The fish are in trouble. The oceans are in trouble. Our state is in trouble. I am a freshman student at the Pennsylvania State University and enrolled in an oceanography course. I grew up in Westfield, with you as my state legislative representative. In the course we learned about one of the biggest, arguably the biggest, threat facing the world’s oceans today: overfishing.
Overfishing is when fish are being taken out of the ocean faster than they can reproduce. This is occurring all over the world, including right off our very own shores. This has a myriad of impact in the marine ecosystem and well beyond. First, I would like you to understand the scale of this problem. A report from the United Nations (UN) estimates that nearly 52% of the world’s fish population is endanger of being exploited, overfished and eventually even depleted [1]. If you think about the sheer size of the ocean and how many fish live in the ocean, this is a very concerning statistic. This is concerning for a couple of reasons. First, it has a tremendous negative impact on the marine ecosystem. Species are being taken away from ecosystems, in some cases even being depleted to near levels of extinction. For example, the same UN report reveals that, worldwide, nearly 90% of predatory fish stocks are gone [1]. That means that most of the world is losing
…show more content…
After all, that is why you ran and were elected to represent people from our great state. I fear that our state is in danger, and no one is talking about it. As laid out above, overfishing could trigger an economic collapse in our state and possibly beyond. And all that goes without mentioning the environmental hazards caused by overfishing. As a representative, you have a unique ability to raise awareness and bring much needed attention to this issue. Perhaps, you could bring about change in the form of legislature that can help put a stop to the overfishing in our oceans. For the sake of New