Persuasive Essay On Overfishing

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“The biggest danger we face is overfishing. We have too many boats out there. We literally could fish out our oceans, some scientists believe, in the next 40, 50, 60 years. We are trending in that direction.… Every year, for the first time in history, we catch fewer and fewer fish with more and more sophisticated boats going out trying to find them.” (Ted Danson). Overfishing is when fish are being caught faster than they can reproduce. In the past few years, this problem has been getting worse. Fish populations have decreased by about 50% since 1970. Overfishing is dangerous because it can cause a disturbance to the marine ecosystem, millions of people rely on fish for their protein, and because fishers that are not part of companies have less fish to catch.
Overfishing disturbs marine communities in many ways. The fish that are most commonly caught are the larger ones. Now, the number of large ocean fish has reduced to only 10 percent of its pre-industrial population. This has caused the population of smaller fish to increase and the growth of algae to increase. Also, overfishing has been affecting coral reefs’ health. These changes have been impacting marine communities and the marine ecosystem. Many marine animals live in coral reefs and rely on them to find food. …show more content…

This means that if fish keep being caught the way they currently are, in 40-60 years, all these people will have to change their lifestyles. 85 million tons of fish have been being caught each year. It is possible to reduce the number of fish we take out of the oceans and still sustain the jobs and people that rely on them. One way of doing this would be by reducing bycatch and avoiding trawling. Trawling is a method of fishing that can increase bycatch, or unwanted fish or other marine animals. Bycatch can make up about ¼ of the total catch, only to be thrown back into the ocean. The animals are sometimes eaten, but more often than not, they

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