The Impact of Fishing Industries and Sustainability of Fisheries
By Katie Wallace and Lindsey Bell
Ocean Sciences 120
Slide 2: What is a Fishery?
A fishery is any place where fish are caught, usually for commercial purposes.
Slide 3: Commercial Fishing, Traditional Fishing and Recreational Fishing
Commercial Fishing:
• Fish are caught, and then sold for a “profit”. The Commercial sector is also known as the “seafood industry”, or “industrial fishing”.
• Commercial fishing used to be one of the most dangerous jobs in the states, but the boats are now made a lot safer than before.
• Some animals that commercial fishermen catch are tuna, cod and crab.
Impact of Commercial Fishing:
• In November, 2006, scientists predicted, based on the results from a previous experiment, which “the world would run out of wild-caught seafood in the year 2048”.
• Commercial fishing can either have a good or bad impact on the environment: It could keep numbers of an “out-of-control” species of fish down, or it could, in some cases, cause a certain species to become extinct due for overfishing. Overfishing is an ongoing issue everywhere. Nowadays, when certain species of fish go down, we can predict that overfishing is one of the main causes.
• “By-catch” is also an issue with commercial fisheries. A by-catch is a fish that is either the wrong size, but same species as the “target fish” or it is a completely different species.
• Sometimes, to prevent overfishing one certain species, companies will label their by-catch (same species or not) as the “target fish”. This is false advertising, but at least it helps reduce the impact of commercial fishing, even if it’s a very small change.
Community Impact:
• It is a good source of food.
• Commercial fishing in a community gives them an identity. For example: The “Welcome to Miramichi” sign has a salmon on it. Miramichi is known to be one of the best areas to fish for salmon, and that is where we get our identity.
Traditional Fishing:
• This sector mainly includes aboriginal fishermen.
• They will only kill and take home what they need, and they don’t let any of it go to waste!
• It is driven by the need for one meal, rather than the need for large quantities, this means that overfishing isn’t a problem in this sector.
• Sometimes, fish can be sold for a small profit, but no more fish are taken then what is needed.
Impact of Traditional Fishing
• Because people only take what is needed, overfishing isn’t an issue, so there isn’t a huge environmental impact.
• “By-catch” isn’t really a problem either, because they aren't always catching for a profit.
Recreational Fishing and its Impact:
• “Catch and return” methods are often used.
• Otherwise known as “sports fishing”
• Overall, the environmental impact of recreational fishing isn't that bad.
Slide 4: Sustainability of Fisheries (title only)
Slide 5: Sustainability?
• A fishery is sustainable only if the population of fish doesn’t change over a period of time, it has to stay around, or exactly the same from year to year.
• Fish must be “harvested” at the same rate to prevent the general population form increasing or decreasing.
Two Quotes:
1. “The word sustainability is derived from the Latin sustinere (tenere, to hold; sus, up). Dictionaries provide more than ten meanings for sustain, the main ones being to ‘maintain’, ‘support’, or ‘endure’” (Wikipedia.org).
2. “Sustainable management of fisheries cannot be achieved without an acceptance that the long-term goals of fisheries management are the same as those of environmental conservation.” - Daniel Pauly and Dave Preikshot
Slide 6: Population Dynamics in Fisheries
1. Birth Rate: Birth rate is usually associated with number of births, but in fisheries it is used in a different way. It can also be called “recruitment”, which is a certain size and age that a fish can be captured and sold.
2. Growth Rate: the growth rate is a measurement is used to determine how big and how long a fish is. The growth rate of a fish is important in fisheries that measure population according to the biomass (the total mass of fish in the fishery).
3. Mortality Rate: measures how fast the fish. It doesn’t matter whether it was a natural death, or if the fish was harvested or not. They are just looking for the number of dead fish altogether.
Slide 7: Population Dynamics Continued
• Harvestable surplus: the amount of fish that can be harvested WITHOUT affecting the population size of a species. If the birth, growth and mortality rates are measured, over time, the harvestable surplus will be found.
• The amount of fish killed in the harvestable surplus is the compensatory mortality, this is when the number of fish killed for harvest, takes the place of the naturally occurring deaths.
• Additive mortality: includes all other deaths.
Quote: Population size – “the number of individual organisms in a population” (Wikipedia.org).
