The Commercialized Destruction of Our Oceans

 Christian Szablewski-Paz

HST 401

Professor Horgan

13 December 2022

The Commercialized Destruction of Our Oceans

The amount of seafood consumed globally has doubled in the last half a century.  The harmful fishing practices associated with this overconsumption are depleting the wild fish population globally and are destroying vital ecosystems in our oceans.  The most common and detrimental of these harmful fishing practices is bottom trawling and bycatch.  The Food and Agriculture Association estimates that oceans are cleared at a rate twice that of forests.  It would be misleading to not note that there have been recent measures put into place by governments around the world to combat overfishing’s negative effect on aquatic ecosystems, such as banning specific fishing gear classified as destructive and harmful to the ocean environment.  However, in offshore waters, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to enforce fishing laws which is why illegal fishing has become such a major issue which is also causing a significant portion of the damage to wild fish populations, marine ecosystems, and overall ocean health.  The sobering truth is that commercial fishing has significantly damaged the ocean in ways many would never think could be possible.  The remaining question is whether or not there exists regulations that could be enforced globally for commercial fishing that would allow the ocean’s fish populations and ecosystems to be restored to their previous, healthy states before humans were able to damage them.

Bottom trawling is the process in which bottom trawl nets are used to capture fish and shrimp that live on the seafloor.  It is important to note that “approximately 80% of the high seas catch of bottom species… is taken by bottom trawl fishing vessels” (Gianni) to further reiterate the significance of this on the ocean’s health.  This process is performed in shallow coastal waters to depths exceeding a mile.  Entire ecosystems are destroyed by this process as “bottom trawling uses heavily weighted nets that are dragged across the ocean floor”, and “when the weighted nets and trawl doors are dragged along the seafloor, everything in their path is disturbed or destroyed” (Oceana).  These include but are not limited to seagrasses, coral reefs, or rock gardens.  These ecosystems are habitats for fish which are often used to hide from predators.  This process indirectly and directly destroys fish populations as many fish are being directly killed by this net, and the resulting destruction of habitats results in further decline in fish populations.

  In addition to the intended fish caught, bottom trawling almost always involves the capturing of many other unintended animals and later discarding them.  At this point, these aquatic creatures are often already dead.  The discarding of unintended captured organisms caught from bottom trawling is referred to as “bycatch”, and it is “responsible for up to half of all discarded fish and marine life worldwide” (Oceana).  There are even reports that exist that in some unregulated areas in the world, for every kilogram of seafood produced, there can be up to 50kg of marine organisms discarded in this process.  While this is an extreme ratio, a more average ratio is for every kilogram of fish produced, 14 kilograms are wasted - simply thrown away.  This process is extremely immoral; killing innocent creatures to simply be thrown away at such a massive scale is shameful.  The negative effects this is having on our ocean’s ecosystems are extremely evident as well.  Bottom trawling and the bycatch associated with it has led to overfishing resulting in population decline for thousands of marine species.  

Many countries have moved forward and have banned bottom trawling in certain areas in order to protect marine ecosystems.  These include but are not limited to Indonesia, certain coastal states of the US, New Zealand, and the Mediterranean areas of Europe and North Africa.  A big irony in this is that giving areas marine reserve status actually attracts illegal fishermen with hopes that the fish populations in these areas are more plentiful.  Illegal fishing is a major problem because a small number of fishermen can do a significant amount of damage because of how inherently damaging bottom trawling is in itself.  A vast majority of the destruction caused by bottom trawling is done by illegal fishermen, and a major issue is how difficult it is to enforce regulations in offshore waters.  The ocean is a massive place that makes up over 70% of our planet.  It is impossible to maintain surveillance in its entirety.  Regardless of how easy certain countries make it to fish illegally, even in the countries that do have strict regulations, it is infeasible to enforce them.  Up to 32% of seafood imported in our own country, The United States, is caught illegally!  This statistic comes from a study performed in 2014 in the Marine Policy journal which makes an important sentiment: “once fish get past a port, it is very difficult to determine where, how, and by whom they were caught” (Janovsky).  Getting illegally caught fish past ports is easier than one would think; historically many of them have rather lax environments worldwide.

Commercialized fishing has many direct implications.  One of them is directly related to climate change.  According to an article by The Guardian, there was a recent study performed by 26 marine biologists, climate experts, and economists with results claiming that bottom trawling by fishing boats collectively emits 1 gigaton of carbon into the ocean every year.  These numbers are very comparable to the entirety of the aviation industry’s carbon emissions into the atmosphere.  The carbon is actually released from within the seabed sentiment itself which has been ripped up by the trawling nets, and it is released directly into the water.  So along with directly destroying ecosystems and killing and tossing away tons of fish that won’t actually be eaten, this process also directly contributes to ocean acidification.  Ocean acidification is the reason why so many fish populations are declining, and marine ecosystems are less likely to bounce back.  Essentially, this process is directly bulldozing ecosystems, and furthermore contributing to them having less of a chance of recovering.  The irony in all of this is one of the industries that will hurt the most from this is commercialized fishing.  The amount of money to be made in the industry respectively has declined significantly each decade since the 1800s, and this trend still follows today.  It’s a circular paradox.  Commercial fishing companies destroy fish populations by their harmful fishing practices, and in response, they employ these devastating practices at a more frequent rate to compensate for the less plentiful amounts of fish being caught.

