Group A

Writing Prompt:  Examine the sustainability of ocean fishing.

The End of the Line is a documentary based on a book of the same name written by Charles Clover; it explores the ocean life and how it is essential to planet earth. The video shows images of the different life forms under the sea and features stories about how the ocean is being overused and soon we will run out of sea creatures to live on. Ocean fishing, as of now, is not sustainable due to over fishing and destruction of ocean life. The damages of the fishing techniques on the sea bed are catastrophic; and the decline of the species of fish because of the demand for them are astonishing. Soon, the types of fish will be extinct and an example of this is the blue fin tuna; which is a delicacy, however it is almost gone because of the over fishing.  There were many cases in which an area has lost all its fish and the people living there are not able to provide for themselves.

One of the cases was the loss of cod in Newfoundland where fishermen all over that area lost their jobs because there were no fish to catch; this is when scientists started to “investigate” the fish population around the world. What they found was that there was a negative correlation between the population of fish and how many were being caught. Though there was a decline in the population, the total world catch continued to increase; they discovered that the information that the Chinese gave for their total catch were false. This meant that the relationship between the population of fish and the total world catch was that they were both decreasing.

                Another problem that adds to the unsustainability of fishing are the techniques used catch the fish around the world and one of them is called the Almadraba; this technique is used to catch blue tuna fish in a channel located at the Mediterranean Sea called the Strait of Gibraltar. From the video, you can see that that fishermen lower their nets to capture the fish then jump in and slaughter them; statistics show that there has been a decline in the catch of around 80%. Statistics also show that the decline of fish has been around since the 1950’s mostly around the area of Japan. This is due to the fact that only 1% of the ocean is being protected.

The basic problems with overfishing is caused by number of factors. They include increase in population globally which stimulates more demand from the people.  Improved fishing skills and technology is also the cause of overfishing as people use new methods to catch fishes more effectively like the one used to catch the blue fin tunas. Because the technology is improved, bigger boats with more capacity allow more fishes to be stored.

                However, there are some solutions that have been suggested to overcome this problem of sustainability. One of them is appointing marine protected areas so that the fish are able to reproduce and there will be more fish to catch.  Another solution would be to abstain from eating fish and look for alternative sources of protein; you can also prevent the damage of the ocean by using traditional ways of fishing instead of destructive fishing. The numbers of boats and fishermen at sea should be monitored and reduced to a low number so as not to overfish; with this, the government can also implement a certain amount of time for fishing so that the fish will not run out and possibly increase the price of the fish to lower the demand. Lastly, awareness from the people with choosing seafood that comes from well-managed and sustainable fisheries is also significant to solve the issue of overfishing.

Even these solutions are not so reliable because there are certain problems with these solutions listed. First of all, more professional chefs are making more fish-related foods with better visuals. This will make harder time for the consumers to change their dietary pattern or abstain from eating fish since the appearance of the food will likely attract the consumers. Secondly, there needs a lot of money to create marine-protected areas and in order to govern those places effectively. Lastly, the actions from the government might arouse arguments from the consumers as the price of the fish increases while less time for the fishermen to catch fishes will also possibly cause disputes.