Overfishing is not limited to the Chinese and top predators like bluefin tuna. It happens right here at home. Pictured is the harvesting of menhaden in VA. The consequences of overfishing are fewer and smaller stripers and the loss of birds of prey and other predator fish. Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Biostatistical Menhaden Surveys.
Allowing bad to flourish at everyone’s expense
Skip Clement
By Skip Clement
Overfishing can be as simple as holiday anglers catching many fish, but throw them away after taking a photo for social media. It can also involve sport fishermen yanking a treble hook from a trout’s mouth, then kicking it back into the water, as witnessed on Idaho’s Wood River. Also, watching the adult son of one of our iconic outdoor companies keeping a Belizian bonefish out of the water for too long just for a keep-sake picture or watching a movie star drag a BC steelhead trout flopping onto the shoreline rocks to retrieve a fly, and claiming not to know it would die in a few hours, having beaten itself to death.
Thom Glace, the award winning watercolorist’s commissioned striper is one of the best illustrations of Morone saxatilis.
While these individuals may not have intended any harm, their actions will not tip the scale of having a massively negative impact on the world supply of gamefish or eatable fish stocks.
Killing that does bring ruination of available game fish and eatable fish stocks is particularly true in the case of heavily subsidized Chinese factory ships and those of South America.
Overfishing has the potential to devastate world fisheries, pushing them, species by species, to tipping points until an irrevocable disaster.
It’s not just about the present; it’s about our children’s future. We all have a role in preserving our planet’s health, the air all living creatures breathe, and the water shared. This ensures a sustainable future for the next generations to enjoy catching a salmon or trout and buying tuna in a can.
Bluefin tuna ~ Au marché aux poissons de Catane, la Piscaria, sur une table en bois, un thon rouge de taille importante en attente d’ être découpé. Catania, Sicile, Italie. 14 August 1989 photo credit – Jean-Pierre Bazard.
