3 - Overfishing

Summary

Walking into your grocery store or fish market, you might not realize fisheries (and seafood) around the world are collapsing. We take fish out of the oceans faster than they can reproduce. Already 1/3 of fish stocks around the world are unsustainably fished and 60% are maximally fished where any additional removal will turn them unsustainable. Only 7% of fish stocks are underfished. Warming ocean temperatures and increased acidity due to climate change and higher levels of carbon dioxide negatively affect the health of the oceans and the base of oceanic food web (tiny plankton, krill, and corals). These insults along with overfishing will lead to a 6% reduction in fish production by 2100 (11% in tropical zones). There will be an additional 2-3 billion people on Earth, many of whom depend on fish and seafood for their protein. Farmed fish is not yet the answer. Many farmed fish harbor pests and diseases that can spread to wild fish, and many farmed fish have a high wild-fish in to farmed-fish (flesh) out ratio, though this is improving. Consuming more fish and fish oil is not sustainable as we deplete the oceans of their diversity and fish some species to near extinction.