Harming_Our_Under_Life_Species

06 July 2010 English If we had to close our eyes and think about the ocean a nice, deep blue sea is easily conjured. There would be schools of fish that pass by each other and golden colored sand filled with corals and reef. The ocean is a beautiful and mysterious place to many because it is a completely different world. However, the oceans looks nothing like this anymore in reality. The waters have lost its translucent appearance and are murky. Now numbers of fish and sea life as we know it are decreasing exponentially. That small shrimp dinner ordered at the restaurant not only was made containing several pieces of shrimp, it was also made taking away countless lives. Sure it is “just a sea creature” but the ecosystem today is in danger because of overfishing and the excess amount of critters taken along with it. All life is precious and the world under us is being destroyed due to ignorance. It is wonderful that technology has gotten very far making tasks that were once strenuous so much easier. With that ease it is impossible for ocean life to stand a chance against anything. The fishery ships nowadays are fully equipped with everything that is needed for hunting and there is so much success in the end as well. On average the main ships meant to provide counties with food and carry commercial sea creatures like tuna, for example, bring back on average 60,000 to 80,000 tons of fish. This is exceptionally more than the 30,000 tons that used to be brought in half a century ago. It is unreal that many of the fishery partnerships allow overfishing to take place even with the noticeable drops. Nine of the seventeen major fishing grounds have a serious decline of species. Rates began to diminish as early as the 1990s where in Canada there was a large depletion in the once bountiful codfish. Even in most parts of Asia where sea life is their abundant source of protein, the loss of numbers is just as much if not more. Over seventy percent of world fisheries are fully exploited over exploited or greatly deplete. The stocks that are given back to sell bring back only small to average size creatures since most of them do not get the chance to live long enough or even breed more of their kind. Equilibrium is an important part to keep everything running and it is being disrupted due to the massive loss taken away. When the large number of creatures are taken and brought to the ships, more than needed end up being with the load. Usually for every one ton for use three tons are killed and thrown away in the process. In order to catch what is needed in such tremendous amounts it does not matter what loss is made to those fishing them. That is millions of creatures killed for absolutely no reason because of the net. Since the overfishing cause the sea creatures to not grow up to adult size the nets now need to be smaller to hold on to the little fish. Many of random smaller creatures not even large enough to eat are caught most of the time. It is worse when the net is travelled down near or at the bottom of the ocean though even that is not allowed. The life that thrives under those sands is destroyed as well as the homes made that were meant to protect them. It is a very unjust no matter the reason to carelessly kill these creatures and their environment. Of the seven percent of these critters that end up being depleted, only one percent of them are able to recover from it. The ecosystem loses biodiversity as well and hundreds of species are near extinct where as many have already died off. Top predators such as the bluefish, swordfish and flounder and smaller creatures like the shrimp are getting sparse. Krill is very important to other life under the sea as it is the primary food source for the whales, seals and fish. This loss only kills more creatures underwater since the food they need to live is not as plentiful. Not only is this effecting the water species, it does affect people as well. These creatures are an important food source for the world and once there are few to even count many will starve and possibly even die due to the great loss. Though it is not talked as much like global warming or pollution this huge loss of the ecosystem is a huge problem and it cannot continue. Something as simple as making a quota for how much fishing can be done can easily fix the problem and hopefully restore life under water somewhat. Is it really worth the money, time or luxury to be blind and not do something about this' The seafood dinners that are consumed at the restaurant worth only ten or twenty dollars a plate are worth way more than that. So much is lost just for that one plate and more will be if something is not done.