Tragedy of the Commons: Overfishing the World’s Oceans Essay

In the 1960’s, there was an estimated number of 500,000 dolphins caught as bycatch per year by fishing industries alone(NOAA 8). There was an act, the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, that was passed in 1972. This act’s main goal was to reduce marine mammal bycatch. This act required that “scientific studies were initiated, observers were placed on fishing boats, fishing gear was inspected, and boat captains with high dolphin mortality rates were reviewed(NOAA 8).” The also modified fishing gear in order to reduce how many dolphins were caught. This act was an incredible success, and dolphin bycatch had “declined from about 500,000 to about twenty thousand dolphins per year(NOAA 8).” This shows how much the fishing industries had improved how they fished in order to protect the dolphins. They also made a requirement that all tuna that was caught through dolphin-safe means be labelled(NOAA 9). This allowed consumers to see what they were buying. Therefore, it became in the interest of fishing industries to catch tuna by means other than through dolphins. Today, there are only about three thousand dolphins killed every year through fishing industries(NOAA 10). There is also a clear distinction between tuna that was caught through dolphin-safe means and otherwise. Therefore, the only thing a consumer has to do is to buy

Driven by such high prices, many fishermen, chefs and business owners depend on the bluefin tuna industry for a way to support their lives. Respectively so, without sustainable fishing practices and stricter regulations for the bluefin tuna, neither Japan, nor the rest of the world will even have the choice on whether or not eating and fishing bluefin tuna should be an option (Crockett).

Myers’ and Worm’s article “Rapid Worldwide Depletion of Predatory Fish Communities” (“Rapid Depletion”) focuses on the same pressing matter of overfishing, but their article gravitates more towards statistics and figures. For example, Myers’ article states that a suggested 90% of large predatory fish are no longer present in our oceans. Myers uses blunt facts to reveal the severity of overfishing to readers. Studies have concluded that for a given area of ocean opened up to commercial fishing, an 80% decrease in target species may be found in as little as 15 years. With numbers like this, it is no surprise that our oceans are in such a crippled state. Harmful methods of catching species

This essay will focus on the bluefin tuna industry in Japan, a country which consumes the majority of the global catch. The industry is one driven by the sudden increase in demand for sushi, a Japanese haute food which is now consumed globally. It will also illustrate the uniqueness and important role which the bluefin tuna plays in aquatic ecosystems throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Lastly, the issues of globalization and lack of market regulation will be examined as a cause for the collapse in Atlantic bluefin fisheries. The tuna industry in Japan is having negative environmental impacts on the oceanic ecosystem.

Fishing is a great hobby for the “average Joe.” People fish for fun, family bonding, and to make a living. Overfishing, defined as excessive fishing to an extent, damages local ecology. “Overfishing.org”, found at, http://overfishing.org/pages/what_is_overfishing.php, states, “Catching too many fish; fishing so much that the fish cannot sustain their population”. This means that too many fish are taken out of the water too quickly causing a low population count. People who are overfishing oceans, lakes, rivers, etc. are affecting local biological organism and humankind itself. Humans constantly fishing these bodies of water affect the whole food chain. In a few years, your favorite fish may not exist. World powers, such as the United States

Undoubtedly, the nation is falling into an inordinate fish crisis. Many systems are in practice to contribute to feedings the world’s population, and roughly one-third of this responsibility falls in the hands aquatic fish farming. Aquaculture holds the potential to be a highly sustainable way to solve this problem, yet, there is much hesitance in making his decision facing the future of our nation (White). In the Struggle to Govern of The Commons, the protection of fisheries, and problems associated with pollution crossing national borders is specifically discussed (Dietz). With these corresponding ideas, I found my way into researching fishing restrictions and how they impact the American fishing industry. The United States holds a six-percent share in global trade, and also persists as the sixth largest supplier of fish and seafood products in the world market. ("U.S. Fish and Seafood Exports Reach Record Levels.") This industry is growing at a significant rate; therefore, it is vital to monitor what is occurring in this business and how it affects other aspects of American life and culture.

