Disadvantages Of Ghost Fishing

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Calculating Damages: Ghost Fishing
Ghost Fishing is what happens when fishing gear has been lost dumped or abandoned at sea. Lost fishing gear is among the greatest killers of marine life in our oceans. Hundreds of kilometers of nets and lines are lost every year. Any man made contraption designed to catch fish or other marine organisms is considered capable of ghost fishing when left unattended and without anyone profiting from the catch. Ghost Fishing is a serious problem because it affects already depleted commercial fish stocks. Caught fish die and in turn attract scavengers which then get caught in the same net, creating a tragic cycle. Due to the material used to create these types of gear, they can and most likely will continue to fish …show more content…

I asked a discrete set of questions which included these questions in this order:
A.
Would you be willing to pay $10 to asses the damages caused by Ghost Fishing?
Yes/No
Would you be willing to pay $5 to asses the damages caused by Ghost Fishing?
Yes/No
Would you be willing to pay $20 to asses the damages caused by Ghost Fishing? …show more content…

The mean value calculated from results is $20. There seemed to be little correlation between where a person grew up and how often they interact with the ocean with their willingness to pay. However, people who were willing to pay less toward the cause often answered that they had little knowledge about the impacts of marine pollution. The gender also had little to do with whether a person was willing to pay less or more. This approach does not accurately capture true damages. The information provided to surveyors is minimal and does not entirely inform people of how impactful Ghost Fishing is on our ecosystems. Also, the cost to assess damages caused by Ghost Fishing is much more costly than the amounts provided in the survey. The information I provided to surveyors also lacks the economic impacts of Ghost Fishing and if that were provided in the information presented I think that would sway some people 's willingness to pay. As a society, we put a dollar value on almost everything and we have made it the underlining factor of most things that we do and how we do them. Assigning a dollar amount to ecosystems is important in order for many people to understand the value. However, the value and impact goes beyond any dollar amount and the damages caused by this pollution problem

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