Causes
2
Because fishermen are making a giant profit off of the fishing industry, many people avoid researching about the impact of the techniques used to harvest due to the power behind the profit of the fishing industry. Worldwide these industries are huge and totally unsustainable, these fishing fleets are 2/3 times the amount it would be if it were to be sustainable.
However, fishing is primary form of protein for millions. This creates a huge problem, especially because only 1.6% of the oceans are protected. This leads to illegal fishing and poaching, the illegal fishing industry makes up 20% of fishing worldwide. Annually $10-23 billion made from illegal fishing operations.
The fishing operations (both legal and illegal) use extremely unsustainable methods of fishing, mosts notably trawling. Trawlers are the worst form using immense nets that drag across the ocean floor. “In Alaskan waters alone, bottom trawls removed over one million pounds of deep water corals and sponges annually from the seafloor between 1997 and 1999.” Bottom trawling is one of the worst forms for numerous reasons, for example, bycatch which thrown back into the sea, already dead. Trawling scrapes up everything off the ocean floor killing everything it traps.These nets they use can be up to 4 km long, mixing up harmful sediment, destroying habitats. The animals at the ocean floor live long lives and do not reproduce in great amounts, so they are especially susceptible to disturbance caused by trawling.
Did you know...?
Only 1.6% of the oceans are protected
Millions of tons of bycatch is thrown back every year.
40% of all catches.