Slide 8: The Maximum Sustainable Yield
The maximum sustainable yield is the amount of fish that can be harvested in a given period of time. If they exceed the amount, the population of the species could decline.
Slide 9: Things that affect sustainability... (title)
Slide 10: Pollution
· The fundamental causes of marine pollution are: “oil spills, toxic wastes and illegal dumping” (Three Key Causes of Marine Pollution, By Jonathon Hilton).
· Marine animals and birds don’t know what and oil spill is. They don’t know it could harm them. When they get caught in an oil spill they don’t try to get out and this is what makes it so dangerous.
· “Toxic waste” is the worst cause of pollution and the most dangerous out of all of them. It is, in other words, poison. It can make its way to the ocean in different ways, for example, through landfills and often through factory sewage systems, as workers apparently don’t know that it’s not good to pour chemicals down the drain. All of the pipes lead to the ocean. The sad part is that most of this is probably done in complete ignorance because most people wouldn’t think about where the drain leads.
· Illegal dumping is an ongoing problem, whether it is by accident or on purpose. When storm drains overflow, garbage from the streets is washed into sewage pipes, which lead to the ocean, this would be “accidental”. People illegally dump their waste into the ocean all the time on purpose too. Some factories treat the ocean like a garbage can where they can put contaminated containers and other pollutants.
Slide 11: Habitat Loss
· Fishing techniques, such as “bottom trawling”, can completely destroy habitats. “Bottom trawling” is a process that involves dragging a huge net along the ocean floor to catch fish, that destroys every habitat in its path.
· Pollution can cause a loss of habitat, as fish and other living organisms aren’t adapted to the plastic and toxic chemicals in the water.
· Tourism causes significant damage to habitats. Tourists want to go diving and snorkelling, but they don’t know how fragile a reef is. One wrong move could disrupt the balance of the entire ecosystem.
· Climate change, the worst of all the causes, is directly related to how we live. Simple tasks, such as driving to the grocery store, make greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are Earth’s worst enemy, and they are directly affecting the life, and water in the oceans.
· Natural occurrences, such as hurricanes, often damage habitats in the ocean. But this damage isn’t permanent. Our everyday routine is what leaves a scar.
Slide 12: Climate Change
Like we said in the previous slide, out of all the factors that affect the sustainability, climate change it the worst out of all of them! Climate change affects almost everything in the ocean, from the biggest mammals, to the molecular structure of the sea water. CO₂ in the atmosphere is reacting with the sea water, and because of this, the sea water has been acidifying over time. And the worst part of it is that by doing every day things, like driving to work, we speed this process up. Global warming is heating up the ocean temperatures as well. Marine life isn’t adapted well to the rising temperatures, and it would take a long time for them to adapt. In some cases, rising water temperatures might be the thing that pushes a species to extinction. We are a catalyst when it comes to climate change, we speed the process up, to say the least.
Slide 13: Overfishing
Overfishing is directly caused by the commercial fishing sector. Industrial fishing techniques usually involve huge nets to catch the fish. Too huge. To put it simply, some species are being harvested faster than they can reproduce which lowers the population, and could eventually lead to - and has already led to in some cases – extinction.
Slide 14: How do we get past these obstacles?
There are some people who say that there are solutions to these sustainability issues, some of the ideas include:
• “Marine Protected Areas”
• Fish Farms
• Laws/Agreements/Treaties
• Boost Awareness in Communities
Slide 15: Are our fisheries sustainable?
Slide 16: Atlantic Cod Fishery Collapse
• In 1992, the Atlantic cod fishery collapsed, and they are still trying to make a comeback today.
• In the 1980, Canadians caught more than 250 000 tonnes of cod per year, and the numbers increased in the 1990s.
• Finally there weren't enough cod found in Newfoundland, actually, they were almost extinct. The Atlantic cod fishery was forced to shut down.
Slide 17: Lessons Learned
• Fisheries are very careful about conservation now. They keep track of the populations, and all of the population dynamics. Canadian fishers might not have been sustainable now, but based on their reaction to the cod fishery collapse, we think that they are more sustainable than ever, and they can only get even better as time goes on.
• It would be safe to say that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada runs a tight ship when it comes to conservation, and that the population of all the fish are in safe hands now. Something really bad happened, but something even better has come out of it.