Overfishing
Andrea Quartner ALQ9
Kristin Gillibrand
478 Russell
Washington, DC 20510
Charles “Chuck” Schumer
322 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
To: Kirsten Gillibrand
From: Andrea Quartner
Date: November 23, 2016
Regarding: Overfishing
By way of introduction, my name is Andrea Quartner, and I am a Junior at Cornell University. I am sure it is common in this time of political turmoil to read a letter that stems from fear, but I believe this letter is different. There are some fears that are rooted in uncertainty, while my concern is rooted in certainty. I am certain that if our country and the world keeps acting in the way it does, there will be irreversible and detrimental harm. I am writing to you to express my grave concern about overfishing and the consequences of this.
I applaud you for the work you have already done. I understand that you, Ms. Gillibrand, co-sponsored a bill that was intended “to require fishery management plans, amendments, or regulations for overfished fisheries to specify a time period for ending overfishing and rebuilding the fishery” (On The Issues, 2016). I now write to you to let you know the world and country needs you more than ever, and I want you to know that there are millions of students, such as myself, who are educating ourselves to become better leaders in the future.
We are in an unprecedented danger zone. The population of fisheries is severely depleted all over the world, and there are minimal regulations in place to put an end to this epidemic.
This letter is organized to: (1) show the current status of the sea population, (2) the ongoing harms of over fishing, and (3) provide some solutions for decreasing the overfishing epidemic.
The Current Status of Our Seas
Upon acknowledging the issues of our current ecological state, the average person often sees pollution or global warning as the most harmful issue to face our generation. Over the past few months, the death of the coral reef has been all over national media platforms. While this is a positive push towards educating the public about our environment, it is interesting that this story is the story circulating the web and not the overfishing epidemic (Bittman, 2011). While this chain of events is horrible, it occurred slowly, so it can be deduced that our society is taking notice because it is coming to a tipping point. When comparing this situation to overfishing, it is important to note that acidification happened over hundreds of years, while overfishing happens extremely quickly. Overfishing is past its “tipping point,” and it will soon be too late to reverse the harm, and there is minimal media coverage, and worse, minimal being done to combat it.
Around 70% of the global fish population is fully or overfished, and this trend continues with no end in sight (Bittman, 2011). Along the North Atlantic Coasts, the fish population has gone from around 10 Tons per KM to 0-4 Tons per KM over 100 years (Oceana 2011). Please refer to Appendix A for a graph to explain the change in the fish population along the coasts. According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, of the top ten most popularly fished species, seven are fully exploited or overexploited and cannot be expected to produce major increases in catches (Oceana, 2007). 90% of “big fish” such as tuna, marlin, and swordfish are gone. Alarmingly, scientists concluded that the depletion of these species happened in only a decade.
Overfishing is not limited to the fish we Americans think of as food. Shark finning, whaling, and dolphin hunts are popular activities that are horrendously cruel to the respective animals. An estimated 73 million sharks die annually, primarily from shark finning, and about 90% of large sharks have become extinct nationally (Shark Angels). In addition to this, although there is a ban on commercial whaling since 1986, certain countries have gotten around this, such as Japan, Norway, and Iceland, and they continue to kill nearly 2,000 whales every single year (Whale & Dolphin Conservation).
The Harms of Overfishing
There is actually irony in the overfishing issue: the very companies that encourage it will soon lose the ability to fish, and thus, they will lose their revenue source and be depleted as well. As some companies have started to recognize this, such as Unilever, they have started to take action. Unilever partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to create the Marine Stewardship Council which is designed to bring pressure towards underperforming management regimes (Pauly, 2005). Unilver was not first to recognize that the overfishing populations were not just growing back as they once might have. As we continue to deplete the ocean of fish, the recovery potential of these species declines as well (Oceana, 2007).
Fishing was once seen as the poor person’s way to survive and thrive. Interestingly, now that technology has made overfishing so extreme in wealthier parts of the world, it is the poor countries that will suffer even though they may not have participated in overfishing (Overfishing, 2010). It is our responsibility not to deplete the resources of the entire world, especially those who require fish to survive.
Solutions to this Problem
I am aware that the United States has taken some actions to combat overfishing. Whether it be monitoring certain species, adjusting subsidies that encourage industrial fishing, discouraging damaging methods of mass-fishing, these are all actions that are putting our country in the right direction. With this, the World Trade Organization has been slowly moving toward regulating the subsidies for industrial fishing (Bittman, 2011). These actions are not enough.
If you are curious about the solutions that are available to combat overfishing, it is beneficial to look to Europe, as they have already taken measures to combat this issue. The European fishing industry is about double the size of what is considered ecologically sustainable, according to the European Commission. Their goal was to have a sustainable yield by 2015. In order to achieve this goal, in 2013 the European Parliament chose “to reject most new subsidies for the saltwater fishing industry and provide financial support for new ecologically friendly measures meant to prevent overfishing” (inanceFis 2013).
Some other steps our government can take are:
• • Create more marine sanctuaries (Bittman, 2011)
• Monitor overfishing (Bittman, 2011)
• Encourage retailers to employ sustainable seafood policies (Bittman, 2011)
• Destroy fishing subsidies (Oceana, 2007)
• Control illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing (Oceana, 2007)
• Support finning bans and shark sanctuaries (Whale & Dolphin Conservation)
• COMPLETELY restricting the use of high seas bottom trawling—a practice so detrimental to the ocean that the United Nations has ruled on its restriction and monitoring that this law is enforced (Oceana, 2007)
• Collect and monitor information on every catch including the method, capacity, and species (Oceana, 2007)
• Enforce limits on specific species (Oceana, 2007)
Conclusion
I understand that it is easy to brush issues aside when there are other issues that appear in the news, receive tons of funding, and may even be the reason you were elected. But, this is an issue that we can no longer put on the back burner. If we do, terrorism, disease, famine, wars, etc. will not matter, because our society will have destroyed the earth.
I urge you to take action today. I urge you to challenge yourself, to speak up, and to make a difference. Our resources are finite. We only have one world. We must act now before it is too late. I ask you to please write back to me with how you plan on combatting the imminent dangers of overfishing.
I am asking for your to send a response with your action plan to diminish the rapid decline of fish. Thank you for your time, and thank you for the service you will do to save our ocean.
Appendix
A.
Works Cited
Bittman, Mark. “What’s Worse Than An Oil Spill?” The New York Times, 20 Apr. 2011. Web. 4
Nov. 2016.
“Looming Shark Extinction.” Shark Angels, 2011. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.
Pauly, D., R. Watson, and J. Alder. “Global Trends in World Fisheries: Impacts on Marine
Ecosystems and Food Security.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 360.1453 (2005): 5-12. Web.
Rie InanceFis. “Europe Rejects New Fishing Subsidies.” New York Times [New York, New York] 24 Oct. 2013: n. pag. Print.
“State Of The World’s Fisheries.” Oceana, July 2007. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.
“Whaling.” Whale & Dolphin Conservation. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.