Sustainable Fishing

Subject: Group J

Message: Examine the sustainability of ocean fishing. [10 marks]

               

Sustainability of ocean fishing has many obstacles but there are clear solutions to every issue there is.

There’s also a political issue about sustainable fishery in some countries. Fishery take big portion of economy in some country that sustainable fishery gives big damage to the country’s economy. People, especially fisher men, stand against government if it launches sustainable fishery policy. This leads serious political issues such as government will lose support from people and possible riots can be happen. Due to this reason, politicians refuse the scientist’s sustainable fishery solution which is to limit the fishery up to 15 thousands of tons. Instead, politicians rather want to limit up to 30 thousands of tons. But politician doesn’t execute their promises well that about 60 thousands of tons are caught in the actual situation. This is because politicians don’t have solution to those unemployed people due to the sustainable fishery and riots and anti-government policy made by these people will great damage to the government. The solution for political issue is simple. Since citizen has more power than politicians, citizen should observe the fishery and make sure that the sustainable fishery policy is working without problem. Also, people can participate in campaigns that sustainable fishery is mandatory. This gives a sign to the politicians that executing sustainable fishery policy will also gain support from citizen instead of hated by fisher men. Politicians also have to look for solution to those unemployed fisher men such as giving them temporary jobs.

               It is known that it is absolutely difficult to force people especially fishermen to help recover fish stocks even though they will need to do it at some point. By halting one fisherman’s piscary, you are telling them indirectly to take a break from their jobs, suffering from financial distress in order to regain the great abundance and production of fish that we had about 200 years ago. Sacrificing people’s jobs in order to recover from overfishing will have a severe impact on the fishing industries and on people’s lives through losing their jobs even if it is for the greater good. Furthermore, great extents of effort and money to make sure these fishermen will unquestionably follow the rules entrusted to them or prevent them from breaking the rules. Money will be spent on marine squads focused on protecting areas and prohibit fishing. On the other hand, by requiring more marine protection, it allows us to produce and generate a tremendous amount of jobs for other people, increasing a country’s IPP, income per person. Also, when fish stocks finally revert back to its old state, fishing industries will be able to recover from the decline of income and money, eventually having an increase once again in its economical status.

              Ocean fishing has many environmental drawbacks, which makes  the resources in the ocean unsustainable. The total world catch keeps going up, while the number of fish in the ocean is decreasing. Because the fishermen do not follow the rules and laws the government has implemented, the ecosystem under the ocean is being damaged. As the number of shark and fish went down, the number of rays, shrimps, jellyfish has increased. Not only that, but our seas are now filled with worm, algae, and fungi. Because of the decline in the amount of fish under the ocean, the food chain has collapsed. There are also increasing species of fish that are going extinct, such as cod and blue fin tunas. Over 10 years, the catch of blue fin tuna has declined to 80% because there are simply none left in the ocean. There are just too many boats while there are too few fish. However, there is also a possibility that in the future, ocean fishing will be sustainable. If the marine protected areas, which only cover 1%of the world ocean increase to about 20 ~ 30% it would be possible to sustain ocean fishing. And also, if the consumers buy MSC fish stocks, which comes form a sustainable source, and as consumers are interested to know where the fish they eat is form, how it is caught and if it is endangered or not, it is not entirely impossible to support the fauna that lives under the water.