The Consequence of Overfishing
Summary: Over the past 100 years, eating fish has been a part of our daily lives. In the article, "Fishing boats are taking too many big hunting fish from the sea", it explains that fishermen usually catch the big fish that most people eat, like tuna, swordfish, and grouper. But there is one downside, all of these fish's population have decreased by more than two thirds of what it was in 1970. These fish are in deep trouble of extinction. These big fish eat smaller fish that eat smaller kinds of fish. These predator fish are needed to keep the balance of fish in the oceans and seas. Villy Christensen states that, "It has taken many decades for them [The population of the larger fish] to rebuild." That is not good for the predators of the sea because there could be many species of fish that could go extinct within a decade or so.
Analysis: I think that fisherman should catch only a small amount of these kinds of fish because enough species of animals have gone extinct already. I agree with Villy Christensen because it can take many years for species to rebuild themselves into a plentiful amount in their population and that is not good because we will still be catching fish and the population will only decrease, which leads to extinction at one point. I think that we should make laws to limit the amount of catching fish so they can rebuild their population.
Discussion Questions:
What do you think the government should do about this?
How do you think people would react if there was a limit on fish?
Why do you think that people prefer larger fish over smaller fish?
| www.theatlantic.com |
Over fishing is a problem but also a solution. The problem is making entire lakes and parts of oceans completely scarce of fish, but for some lakes there are such an abundance of fish that it wouldn't make a dent if you took home 5-8 fish. Areas should have laws on how much of which type of fish you can take home and which you can throw back in.
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