The ocean is one of Earth's most valuable natural resources. It provides food in the form of fish and shellfish—about 200 billion pounds are caught each year. It's used for transportation—both travel and shipping. It provides a treasured source of recreation for humans. It is mined for minerals (salt, sand, gravel, and some manganese, copper, nickel, iron, and cobalt can be found in the deep sea) and drilled for crude oil.
The ocean plays a critical role in removing carbon from the atmosphere and providing oxygen. It regulates Earth's climate. The ocean is an increasingly important source of biomedical organisms with enormous potential for fighting disease. These are just a few examples of the importance of the ocean to life on land.
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In Massachusetts alone, the cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder industries collapsed, causing an economic disaster for the area.
Due to the importance of fishing to the worldwide economy and the need for humans to understand human impacts on the environment, the academic division of fisheries science was developed. Fisheries science includes all aspects of marine biology, in addition to economics and management skills and information. Marine conservation issues like overfishing, sustainable fisheries and management of fisheries are also examined through fisheries science.
In order for there to be plenty of fish in the years ahead, fisheries will have to develop sustainable fisheries and some will have to close. Due to the constant increase in the human population, the oceans have been overfished with a resulting decline of fish crucial to the economy and communities of the world. The control of the world's fisheries is a controversial subject, as they cannot produce enough to satisfy the demand, especially when there aren't enough fish left to breed in healthy ecosystems. Scientists are often in the role of fisheries managers and must regulate the amount of fishing in the oceans, a position not popular with those who have to make a living fishing ever decreasing populations.
The two main questions facing fisheries management are:
1. What is the carrying capacity of the ocean? How many fish are there and how many of which type of fish
The Ocean has many ecosystems and animals that live and survive in there. We depend on some of the natural resources the ocean provides. We are hurting this by dangerous fishing and overfishing or overexploitation of the fish. The ocean has a great diversity
The earliest accounts of overfishing occurred in the 1800s, when the demand of whale blubber nearly wiped out the whale populations. In the mid 1900s, the harvesting of Atlantic cod, herring, and California sardines drove them to the brink of extinction. These high disruptions cause regional depletions of animal resources which is starting to cause a global problem. There has never been a more urgent time for fishing nations to make a commitment towards the sustainability of our oceans. More than 80% of the world’s fisheries have been, or are being pushed beyond their limits and are in dire need of strict management plans. Populations of fish and elasmobranch fish such as tuna, grouper and sharks have been declining to the point where the survival
Why does the ocean matter? Many people find themselves asking this question. They view the ocean as just being a large part of the planet that takes up significant space (the ocean takes up about 70% of the earth and is responsible for about 97% of the earth’s total water). The people who ask this question would be defined as not being ocean literate. An ocean literate person is one who understands ocean literacy. This means that they understand the essential principles and fundamental concepts of ocean literacy, can communicate about the ocean in a meaningful way, and they are able to make informed decisions that regard the ocean and its resources. But what is Ocean Literacy? Ocean Literacy is defined as being “an understanding of the ocean’s
According to a study done by Living Planet Report in 2015, 29% of the world’s fishing stocks are considered overfished and an additional 61% is fully exploited with no possibility to produce more fish. Our environment is currently afflicted by a number of different problems, one of which is overfishing. Overfishing is defined by FishOnline as, “Fishing with a sufficiently high intensity to reduce the breeding stock levels to such an extent that they will no longer support a sufficient quantity of fish for sport or commercial harvest.” The overfishing situation is being exacerbated by non-sustainable and destructive fishing practices and unfair fisheries partnership agreements; while there are currently attempts being made at fixing these problems and their effects on overfishing, nothing has been extremely effective.
The increase in fisheries catches across the globe has also been fueled by the significant increase in the demand for food because of the constant increase of human population. While the practice has remained a major threat to every fish species in the ocean, it has largely contributed to the large migrations by marine mammals as they seek to get the left over fish. Since the 1950s, there has been an increasing trend in the number of unsustainable fisheries, which is an indication of the global geographic expansion of overfishing (Coll et. al., p.1).
