Overfishing... understand?

There is nothing more frustrating than indifference in the face of indignation on issues with massive ramifications for planet Earth as a whole...

Me: "Oh man I watched this film the other day, The End of the Line; it's about overfishing..."

[varied responses, all showing differing degrees of interest]

Me: "Human's have been fishing sustainably for the most part of 40,000 years, but in the past 50 years we've managed to wipe out 90% of the world's big fish population... there's only TEN PERCENT left! Leading scientists in the field have given a precise date that the oceans will be empty if fishing continues at current rates... guess when that is [pause for effect]... 2048!! And what makes it even more frustrating is it's an environmental catastrophe that is actually fixable if we act now! They say all that will be left after 2050 are worms and sand... "

Response A: "2048... will I be around then? Probably not."

Response B: "Mmmmm... Filet-O-Fish...."

Response B: "They edit those documentaries to make whatever point is in their best interests."

Response D: "Oh man really? That's really bad. Hey look at her shoes! Those are really cool shoes."

Now I'm not suggesting my friends and associates are shallow or disinterested types. What is probably a more accurate observation is that the people I generally acquaint myself with suffer from quite the opposite - an oversupply of information and media which seems to lead to some kind of universal shrug - an 'I know that's terrible, but so are the scores of other things I hear about on a daily basis...'

Are we becoming increasingly apathetic as a result of the clouds of information we now live in? It's an interesting question; but for now I'm far more worried about our oceans...

Thousands of pounds of Jack Mackerel

This image is one boat in one ocean on one day. I have more than once wondered how we could fish to the sort of levels illustrated above. It turns out we can't. Once again our own technological advancements have got the better of us. We have fished for tens of thousands of years, but only had the technology to empty our great oceans in the past half a decade.

Consider just a few of the myriad of facts about how we currently treat our oceans. These facts are incredibly frustrating, seeing as if we act now we can actually reverse a lot of the damage that has already been done:

- 60% of fish caught by trawlers in the North Sea are thrown back, a very small percentage of which swim on, the rest of which sink to the bottom (never mind the turtles, dolphins, whales & sea birds caught in the process).

- The looming collapse of fisheries (in 2048, if fishing continues at today's levels) will affect the one billion people who rely on fish as a source of protein.

- Around NINETY PERCENT (!!) of the world large fish have been fished out.

- As is often typical of these scenarios, the greed of a few affects the welfare of many. One percent of the world's fishing fleets account for 50% of all fish caught across all oceans. These boats are certainly not owned by the nations most reliant on fish for basic diet, though these boats often fish in these impoverished nations waters.

- Often marketed as an 'environmental solution', fish that are farmed are fed on wild fish stocks. Growing a pound of salmon destined for the high street requires three to five pounds of perfectly edible wild fish, again to the detriment of those who fish for basic dietary requirements.

- The global fishing fleets are 250% larger than the oceans can sustainably support (and then there's the illegal overfishing on top of these fleets quotas).

Lastly, the general consensus of marine experts is that we, as a planet, need to set aside forty percent of our oceans as marine reserves, leaving a still whopping 60 percent for fishing. At present only 0.6% of waters are reserves, and these small reserves have proven extremely successful. If we act NOW we've got a fairly good chance of reversing our fate, unlike attempting a puncture repair on the ozone layer.

Somehow, and I don't know how other than to raise my voice about this for now, we have to act as a concerned collective called the human race and put an end to this. If the information available now is not acted upon, we are in fact not the smartest race on the planet, but far from it... it will be in our lifetime that we have to tell our grandchildren stories as fanciful and exciting as those we were told about dinosaurs. Though in the same breath we will have to admit that we could have saved the incredible underwater world we have only pictures and memories of.

Children being children, the next thing said will be "why didn't you?"

Stay indifferent and apathetic. You have 38 years to think of a good answer.


"How we wrecked the ocean:"




"The End of the Line" trailer. Watch this film.

c