How much longer will we be able to see sights like this?
Remember that old proverb: “ Give aman a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach aman to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Well, what if we became so good at fishing the oceans that we were no longer able to say there’s “ plenty more fish in the sea” ? This is the reality we’re facing, with the United Nations (UN) deeming most wild fish populations (over 9 0 per cent) fully exploited, overexploited or depleted.
By this, the UN means that the numbers of fish in the ocean are reducing faster than they can reproduce –something that is clearly unsustainable. Fish and other sea creatures are also facing increasing pressure from global heating and ocean acidification, which is increasing as rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolve into the sea. The situation is now so bad that without significant changes to the current mismanagement of fisheries, it’s thought that more than half of the world’s marine species may stand on the brink of extinction by 2100.