ENVS 1000U Lecture 15: Lecture 15
3 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
About 68% of global marine fisheries are still sustainably fished. Number of overfished fisheries has increased 3-fold since 1970s. Major concern if these trends continue in future. Modern industrialized fishing practices are placing unprecedented pressure on marine resources. Predicted that populations of all ocean species we fish for today will collapse by the year. Factory fishing = highly industrialized, huge vessels use powerful technologies to capture fish in huge volumes: even process and freeze their catches while at sea. Driftnets for schools of herring, sardines, mackerel, sharks. By-catch = the accidental capture of animals: drift netting drowns dolphins, turtles, and seals / fish die from exposure longline fishing kills turtles, sharks, and albatrosses, bottom-trawling destroys communities (similar to clear-cutting/strip-mining) Grand banks cod have been fished for centuries. Catches more than doubled with immense industrial trawlers: record-high catches lasted only 10 years. No fish has more impact on human civilization than the atlantic cod.
