The Pros And Cons Of Overfishing

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With the human race's population climbing over 7 billion, the demand for the precious life sustaining goods has exponentially increased over the years. The shipping industry has played a vital role in connecting countries and their goods to help meet this new demand. With the ocean being the largest source of food on the planet, the fishing industry has been providing hungry people with an abundant source of protein for countless generations. In the past, the human population was quite lower than what is is today correlating with a lower demand for fish. This lower demand allowed for fish population levels to properly replenish themselves thus allowing for a sustainable source of food. However due to the much larger population of the human species, overfishing from many factors has created a serious threat to aquatic life. Overfishing is contributing to a collapse of …show more content…

Trawling is commonly defined as dragging a net or trawl behind a boat at either midwater or deep sea levels. Trawling nets can range from small to extremely large “Fishing nets the size of 4 football fields that could hold 4 jumbo jets hold 500 tons of fish”(Future Predictions, 2012, bullet 2) and these nets produce terrible outcomes such as bycatch and ecosystem destruction. Bycatch or unwanted fish caught in the trawl contribute to a huge amount of waste in the fishing industry. Although bycatch can often be used as food, bycatch brought in by the very large nets often die and are wasted before it can be properly be used “For every 1 kilo of shrimp caught, 80% or 9 kilo’s of bycatch dead fish are tossed back”(Future Predictions, 2012, bullet 3). Along with bycatch, deep sea trawling bring much more harm to fish population than midwater trawling, “Deep-sea bottom trawling involves dragging

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