rough draft

Halie Cousineau 2/24/11
Envir. Issue English 308j
?Title?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXLbQrK6cXw

Environmental sustainable issues today deal with many things humans consume, whether it is food, water, fossil fuels, or fish. Fish many not be the first thing that come to mind when someone talks about environmental sustainable issues but the oceans are being overfished and many marine species are in danger of collapsing (http://www.marinebio.org/oceans/conservation/sustainable-fisheries.asp). The oceans cover about 71 % of the surface of earth and they provide the largest amount of protein for humans (http://www.savethesea.org/STS%20ocean_facts.htm) but about 80% of fish are either completely collapses or depleted (http://overfishing.org/pages/why_is_overfishing_a_problem.php). The decrease in fish population and diversity does have to do with more things than just overfishing, however, overfishing is having large negative effects on the fish population because of the destructive fishing techniques, and the general overfishing of depleting species, but there are ways to help recover the fish in the sea.
The fish people buy at the grocery story are not caught by the methods most people may think. Fishing to me is a fisherman sitting on his boat with a pole and a line waiting for a fish to bit but that is not how most fish are caught today. Fishing has received the name industrial fishing because large ships with a processing, refrigeration storage and packing plants on board go out with sonar to point out where to catch the fish that sold around the world (http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/More/safeguard-our-oceans/stop-bottom-trawling/industrial-fishing-emptying-o/). These fish are also not caught by the pole and line idea they could be caught with FADs, which is a fish attraction device, or drift nets, dredging, harpooning, and the more (http://www.fishonline.org/information/methods/). Two extremely destructive and popular forms of fishing are long line fishing and bottom trawling.
Although most humans have not been able to explore the ocean floor we know that it is just as diverse as dry land, there are plants and animals living in habitats like in your back yard (http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/exploring.html). But when bottom trawlers fish they tare up the floor of the ocean. Bottom trawling is a form of fishing where a large net is dragged behind the back of a boat, however this is no ordinary net. These nets that are dragged along the bottom of the ocean have metal plates and wheels along the bottom of the net to collect everything in its path. "Think of it as driving a huge bulldozer through an unexplored, lush and richly populated forest and being left with a flat, featureless desert. It's like blowing up Mars before we get there” (http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans/bottom-trawling/). This method of fishing is not only pulling everything up from the bottom the ocean, but it is not even used what is caught and killed; "bottom trawling operations catch 20 pounds of “bykill” for every pound of targeted species" (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/s-bti021508.php). This means most of the fish caught are un wanted and thrown back into the ocean, usually dead: “many creatures end up mistakenly caught and thrown overboard dead or dying, including endangered fish and even vulnerable deep-sea corals which can live for several hundred years“ (http://www.mcbi.org/what/destructive_fishing.htm). It is said that 90% that is caught in bottom trawling is thrown back (http://www.mcbi.org/what/destructive_fishing.htm). Bottom trawling has even more problems; it causes a large stir up of the ocean sediment, to the point where the clouds of sediment can be seen from satellite imagery long after the trawlers have been there (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-02/s-bti021508.php). Bottom trawling is just one of many destructive and abusive forms of fishing, another way to fish that also causes environmental issue is long line fishing.
Long line fishing is dragging a long line about 50 to 100 km long behind or under the back of a boat. This line will have hooks places a long it with bait to attract and catch as many fish as possible, but the intended catch would be shark, tuna or swordfish (http://www.fishonline.org/information/methods/#long_line). Long line fishing is banned in some areas like the United States along the Pacific Coast; it is banned because the negative impact it has on marine life(..). Yet long lining is still used around the world and it is a popular form of fishing. This method of fishing is a large threat to many marine life animals, not just to fish but to turtles and birds: “They are indiscriminate - they catch not only the "target", but endangered sharks, leatherback and loggerhead turtles, and seabirds, especially albatross. Over 25% of long-line catch is thrown back into the sea, usually dead” http://www.fishonline.org/information/methods/#long_line). Long Line fishing also has a direct connection to shark fining.
Shark fining is not only a wasteful form of collecting food but it is viewed by many to be cruel ( video?). Sharks are very important to the sustainability of oceans because they are the top ocean predator that controls fish and other marine life populations (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~acdrinka/importance.html). How ever sharks are being caught for their fins, which are cut off and then the body of the shark is thrown back into the ocean. Many times the shark will still be alive when thrown back into the water (http://www.moolelo.com/shark2.html). Many sharks are caught for their fins through long line fishing (http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/long-lines.htm). “The National Marine Fisheries Service reports that in 1999, 87,576 sharks were caught on long lines in Hawaiian waters, and about 29,000 of them were released alive. And 57,286 were finned (http://www.moolelo.com/shark2.html). Long lining is not always used for the fining of sharks however when they do catch sharks they did not intend to the survival rate for the shark is not that high. (?)Overfishing has a lot to do with importer fishing techniques and fishing species that are vital to a balanced ecosystem but also sometimes fish are just fished too much in an area.
Overfishing is where fishing causes fish stocks to decrease so much that they cannot recover (http://www.marinebio.org/oceans/conservation/sustainable-fisheries.asp). This is happening everywhere around the world due to the demanded of fish because fish is extremely depended on. Over 3.4 billions people’s primary fod source is the ocean and it is said that this number could double to 7billion in the next 20 years (http://www.savethesea.org/STS%20ocean_facts.htm). Fishing has cause “52% of fish stocks are fully exploited, 20% are moderately exploited, 17% are overexploited, 7% are depleted, and 1% is recovering from depletion” (http://overfishing.org/pages/why_is_overfishing_a_problem.php).