According to the United Nations, 17% of fish stocks worldwide are currently overexploited; 52% are fully exploited; and 7% are depleted. This means that only an estimated 20% of worldwide fish stocks are not already at or above their capacity(Seafarms, 2013). Catches of Pacific herring have decreased by 71% since the 1960s, with Atlantic herring catches falling by 63%. Atlantic Cod catches have fallen by 69% in the same time(Seafarms, 2013). These are just a few of many facts and statistics on the topic of overfishing. The effects of these statistics and facts impact people’s and animal's lives around the
What is an ocean? What do oceans do? How do oceans affect people? About how many species of fish live in the ocean? What kind issues do oceans have? Some people wonder these questions. All of these questions will be answered in this research paper. What is a ocean, what they do, how they affect someone, how many species live in the ocean, and what kinds of issues does the ocean has will be addressed in the research paper.
The author divided the text into four parts. Almost three-fourths of earth's surface is covered with oceans.Oceans are important to all living thing,even those on land. Oceans provide a lot of foods and minerals. The oceans also influence Earth's climate by moderating temperature around the globe and providing moisture for rainfall. The continents divide the oceans into four major regions. The equator divides Earth into two hemispheres. Ocean water is salty
Ocean covers a large surface on the on the earth. Three forth of the earth surface is covered with the sea, and one fourth of the land surface consist of uninhabited places such as deserts and mountain. Ocean hold 97% of water on the earth, basic need of all living creatures. Also scientist believe that the life originated at the ocean and gradually moved toward the land. Moreover, the ocean has about 200000 identified species, and this number will increase with the discovery of new species. According to the UN reports, the
Oceans cover approximately 75% of Earth 's surface and are vital to this planet and the people who inhabit it. Oceans provide food, natural resources, and recreation for nearly everyone in this world. Unfortunately Oceans have been receiving mass amount of pollutants including oil spills, toxic waste dumping, and industrial dumping. These pollutants will have negative impacts on the wildlife in the ocean, as we are seeing already with the Coral Reefs, and soon enough it will begin to affect our lives as well.
People are linked to the oceans in many ways that they can understand and others that are not so obvious; a means of transportation and support economies by providing a food source are the obvious ones .Civilizations through the millenniums have used the sea to nurture them providing the food source and other resources. Today the ocean is utilized for escape or tourism for its serenity and if all of the majestic biological organisms that ocean has to offer. People need to preserve this in incredible resource and start working on this today.
The Ocean is the large body of water that makes up 71% of the earth’s surface, Yet we know very little about it. The Earth is just one huge ocean, separated by islands we call continents . The ocean is so extraordinary that you can sail across it for days without seeing any land, and also its very deep with the bottom being more than six miles below surface. It is important to have an understanding of the ocean because it affects everything on earth, whether we know it or not. Since the ocean is so epic 95% of it still remains unexplored, for every one species found in the ocean three still remain undiscovered. As we know saltwater should not be consumed and only a small dosage of freshwater can be obtained from it, scientists are working
Oceans cover much of the world. They contain many fish that are the primary diets for many nations. The ocean ecosystem is vital to all life. For a long time, it was believed that there was no end to the amount of fish in the ocean. It was thought there was endless supply. That belief has changed and our oceans are being overfished to the point that some fish species have collapsed and many more are in danger. Overfishing is not just endangering the fish that live in the ocean, but it negatively affects the whole ecosystem. (oceanworld.com)
One of the growing issues that has been plaguing our marine habitats is the problem of overfishing. What this means is that we are taking fish from the ocean, at rates that are far higher than the fish can replenish themselves, which is a problem because fish and other marine organisms are very important for millions of people around the world. They are relied on because sometimes it is the only way to have access to a good source of proteins and fatty acids throughout the day. The key for sustainable management revolves around the idea of the economics of the catch. What this means is that we can maximize the fish that we obtain from the oceans while still allowing them to replenish year after year. The way that it works is that fish have a different growth rate depending on where they lie in regards to their carrying capacity. When they are at their carrying capacity they have a very low growth rate so this would be an ideal time to catch fish. The other ideal time to catch fish is when they are at half of their carrying capacity because this is when they have the highest growth rate. If this was done, fisheries would be able to catch the same number of individuals as the fish produced that year, while the population remained at half the carrying capacity.
On November 3, 2006, the New York Times published a front-page article titled, “Study Sees 'Global Collapse ' of Fish Species.” Within the article, experts cited that if “fishing around the world continues at its present pace, more and more species will vanish, marine ecosystems will unravel and there will be 'global collapse ' of all species currently fished, possibly as soon as midcentury.” (Dean, 2006). The issue of overfishing, which is defined as “continuously taking more fish than can be replaced by reproduction and growth,” (Overfishing: What Everyone Needs to Know, Hilborn 5) has become prevalent in society today. This is because of the advancements in technology and the pressure made by food industries for fisheries to catch