Overfishing is the taking of wildlife from the sea at rates too high for species to replaces themselves11. As populations rise at dramatic rates never seen before, the demand for seafood has also risen. This brings about issues not only for humans, but for the various aquatic ecosystems in the ocean as well.
When it started
In the mid 20th century, fishing capacity was greatly increased by the government due to the international demand for affordable, available, protein-rich foods12.
Government subsidies, loans, and favorable policies resulted in a rapid increase of large scale industrial fishing operations; ending buisness for local boatmen as the world's source of seafood11.
These large profit seeking fishing buisnesses scoured the world's oceans and developed much more sophisticated methods for finding, extracting and processing their target species in the cheapest way possible. Eventually, seafood became extremely demanding as costumers became accustomed to wide selections of fish at affordable prices13.
By 1989, 90 million tons of catch had already been taken from the ocean12. Since then, yields have dramatically declined. Most fisheries with high demands for sepcific species such as bluefin tuna have collapsed13. In 2003, it was estimated that only 10 percent of large ocean fish are around when compared to their pre- industrial population10.
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