stocks and populations of by-catch species by more than 90%. One of the possible solutions on how to stop overfishing is to create more marine protected areas where fish species can’t thrive without human interferences.

One of the species worst affected with overfishing are sharks. Tremendous decline in shark population is causing huge damage to marine environment because sharks play one of the key roles in maintaining the balance and health of our oceans. The additional problem with sharks is that they reproduce very slowly.

The increased climate change impact will also negatively affect most of the fisheries and will likely cause bigger loss of fish species.

Only joined work between local communities, conservation groups, and governments can result in finding the right solution to solve overfishing issue. It has been estimated that global fisheries contribute between US$225-$240 billion per year to the global economy. Overfishing can significantly reduce this revenue. The researchers estimate that global catch losses from overfishing totaled up to seven to 36 % of the actual tonnage landed in a year, resulting in a landed value loss of between US$ 6.4-36 billion each year. The governmental subsidies that promote overfishing are doing far more harm than good from both environmental as well as economic point of view. Overfishing has reduced tuna and mackerel populations by more than 60% in the last 100 years.

1. What are the consequences of overfishing?

2. What are the possible solutions to this problem?

3. What fishes are most effected with overfishing?

4. What is the role of government in overfishing?

5. How we can increase the productivity of coastal water without overfishing?

Match two colomns to make word combinations and make your own sentences with them:

Word formation. Add the right prefix (re-, over-), to the following words:

populate, fishing, exploit, build, produce, grow, estimate.

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