Less Fishing

Overfishing

One of the chief consequences of industrial fishing is that some species have been overfished to the point of near extinction.

Perhaps the best-known example of this comes from the Atlantic cod.

In the 17^th century, people said that cod was so plentiful in the Northwest Atlantic that you could walk across the ocean on their backs.

During the era, cod fishing formed the foundation of the New England economy and many people relied on fishing cod for their livelihood.

In the 1960's, new technologies like radar and sonar enabled fishermen to fish much deeper for cod and to catch them much more rapidly.

Landings of cod began to skyrocket over the next few decades, but the fishery collapsed dramatically in the 1990's.

The area off Newfoundland, formerly the largest cod fishery in the world, had estimated declines in cod biomass of more than 99%.

Six additional stocks off the coast of Canada had all declined in biomass by 75% or greater.

The number of fish became so few that Canada enacted a moratorium on cod fishing to allow stocks to recover.

The United States has also placed severe restrictions on the industry, cutting back the amount of time that people can fish,

and reducing the total amount of cod that could be caught.

Shutting down the industry in Canada had consequences that reverberated throughout coastal regions.

Many people saw their livelihoods vanish and unemployment became widespread.

Coastal communities dwindled as people moved to other areas in search of employment.

In addition to these socioeconomic changes, the ocean was also greatly altered by the removal of cod, which had formerly been a major predator.

With their major predators gone, animals that had formerly been the prey of cod, such as shrimp and snow crab,
were released from predatory controls and proliferated.

This fundamentally altered the food web and functioning of the ecosystem.

Source: Environmental Science