Aquatic Issues Research Project Lindsey Sloan, Spencer Jackson, Tizjohn Armstead

The Issue Over two third of our planet is covered by oceans Oceans contain over 80% of life on earth Millions of people all over the world depend on the ocean for their livelihood

The issue cont.. Overfishing can be defined as catching too much fish for the system to support which leads to overall degradation of the system This is NOT a sustainable system

Why is this happening? Fishing fleets are two to three times as large as our ocean can support. Globally, we have enough fishing infrastructure to support four earths

Why is this a problem? The scale of the problem: The FAO scientists publish a two yearly report (SOFIA) on the state of the world's fisheries and aquaculture: 52% of fish stocks are fully exploited 20% are moderately exploited 17% are overexploited 7% are depleted 1% is recovering from depletion

Why is this a problem…cont. These statistics show our overall aquatic ecosystem stress and under risk of collapsing

An example Good Example of the overfishing problem:    Newfoundland, Canada” in 1992 the cod industry came to a drastic halt when no cod appeared in the fishing season. Almost 40,000 people lost their livelihood that year due to the accumulation of overfishing over the past years.

Pros/Cons Pro: More fish now Con: Less fish later Reflects problems with human nature

Legal Issues laws require each individual who fishes for a profit to obtain a permit some argue this law took action to prevent overfishing, requiring people to obtain a permit prevents more people from fishing individual transferable quotas (ITQ): limited access permits trying to reduce fishing amounts, however this doesn’t have much impact

Legal Action Some countries are taking legal action against overfishing: china bans fishing in the south China sea for a certain period each year Other countries people propose under fishing as a solution to increase long term fish stock

Our Solution Best solution is to take the lead from China and close off certain fishing areas for certain times of the year. This would allow the amount of fish to restock during those times. Although the fishing industry would suffer for that period of time, the fishers could charge slightly more for fish during the selling parts of the year to make up for the profit they would lose.  They should close for the one month that fish reproduce the most, because that would provide the largest amount of fish

WAHOO!