Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
SAVING THE COLLAPSE OF THE FISHERIES
by amending the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act.
The industrialization of commercial fishing, long lining, by-catch, shark finning , waste of the actual catch as well as pollution is destroying the wildlife in the oceans. Seafood consumption has jumped 8 x since the 1950’s. This rise in global catch and consumption has become unsustainable, destroying approximately 40 percent of the ocean life since 1970. Industrial trawlers catch between 200 and 500 tons of fish per day, they have nets large enough to fit two 747 airliners and can decimate fisheries in relatively short order. Despite the emergence of a Global Ocean Commission and the passage of numerous international agreements, and some close to shore marine preserves, the fish stocks continue to collapse at an ever increasing rate. With the fisheries being annihilated by commercial fishing those people in less developed countries who depend on fish for protein will begin to suffer from mass starvation, violence and political turmoil. These people will become environmental refugees, creating serious political pressure and sever repercussions. Since the High Seas do not belong to any one nation, the area is available for the exploitation by all developed nations, creating a tragedy of the commons that has taken hold of the fish stocks. Since the main Predator Fish are becoming extinct due to overfishing, we have to fish lower and lower on the food chain destroying the delicate ecosystem. Developed nations are consuming endangered fish species for protein creating a demand that drives tax subsidies for commercial fishing allowing them to be profitable. Most people in developed nations are not educated about the severity of the situation and do not understand the threat that commercial fishing creates.