The only reason a tuna from a few weeks ago sold at such an outrageous price ($1.76 million) is due to this scarcity. Fisherman are catching these fish at slightly higher rates- due to increases in fishing technology- and making a lot more than they have made in the past. What could be the downfall when these countries are utilizing their resources to benefit their economy? The article “Fisheries To Cut Catch Of Endangered Bluefin Tuna” states that “Japanese eat 80 percent of the world's Bluefin tuna, or "hon maguro," a sushi mainstay, and demand elsewhere in the world has kept growing”, which highlights that the Japanese heavily rely on the meat of the Bluefin Tuna to nourish its’ people and economy. If this reliance continues as projected, the country will experience a traumatic economic downfall when the species truly does become extinct. Even though the price for the fish is sky high at this moment, when there is no longer a supply, money will not come

My first reason is that fish will be overfished and poached. I think people should have a major fine for poaching the fish. In the spring of 2015 a man catch a 33in walleye he was fined for 250 dollars and or 15 days in jail. The most endangered fish

Exploitation of seemingly unlimited natural resources and overfishing of our seas has been a common theme throughout human history and across cultures, and as global populations grow, these problems only compound. The basic nature of World History is to break down borders and remove nationalistic biases in the hope of finding an objective viewpoint, and humans exploiting environmental resources for short term gain is as cross-cultural a characteristic as they come.

Recently, the population of Bluefin Tuna has been decreased to a seriously low level. Based on an article from IUCN, all of the scientific advice agreeing on the need for a violent reduction of fishing levels, and an abandon of fishing during the fishes’ spawning season to allow reproducing. (Simard, Nov.,

Some believe that the laws applied to prevent overfishing aren’t enough and they argue that there is a lack of public awareness and political attention. Alex Rogers, professor of the conservation biology at UK’s Oxford University, highlights the fact that most of the ocean world is not under major jurisdiction of major countries, therefore, there is a problem enforcing environmental laws in the ocean. Robert sums up a solution of the problem being fishing less, with more suitable measures, polluting less while also remain in terms of sustainability and environmental protection.

“A single Pacific bluefin tuna sells at auction for more than $100,000” (Arnold, 2012). The Pacific bluefin tuna is one of the most popular fish consumed in the world eaten mainly in sushi. In 2010 alone, the United States consumed twenty-four percent of the tuna consumed by the entire population. Due to its increasing growth in popularity the demand for wild bluefin tuna has caused the species to drastically decline to about 2 percent of its original percent population causing it to become endangered. Due to the drop in the amount of wild bluefin tuna left there have been serious changes to the ocean’s ecosystem. The Pacific blue fin tuna is one of the top predators in the pacific oceans food chain making it a tertiary consumer. For them to survive it must feed on the Ocean’s secondary consumers which are the anchovies, herring, etc.

Delgado, C. L., Wada, N., Rosegrant, M. W., Meijer, S., & Ahmed, M. (2003). Fish to 2020: supply and demand in changing global markets. Retrieved from http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/pubs/pubs/books/fish2020/oc44.pdf

This report is a political, economic, social, technological, and environmental and legal–(PESTEL) report carried out to assess the viability of the opportunity market SAFOLS ready to eat tuna meals in Japan. The South Australian Fisherman’s Cooperative Limited (SAFCOL) is small medium sized enterprise (SME) in the seafood industry based in South Australia, Japan is an island nation comprised of four principle islands and number smaller ones, a distance of 2,400 kilometers from the East Asian coastline (Scholastic, 2016). The principle opportunity is the fact that Japanese companies who are looking for overseas suppliers to counter local competition (Austrade, 2016; Political Monitor, 2017) The country has a number of

One solution is to set strict limits to how much fish commercial fishermen can take from the oceans. The limits would be determined by yearly evaluations, and studies of the population of harvestable fish(Koster, 2016). There are already many limits on the amount of fish that can be harvested by fishermen but they are not well enforced or punished. Another solution would be to crack down of fishing boats, and check how much of each fish they have caught. If the fishermen have exceeded their limit the punishment would be much greater than it is now to scare them into not taking more fish than they are aloud(Koster,