11
The
Economics
Behind Overfishing
Renewable resources are only renewable if you take only what you need-not what you want. Because many people think there is enough fish in the ocean, the economic costs of aquatic species are far underestimated when thinking about what overfishing can do to both the environment as well as our economy.
Take for example when the Cod Fshery collapsed. People had such a demand for cod in our ocean that they took it for granted. Soon enough, the cod species were declining and the fishery industry collapsed. This not only disrupted the ecosystem of marine life, but thousands of employees of a collapsed industry. Around 40,000 jobs were lost in total from this overexploitation (9). The world has a high unemployment rate! If overfishing continues, other fishing industries will eventually collapse and unemployment rates will soar.
According to the World Bank, the global fishing effort should be reduced around 44%-54% to maximize the total economic benefits. They also estimate that due to overfishing the loss of future net benefits would be $50 billion annually(17). There won’t be any fishing industries if there aren’t any fish left in the ocean! Fishing is a huge part of our economy because of the income it brings and the employment, but we can’t take for granted the resources that are given. If our economy wants to improve, we first need to solve the issue with overfishing. If not our nets will really be empty.