ENVS195 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Scotian Shelf, Forage Fish, Exclusive Economic Zone
23 Mar 2016
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Document Summary
The oceans and their well-being are integral to sustaining life on this planet. They are key components in global cycles and energy flows. One of the major difficulties working against sustainable human use of the oceans is our lack of understanding of oceanic ecosystems. Has significant impact, if we don"t know or understand what"s going on we can"t implement sustainable policies. Five key areas outlined by the textbook. Most fisheries are on continental shelves, within 200 nautical miles. Ocean fisheries represent 20% of world"s protein supplies. For many fishing communities fishing is not just a job, its is a central part of way of life, culture. Humans have had a dramatic and negative impact on ocean fisheries. Most fisheries are fully exploited, over exploited or are crashing. Estimates show that we are harvesting 2. 5 times sustainable rate. Yields are having impact on fish size. Related to increased mortality rates from fishing, fish begin reproducing younger and smaller, everything gets smaller.
