INDUSTRIAL OVERFISHING & BIODIVERSITY LOSS
The oceans cover 71% of the Earth’s surface and are home to more life than any other place on our Earth. They are largely ungoverned places, where commercial fishing boats are able to exploit the lack of regulation and drag heavy nets through waters and along the seafloor. Overfishing is defined as catching so many fish in a given body of water that the ones left behind can’t reproduce fast enough to replace them. It’s having devastating effects on marine ecosystems, on fishing communities, and the climate. At Parley, we‘re committed to ending overfishing and pushing for regulated, protected waters – this is why.
90% OF BIG FISH HAVE VANISHED SINCE 1950
Estimates show that if overfishing continues at the current rate, fish populations could collapse by 2048. While some have contested this date, scientists in 2013 claimed that 90% of large predatory fish such as tuna, cod and groupers have already gone since 1950, and the FAO has reported 90% of global marine ‘fish stocks’ are now considered fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. The alarming decline is a result of overfishing – fish populations cannot reproduce fast enough to keep up with the global appetite for fish. Distant water fisheries – nations with big fleets and more mobility than smaller countries – are largely responsible, taking over their neighbors’ waters and plundering them for fish.
OVERFISHING HAS CONTRIBUTED TO A 71% DECLINE IN THE WORLD’S SHARK & RAY POPULATIONS
Industrial overfishing has direct consequences for the ocean’s food chain. While many sharks and rays caught in boats’ nets aren’t being targeted, entangled in nets intended for tuna, they are also pursued to make things like shark fin soup. The result of these predators being wiped out is smaller predators running wild, affecting biodiversity, and many species are being pushed towards extinction. As many sharks are migratory, it requires international cooperation, while a lot of the overfishing takes place in the ungoverned high seas.
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES ARE A HUGE PROBLEM IN THE INDUSTRIAL FISHING INDUSTRY
Human rights abuses are a huge problem in the industrial fishing industry, with laws often vague or broken in the ungoverned, unregulated high seas. As near-shore stocks become increasingly depleted, ships have to go further out to sea, and for longer, creating voids of criminality. People report having their wages stolen, being made to work shifts to the point of exhaustion, forced into a world of slave labor. Parley collaborator Ian Urbina produced a podcast called The Outlaw Ocean, a thrilling investigation into crime at sea.
BOTTOM TRAWLING RELEASES AS MUCH CARBON INTO THE ATMOSPHERE AS THE AVIATION INDUSTRY
Bottom trawling – the practice of dragging heavy nets along the seabed – releases as much carbon into the atmosphere each year as the entire aviation industry. An average of 1.47 gigatons of carbon (the equivalent of Japan’s annual emissions) is produced by boats trawling the ocean floor looking for shrimp, increasing ocean acidification and affecting biodiversity. Additionally, some shrimp trawling catches 90% non-shrimp species, meaning that many animals are caught and then discarded.
OVERFISHING CAN SERIOUSLY AFFECT BIODIVERSITY
Destructive overfishing can seriously impact ocean biodiversity. Having depleted populations, commercial fleets began fishing further out into the ocean, and further down the food chain. Overfishing can severely weaken coral reefs, thus making them more vulnerable to adverse weather and climate change. Abandoned ghost gear can also harm coral reefs that are already fragile. Overall, overfishing totally upsets the ocean’s balance and biodiversity.
ABANDONED FISHING GEAR IS A HUGE CONTRIBUTOR TO MARINE PLASTIC POLLUTION
Dumped or abandoned fishing gear is a massive contributor to marine plastic pollution. Up to a million tonnes of ‘ghost gear’ is discarded each year, shedding microplastics and also trapping marine life, with an estimated 650,000 animals killed each year by ghost gear. Either lost or abandoned deliberately, ghost gear can haunt the oceans for decades, leaving marine life permanently in harm’s way.
OVERFISHING HURTS COASTAL COMMUNITIES THAT HAVE SUSTAINABLY FISHED FOR GENERATIONS
Coastal communities around the world rely on sustainable fishing methods for food and income. Unable to compete with big fleets that dominate the seas, able to fish far quicker and gain far greater catches, small fisheries that have sustainably fished for generations are increasingly left unemployed, or struggling to make a living. People who rely on fish as a source of protein are forced further out to sea, with the fish all taken from near shore, and around 60 million people who rely on fishing for their livelihood are affected by overfishing.
