Overfishing

What is "overfishing"?

• Fishing out of season

• Catching fish faster than they can replenish

• Catching fish from the top of the food chain

• Catching more fish than what people eat

What is bycatch?

• Catching other sea life than what you were aiming to catch

• Fish caught as the ships go by

• Fish that escapes out of nets

• Fish caught at the very end of the fishing season

What types of technology are used for fishing?

• Radar and sonar

• Spotter planes

• Flash freezing

• All of the above

Made up of long fishing poles (main lines) with a second line beneath it. The second line is clipped onto the main line at intervals and has several baited hooks on it. Depending on the fishery, the line can have up to 3,000 hooks on it and be 150 km (93 miles) long.

• Bottom Trawling

• Gillnets

• Longlines

• Blasting

True or false: If a fish stock is low, it means they have been overfished.

• true

• false

What are strategies that can be implemented to reduce/prevent overfishing?

• Fishing quotas

• Establishing laws

• Marine protected areas

• International standards for mesh size of nets

• banning certain kinds of nets

What is a marine protected area?

• An area where people can catch fish

• An area where all fishing activities are prohibited

• An area where only some fish species are allowed to be caught

• An are where people can swim and snorkel

What is a fishing quota?

• The number of fish that is not allowed to be fish in a fishery.

• The money fishing companies get for catching fish

• The maximum quantity of fish that is allowed to be removed from a fishery.

What are the effects of overfishing?

• Drop in the fish population and fish species going extinct

• Threatens the food availability as many people rely on fish as a source of food

• Loss of jobs in the fish industry

• People earning more money

• New species being discovered

What are the causes of overfishing?

• Massive demand for fish due to an increasing world population.

• The use of modern technology (such as electronic fish finders)

• Lack of international laws to control the quantity of fish that people may take from the world's oceans.

• Fish being advertised as a healthy source of food.