Environmental Impact of Fishing

The environmental impact of fishing includes issues such as the availability of fish, overfishing, fisheries, and fisheries management; as well as the impact of fishing on other elements of the environment, such as by-catch.

Learn about overfishing, bycatch, habitat destruction within fishing practices and the environmental consequences.

The ecosystems that support fisheries, together with other economic activities, are subject to a number of alterations of significant relevance to their functioning and resilience and to the goods and services they can provide. Because of our imperfect understanding of ecosystem structure and functioning, as well as the inherent difficulty of distinguishing between natural and human-induced changes, the latter are not always perfectly predictable and/or reversible (Christensen et al., 1996).

Environmental impacts of fishing are the ecological changes brought about on the wider environment of the growth in global demand for fish as a food source, and to a lesser extent, for the aquarium trade.

Ecological Effect of Fishing

Overfishing occurs when more fish are caught than the population can replace through natural reproduction. Gathering as many fish as possible may seem like a profitable practice, but overfishing has serious consequences. The results not only affect the balance of life in the oceans, but also the social and economic well-being of the coastal communities who depend on fish for their way of life. Billions of people rely on fish for protein, and fishing is the principal livelihood for millions of people around the world. For centuries, our seas and oceans have been considered a limitless bounty of food. However, increasing fishing efforts over the last 50 years as well as unsustainable fishing practices are pushing many fish stocks to the point of collapse. More than 85 percent of the world's fisheries have been pushed to or beyond their biological limits and are in need of strict management plans to restore them. Several important commercial fish populations (such as Atlantic bluefin tuna) have declined to the point where their survival as a species is threatened. Target fishing of top predators, such as tuna and groupers, is changing marine communities, which lead to an abundance of smaller marine species, such as sardines and anchovies. Many fishers are aware of the need to safeguard fish populations and the marine environment, however illegal fishing and other regulatory problems still exist. WWF works with stakeholders to reform fisheries management globally, focusing on sustainable practices that conserve ecosystems, but also sustain livelihoods and ensure food security.

Includes: modifying and changing fishing methods, marine conservation to protect eco-systems, wildfishing vs fish farms, and determining the severity of imbalance.

Oceans of the world may be fishless by 2048, and unmonitored and irresponsible fishing practices are being held as one of the major culprits behind this potential disaster.

Confluence

Environmental Effects of Sport Fishing - The environmental effects of sport fishing include pollution and habitat damage. Read why the environmental effects of sport fishing are a concern.

Marine Biodiversity Wiki - Coastal and Marine Wiki

This is the second article in a series that I’m writing for a Chinese magazine targeting wildlife conservation. As you may guess, they started with Panda conservation, so the magazine is called Giant Panda, but they are running a series on exploitation of natural resources. In the first I covered overfishing. This current article delves…

According to marine ecologists, overfishing is the greatest threat to ocean ecosystems today (1). Overfishing occurs because fish are captured at a faster rate than they can reproduce (2).

Global Consequences of Overfishing

As more and more people make seafood a part of their everyday diet, our oceans continue to face the threat of depleting supply of edible sea creatures.

IN MARINE ECOSYSTEMS OF THE UNITED STATES

NIWA will be determining the impact of fisheries on the aquatic environment. This will inform an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management and the development methods to mitigate this impact.