United States leads to overcome overfishing

By: Paolo Ramos/Staff Writer

Obama has taken a step in the right direction in terms of protecting our environment; he has set out to curb the damage caused by overfishing.

Beginning this year, federal fishing regulations will impose a catch-limit on game fish in Caribbean waters. This action is the first of its kind, as countries across the world have barely imposed similar regulations in response to overfishing.

The enactment of the catch limit is a positive example of environmental concern, and it  will hopefully set an example to the rest of the world.

Overfishing is a serious issue with the potential to ruin the fishing industry.

According to the most recent study published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 80 percent of the 600 monitored global fish stocks are exploited in some manner, and 7 percent have already been depleted.

Since the majority of desirable fish are the apex predators in their respective ecosystems, overfishing them has caused drastic upheavals resulting from population booms of lesser species of marine life.

Phenomenon such as jelly-fish blooms are becoming increasingly common due to the lack of predators in the oceans.

Jellyfish blooms have been observed to have a negative effect on an ecosystem because of their over-consumption of prey for other fish species and their contribution to algal blooms, which also deplete food sources.

Not only is overfishing bad for the environment, it is also bad for the economy. Although overfishing brings in high yields in the short term, the damage caused by such activity ultimately hurts the industry in the long run.

Global fisheries today are already facing the problems of sustainability, as fishermen are not giving ample time for fish stocks to replenish themselves.

This results in decreasing yields annually, which contributes to the loss of jobs due to the aforementioned poor yields.

A recent article by the BBC estimated that overfishing has cost the European economy over 3.2 billion euros a year and more than 100,000 jobs.

The new fishing regulations passed by the United States are revolutionary in that no country has ever tackled the problem of overfishing as aggressively.

Lawmakers intend to apply these catch limits on all federally-managed species of marine life that are fished annually.

Former President George W. Bush began to implement a reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which set the framework for the recently passed annual catch limits. The limits are necessary, considering the U.S. consumes over 348.5 million metric tons of fish annually.

Disappointing reactions to catch limits have already been heard along the Gulf Coast, especially here in Florida.

Most overfishing is done on a large commercial scale by sophisticated fishing ships, but a significant contributor to the problem also lies with local fishermen.

It is the people in the local communities who cannot understand the harsh reality of their trade and the implications of their demand to raise the catch limit.

In the Pensacola News Journal, Ronnie Hogue, a local fisherman, can only complain about the catch limit hurting his business rather than reflect upon the environmental benefit of it.

Hogue said, “These charter fishing boats are big and expensive to run, fuel is high, bait is high. It’s hard for people to fork over that kind of money to charter a big boat to catch two fish.”

The U.S. has definitely made an important stride to overcome overfishing, especially considering the grim data collected by several environmental organizations.

Some have predicted that if overfishing isn’t dealt with, over 90 percent of global fisheries will fail by 2040.

One can only hope that the U.S. has impacted the fishing industry in a positive and significant way to ensure the improvement of the ocean’s health.

 

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