Over-fishing

We like to eat fish, it tastes well and is healthy. But it has a very high price.

Global overfishing is now considered as one of the greatest threats to marine health and the survival of its inhabitants. But it also has a direct impact on many people – especially in developing countries. Because every day thousands more tons of fish are pulled from the sea than can grow back naturally. The numbers below confirm this trend. All information has been researched carefully, nevertheless the author doesn’t take liability for its correctness.
 

Personal impressions

This grouper is almost 2 meters large and was seen in Cuba, while diving at the “jardines de la reina”.

If you are a diver you should ask yourself, what was the biggest fish you have ever seen? Most of the time you see a lot of small fishes between the reefs but nothing really large. There is one example, that did impress me. If you compare the size of fish caught in Key West, Florida from 1950 until today you will notice how massive the change in size is. During the 50s most of the caught fishes were between one or two meters and today it is very rare to find anything larger than 30 cm.

That’s because too many fish are caught before they have a chance to grow up. As can be seen in the numbers below, most fishes are overfished so to keep the catch rates stable the fishing companies have to catch younger and younger fish. That of course is not very sustainable.

Fish stocks - actual numbers

Overfished
1 %
Fully Fished
1 %
Underfished
1 %

FAO 2014. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2014. Rome. Page 3

Development over the past years

Fish stocks are continuously degreasing

As you can see, the proportion of under fished fish stocks is declining every year. By the year 2013 only 10,5 % of all fish stocks were not fully fished or overfished. This development continues. A lot of the fish stocks are overfished a sustainable regrowth of the populations is not possible.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture; different years

Yearly harvesting rate

Capture Rates are constant, despite technological progress

In the chart on the left you can see the wild capture rates in thousands of tons. First it seems like a good development. For the last 20 years the capture rates seem to be constant. But it is quite some effort necessary to keep these rates stable. Nowadays fishing vessels locate the large schools of fish, by using the latest technology. So it is getting harder and harder to keep this level of wild capture rates and fish trawler are travelling in remote areas to find the last fish available in the ocean. At least the rising rates by aquaculture production seems to be good news. But that is not always the case. Read more about aquacultures in the according section.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_fisheries_production

Overview