Another direct impact of commercial fishing has been the decline of shark populations in our ocean.  Over the last 50 years, shark populations have been estimated to have declined at least 70%, with harmful commercial fishing practices killing up to 100 million sharks per year.  While commercial fishing has also led to thousands of species of fish populations declining, the reason why I am focusing specifically on sharks is due to their critical role in ocean ecosystems and how vital they are to ocean health.  Shark populations, migratory patterns, and feeding patterns are 3 major indicators of ocean health commonly accepted by marine biologists.  According to Oceana, “the loss of sharks has led to the decline in coral reefs, seagrass beds and the loss of commercial fisheries.”  The reason for this is when sharks are taken out of the coral reef ecosystem, larger predatory fish increase in abundance and feed on the herbivores.  Without the herbivores, algae populations expand and coral can no longer compete, making the algae dominant, limiting chances of survival of the coral reef ecosystem as a whole.  This also directly ties back and contributes to climate change as well.  These ecosystems store massive amounts of carbon - amounts that make forests' carbon storages to appear relatively small.  Simply put, commercial fishing is bad news for ocean health, fish populations, the climate, and the Earth as a whole.  Commercial fishing destroys crucial ecosystems either directly by literally demolishing them with bottom trawling nets, or indirectly by killing crucial animals that are responsible for keeping these ecosystems alive.

We are rapidly approaching a point where the damage we have done to our oceans will be irreversible.  Even if we were to completely eliminate all commercial fishing practices at this very moment, it would take decades for the ocean to heal and get its organism’s populations to where they were before humans started overfishing them.  The good news is many marine biologists believe the ocean does have the capacity to heal.  Ocean ecosystems are the most resilient on the planet meaning they can very well bounce back.  The bad news is it doesn’t seem like commercial fishing is going anywhere anytime soon.  The unfortunate reality is if we don’t put an end to this soon, the long term effects of this will be devastating.  Increased ocean acidity, global warming, and the ever decreasing, if not extinct, fish populations will significantly lower our species chances of long term survival.  These statistics I have provided are meant to alarm you.  Globally, governments are not doing enough to protect our oceans.  In the U.S., we hear everyday regulations put on industrial organizations for their carbon emissions into our atmosphere.  This issue concerning our oceans is just as if not even more important; however, nobody seems to be giving it anywhere as much attention.  I truly hope this paper impacts those who may have been unaware of this ongoing crisis, as I feel one of the main reasons that there has been a lack of action is simply due to people’s ignorance of this.

Works Cited

2021, Aldem Bourscheit|18 August. “Trawling Bycatch Increases Risk of Marine Life Extinction.” Earth Journalism Network, 25 Aug. 2021, https://earthjournalism.net/stories/trawling-bycatch-increases-risk-of-marine-life-extinction.

Agarwal, Nimisha. “Commercial Fishing: What You Need to Know.” Sentient Media, Sentient Media, 4 Nov. 2022, https://sentientmedia.org/commercial-fishing/.

“Bottom Trawling Releases as Much Carbon as Air Travel, Landmark Study Finds.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 17 Mar. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/17/trawling-for-fish-releases-as-much-carbon-as-air-travel-report-finds-climate-crisis.

“Fishing: Global Slavery Index.” Fishing | Global Slavery Index, https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/importing-risk/fishing/.

Gianni, Matthew. “High Seas Bottom Trawl Fisheries And Their Impacts On The Biodiversity Of Vulnerable Deep-Sea Ecosystems.” Iucn.org, IUCN, 2004, https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/Rep-2004-001.pdf.

“The Importance of Sharks.” Oceana Europe, 23 Sept. 2022, https://europe.oceana.org/importance-sharks-0/.

Janovsky, Julie. “Up to 1 in 5 Fish Sold Is Caught Illegally-and Other Surprising Illegal Fishing Facts.” The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Pew Charitable Trusts, 13 Nov. 2017, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2017/11/13/up-to-1-in-5-fish-sold-is-caught-illegally-and-other-surprising-illegal-fishing-facts.

Pan, Will McCallum & Wenjing. “100 Million Dead Sharks – It's Not All about Shark Fin Soup.” Greenpeace International, 28 Nov. 2022, https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/46967/100-million-dead-sharks-its-not-all-about-shark-fin-soup/.

Stiles, Margot L, et al. “Impacts of Bottom Trawling - Usa.oceana.org.” Oceana.org, Oceana, May 2010, https://usa.oceana.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/Trawling_BZ_10may10_toAudrey.pdf.