Consequences Of Overfishing

According to world wildlife organisation, overfishing occurs when more fish are caught than the population can replace through natural reproduction. Gathering as many fish as possible may seem like a profitable practice, but overfishing has serious consequences. The results may not only affect the balance of life in the oceans, but also the social and economic well-being of the coastal communities who depend on fish for their way of life.

According to the research world wildlife organisation, 1.6% of the world’s oceans have been declared as marine protected areas (MPAS), and 90% of existing MPAS are open to fishing. MPAS are important because they protect habitats such as coral reefs from destructive fishing practices. No-take zones allow

Therefore, the overfishing crisis is illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing. The illegal fishing occurs across all types of fisheries, within national and international waters, and small scales to large industrialized operations.

The impact of overfishing can bring the economic loss, marine life imbalance, and decreased food security. In term of economic loss, fishing is integral to economies around the world. Hence, overfishing threatens coastal nations down to the local level, devastating communities whose dominant sources of labor and revenue hinges on healthy, plentiful stocks of fish.

Also, marine life imbalance may affect the targeted fishing of top predators such as billfish, sharks and tuna that eventually disturbs marine communities. In fact, it is causing increased abundance of smaller marine animals at the bottom of the food chain. This in turn has impacts on the rest of the marine ecosystem, such as the increased growth of algae and threats to coral reef health. Overfishing is also closely tied to by catch, another serious marine threat that causes the needless loss of billions of fish, along with marine turtles and

Since, the increasing popularity of scuba diving has put more strain on coral reefs around the world. In fact, specially the driver work underwater photographers and beginners sometime make contact with fragile corals, breaking them or damaging them and leaving them susceptible to bacterial attack and disease. Eventhough they are not colleting illegal of coral reef still that they did not be responsibility to what they have done with coral reef. Occasionally, all the souvenirs are made from marine life for instances polished shells, clams and nautilus shells, jewelry made from shell or tortoise shell, pictures with dried seahorses, ashtrays made from clams (Teresa Zubi, 2015).

Therefore, the impact of overfishing and illegal collecting of coral may destroyed the social and economic well-being of the coastal communities who depend on fish for their way of life. Beside, it is also direct overexploitation of fish, intertebrates, and algae for food and the aquarium trade, removal of a species or group of species impacting multiple trophic levels, bycatch and mortality of nontarget species, and change from coral to algal dominance due to reduction in herbivores (Reef Resilience Organisation,