The oceans house great mysteries that are yet to be revealed. Healthy oceans are crucial to maintaining marine relationships and food webs and sustaining the livelihood and economies of coastal communities. Unfortunately, the oceans are facing dangerous losses in biodiversity due to overfishing. Overfishing, as described by National Geographic in an article titled “Pristine Seas Overfishing” (National Geographic Society), is the “taking of wildlife from the sea at rates too high for fished species to replace themselves.” Overfishing has many catastrophic effects on not only marine ecosystems, but also on the one billion people who depend on fish as their primary source of protein (Fisheries and Oceans Canada 2009). As we continue to exploit …show more content…
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch mentions numerous techniques employed today from harpooning to farming techniques such as growing shellfish cultures. However, in analyzing only the fishing techniques described, the ones mentioned above are most damaging to the ecosystems from which they are employed. These techniques often catch not only the targeted fish, but also numerous unwanted fish, mammals, and reptiles. Shrimp and other bottom-dwelling fish are caught by bottom trawl, which is a “net [that is] pulled along the seafloor” (Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch). To catch oysters, clams, and scallops, metal baskets, also known as dredges, are used (Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch). Both dredges and bottom trawls are responsible for catching unwanted fish and animals, such as endangered turtles, and disturb the ocean floor, since they are dragged along the sediment to catch the bottom-dwellers. Corals are of particular concern when it comes to bottom trawling, especially corals known as cool corals. Cool corals are “deep-water corals” which can be found in areas such as Alaska, Scotland, and New Zealand (Malakoff 2003:195). Norway has high densities of Lophelia corals, and they discovered that many of them had been “crushed by the nets” (Malakoff 2003:195). Unfortunately, it is difficult to study the distribution and behavior of these corals because they exist at the bottom of cold, deep seas. The desire to catch as many fish as possible with large nets has the potential to restrict any further knowledge of these