DNL: to what extent overfishing impacts the world?

« DNL: to what extent overfishing impacts the world? More than 171 million tonnes of aquatics goods are fishing in the world every year, so that’s more than 5 400 kg of marines’ species harvested every second.

The overfishing -removal of a species of fish from body water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally- is a phenomenon topical which represents many strakes for the futures generations.

Indeed, these statistics are very worrying because they are implicating the decline in ocean wildlife populations.

Indeed, many factors as demographic growth, illegal fishing or overconsumption, impact the world socially, environmentally and economically.

To explain this phenomenon, we have a document which is a detailed diagram about overfishing made by an oceanographer called Mohamed Adel in 2019.

The aim of this illustration is to demonstrate the strakes of overfishing by statistics and definitions.

Therefore, we can ask ourselves to what extent overfishing impacts the world? Firstly, to answer this question, we will explain how overfishing had developed, secondly the strakes of it. To begin, the world is facing the demographic’s situation.

In fact, demographic growth -the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group- is a big strake nowadays because it is increasing of 1,1 per cent per year.

If the population continues to grow at this rate, misery will become prominent because no one will be able to provide their basic needs furthermore, their needs of food.

The perfect example is China which is the largest populated country in the world and must find solutions to stop this demographic growth to save the population of an economic crisis such as the only child politic in 1979.

The major cause of population growth is the decrease in death rate and rise in the life span of the average individual.

The rapid spread of education in developing countries has made people health conscious, in India for example which is the second largest populated country with 1.3 billion people, or the advancement of knowledge in science, medicine, and technology has resulted in lower mortality and higher fertility, resulting in population rise. Moreover, the growth of the population has a major impact on the living standards of people.

Indeed, overpopulation, the condition of being populated with excessively large numbers, may create more demand for resources which cannot be replenished so easily.

In other words, because of the increase demographic’s population, countries must feed their growing population and therefore increase their resources by the overfishing for example.

Indeed, we learn in the document that more than 1 000 000 000 people rely on fish as their primary source of protein but with the increase of population more and more people will be added to the list developing the fishing to provide everyone. DNL: to what extent overfishing impacts the world? On the other hand, overfishing is due to illegal traffic as it says in the document.

In fact, more than 80 per cent of the world’s fishing areas are illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) so much that some experts say that there are around 26 million tonnes of caught fish, equal to 33 per cent of the world’s legal catch in 2011.

As we say, there are three categories of IUU fishing: the illegal fishing which refers to fishing activities conducted by foreign vessels without any permission under the jurisdiction of another state, the unregulated fishing which refers to fishing activities in areas catch as in the South Atlantic for example, and the last, the unreported which refers to fishing activities which have not been reported by vessels to the relevant national authority.

However, the main reason why IUU fishing is a particularly critical issue today is that many fish stocks have already been overexploited by legal fishing activities.

Moreover, the ZEE, exclusive economic zone -which is an area which extends either from the coast, or in federal systems from the seaward boundaries of the constituent states to 200 nautical miles off the coast - is not respected because they are coveted such as the French ZEE of the Clipperton islands which is disrespected at the same time by Mexico and China.

Illegal fishing is an economic strake to provide countries given that the increase population want to eat fishes.

Thanks to some organizations such as WWF (World Wildlife Fund), solutions are made like traceability to combat illegal fishing and they also help to facilitate the flow of information through supply chains. Finally, the overconsumption -an excessive consumption- is also a cause of this overfishing because the demand shoots up recently because of, firstly, demographic growth and secondly the behaviour of humans.

Indeed, nowadays, the society want more and more resources such as oil and gazes which are very important for the technology or the mobility.

This overconsumption is due to economic growth -an increase in the amount of goods and services produces per head of the population over a period of time-.

In fact, in 2019, 11 000 scientists from 150 nations signed a warning about the excessive extraction of materials and overexploitation of ecosystems.

In France, the consumption of fishes is estimated around 34 kg per person and per year, so much that France eats more fishes than the country can fish! During 2022, the fishing day -the day when all the reserves of fishes are unavailable- was the 2nd of may this year in France July and it goes backwards every year.

On the document, we explain that 70 per cent of the fish population is fully used up or threatened, it proves us how much we consume fishes for our own alimentation.

On account of human behaviour, the overconsumption is partly due to the waste.

In France, a citizen throws 37 kg of dishes every year.

Moreover, a surplus of 140 billion tonnes is consumed per year.

Nevertheless, 690 million of people don’t have enough money and suffer with food’s insecurity.

Many ONG DNL: to what extent overfishing impacts the world? (Nongovernmental organization) raise awareness about this intensive fishing.

Besides, eating fishes has become a trend.

In 2016, 70% of French people declare to prefer fish to meat.

Moreover, because it is healthier, the risk of cancer colorectal decrease according to the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.

Another point is that Asian foods are trending such as sushi for example and drive people to eat fishes, at least 22 per cent of French people eat sushi every month.

By the way, it doesn’t only work with sushi but also tartare and typical meal. Overconsumption (so overfishing too) has many consequences, such.... »