Page 357 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

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Fishing

Exploitation of the sea’s bounty provides humans with
FISHING AND THE ENVIRONMENT
high-quality food and many useful by-products, and
sustains coastal fishing communities. Fish have long been BOTTOM TRAWLING Fishing
gear dragged across the seabed
seen as a resource that could never run out. However, damages marine life and stirs
modern industrial-scale fishing methods are taking their up sediment, smothering and
damaging nearby animals.
toll. Many stocks have collapsed, and some may be beyond
Heavy metal scallop dredges
recovery. The total global recorded catch of marine fish are particularly harmful.
and shellfish rose steadily from 18.4 million tons in
1950 to 96.7 million tons in 1996, with a few dips
associated with poor anchovy catches in El Niño years
(see p.68-69). However, since that maximum, catches
have declined and stabilized at about 88 million tons.
The problems of ensuring a sustainable harvest from DAMAGE AND WASTE SHRIMP AND BYCATCH
the sea are many. One fundamental difficulty is the In every catch of shrimp,
up to ten times their weight
“ownership” of stocks. There is little incentive for of other species is also
some to stop fishing in order to conserve fish if others caught in the net and
subsequently discarded.
continue, legally or illegally. It is difficult to police
fisheries on the high seas, and illegal fishing is rife in
some areas. It is notoriously problematic to accurately
assess mobile fish stocks; and illegal fishing and trading
and inaccurate reporting distort catch statistics.
Many large-scale fishing methods are indiscriminate.
There is vast waste, as unwanted and over-quota fish
and invertebrate species are discarded, and many turtles,
cetaceans, and sea birds are inadvertently caught. Nets
with escape hatches for turtles and marked long lines
to prevent albatrosses from being hooked are two of a
number of new methods to reduce by-catch. Sand eels
and other small fish, often termed “whitebait,” vital to FISHING GEAR Thousands
sea birds such as puffins, are caught in industrial fisheries of animals die needlessly
each year entangled in
and turned into fishmeal for livestock. Yet not all fishing fishing tackle. This Hawaiian
HAZARDS TO WILDLIFE Drifting longlines
is unsustainable, and there is now increasing guidance monk seal is one of a total
for those consumers wishing to support well-managed population of under 1,000.
fisheries and non-damaging fishing methods. TURTLE

Traditional Fishing for tuna, often dozens of
miles long with thousands
Traditional fishing using small-scale fishing gear is rarely a threat of hooks, also kill turtles,
sharks, and marine birds.
to fish stocks. Fish is an important food source, particularly in
countries in the developing world, where it provides up to 80 SCALLOP FARMING Farming
per cent of total protein needs. Fishing is also a vital part of the scallops is an environmentally
economy in these countries. And yet, such localized, traditional sound practice that avoids the
fisheries take only about 10 percent of the global total catch. adverse effects of trawling on
the seabed and other species.

PEN-RAISED TUNA Fattening
of wild tuna in cages falls
between fishing and aquaculture
legislation, and there are fears
that this practice is further
depleting overfished stocks.

STILT FISHING
This method of fishing is still OCEAN LIFE
practiced in parts of Sri Lanka FISH FARMING
and Thailand. The fishermen
cast their lines while perching
on poles in shallow water.