Research Prospectus Introduction and Bibliography

The ocean provides the earth with one of the most diverse and interesting ecosystems today. This is the marine ecosystem, which stretches from the tiny plankton to the huge whales in the ocean. Seafood then of course is included, and this is providing a problem with the marine ecosystem. Overfishing of the oceans is a big issue today, even though it goes unnoticed to most people. Overfishing occurs when there are more fish being taken out of the oceans, than the system can support. This is an unsustainable problem in today's oceans. In fact, huge numbers of fish are being taken out of the ocean at such a high rate, scientists believe that soon enough it will change the oceans forever, not to mention our dinner plates. Of the oceans population, 52% of fish stocks are fully exploited, 20% are moderately exploited, 17% overexploited, 7% are depleted, and one percent is recovering from depletetion. The world is at risk of losing a major food source and a vast and diverse ecosystem. Some say that many important fish stocks, one like tuna and cod which many people rely on as food sources, could be completely gone in as a little as 25 years.

There are several different causes of overfishing. One of the biggest causes is the fact that today's fishing fleets are almost three times larger than needed to catch the amount of fish actually needed. This means that more and more fish are being taken out than we as people can even consume or need. Another cause of overfishing the many technological advances that makes fishing easier such as stronger nets and better boats. There are also Pirate Fishers who do not follow and rules or regulations regarding fishing and they are continually pulling fish out illegaly in large numbers. Many fishing fleets produce a massive bycatch as well when the fish for their main target. This means that they are accidentally pulling in smaller fish that are not used for human consumption, but they are being taken out anyway. Finally another cause and problem of overfishing is the destructive techniques used by some to get the fish out of the ocean. This includes dynamite (ever heard the expression it's like fishing with dynamite?), using cyanide for fishing, and ghost fishing. Ghost Fishing is when equipment used to fish gets lost at sea. For example, nets can be released from a ship and get lost at sea, and they can still catch things.

In fact, since the large scale industrial fishing began in the 50's, ninety percent of the predator fish, which we love to eat like tuna, marlin, and cod to name a few amoung many, have been fished out. When this number continues to decrease and decrease then the number of smaller fish like plankton will increase because they no longer have to worry on predators. Some scientists say this will even increase the number of jellyfish in oceans. This opens up the effect of overfishing on other wildlife, not just the human race. For example the puffin, which is a seabird, relies on sandeel, which is a fish that has been declining in numbers with the overfishing problems. This then has cause a drop in the number of seabirds that nest every year and the number that breeds every year. Also, since the numbers of larger fish that can be caught is getting smaller and smaller, the size of the mesh in the nets that fisherman use are getting smaller. This causes smaller fish to be caught that people will not eat. When this happens the fishermen do not throw these fish backin the ocean, they will grind them up and then the remains are used as animal food or fertilizer. Another staggering fact is that 20,000 porpoises die each year in the nets of salmon fishermen and thousands of dolphins are killed each year by tuna fishermen.

Bibliography:

"Marine Ecosystems." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 28 Dec 2009. Web. 31 Jan 2010. http://www.epa.gov/bioiweb1/aquatic/marine.html

"Overfishing Basics." Overfishing: A Global Disaster. Web. 31 Jan 2010.
http://overfishing.org/pages/why_is_overfishing_a_problem.php

"Overfishing/Greenpeace." Greenpeace. Web. 1 Feb 2010. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans/overfishing

"Overfishing." Peoples Trust for the Environment. Web. 1 Feb 2010.
http://www.ypte.org.uk/environmental/over-fishing/29

"Poorly Managed Fishing." WWF for a Living Planet. Web. 1 Feb 2010.
http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/problems_fishing/