By-Catch Many people would shudder at the idea of eating a dolphin or a turtle, yet millions of dolphins, turtles, whales, sharks, seals, rays, birds, and other marine species are killed each year because they become tangled in equipment designed to catch other species and are unable to escape. They are the inevitable by-product of the fishing industry, known as by-catch, and their useless deaths are throwing off the ocean’s food chains and ecosystems. Estimates put the amount of by-catch in the United States alone, to be between 17 – 22 percent of total catch, or 2 billion pounds every year. By-catch is a factor in the dwindling numbers of important predatory species and even contributes to the deaths of endangered species. Another cause of unintended marine life death as a result of the industry comes from what’s known as ghost fishing, which occurs when nets, traps, and fishing lines fall off of or are left behind by fishing vessels. These pieces of equipment remain in the seas and continue to catch sea life, usually resulting in a slow death for their captives. Species Depletion Overfishing is one of the biggest threats to our planet. Entire species have been nearly obliterated by the demand for seafood, with experts estimating that nearly 80 percent of the world’s fish stocks have been fully exploited or are in decline and that 90 percent of the ocean’s large predatory fish have been wiped out. If current trends continue, the Earth’s food fisheries are likely to collapse entirely by the year 2050. These drastic depletions are causing devastating effects to the ocean’s delicate food chains and ecosystems.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 00:50:48 +0000
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