Ocean's+Fisheries-+A+block

A Block:

===1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, and explore. (Press Edit, copy and paste your answers below (include your first and last names at beginning of your post).===

3- How will collapsed fisheries effect the growing human population? (Answer same as above)
===4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? (Answer same as above)===

5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research?
Helpful links for you (please add if you'd like): []

Erik Usher

1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, and explore. About 32% of the world's fish stocks are overexploited, depleted, or recovering and need to be urgently rebuilt yet people are eating more and more fish. With middle class populations in developing countries growing at staggering rates fish farming is increasing at a rate of 6.6% annually. Even with aquacultures there is still the practice of harvesting wild ocean species, often small fish like anchovies, to provide fish oil and fish meal for farmed carnivorous fish like salmon and tuna and this is an inefficient way of producing protein. By harvesting these smaller fish farms are overexploiting the ocean and leading the world's fish stocks closer and closer to a collapse. [] 2- How will collapsed fisheries effect the ocean food web? Collapsed fish stocks create large ecological dead zones in our oceans. Although fish will eventually be reaplaced by organisms such as jellyfish and shrimp, species like whales and dolphins will eventually diminish along with the fish. The 1992 collapse of the Northern Cod Fishery in Newfoundland, Canada is probably the best example of a collapse. Atleast 40,000 people lost their jobs and the cod has never returned. [] 3- How will collapsed fisheries effect the growing human population? Many people (especially in developing countries) depend on fish as their source of daily protein. With the collapsed fisheries many people aren’t going to be able to afford protein and will therefore be malnourished. In the near future, we will not be able to produce enough meat to keep up with the growing population. 4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? We can reduce the number of unwanted fish caught in nets set for other species, establish marine reserves, ban destructive fishing in the most sensitive habitats, and get rid of overfishing where most people agree it is a bad thing. ([]) 5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research? Are fish ranching or open water fish pens viable options to sustain the growing food crisis?

Sam Warner

**1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, and explore.**
As of right now roughly thirty-two percent of the oceans fish stocks are overexploited past sustainable yield and need to recover slowly to be rebuilt over time. In terms of volume, aquaculture makes up nearly forty-six percent of the fish supply. This consumption of fish has sky-rocketed over the past thirty years due to the increase of middle class citizens in developing countries. We must understand that the peak annual harvest of aquaculture is roughly 90 million tons a year to continue being sustainable. [] === **2- How will collapsed fisheries effect the ocean food web? (Answer same as above)** === Overfishing of these fisheries has led to a diminished population of the fish in the higher trophic levels. This gives way to an increase in the population of smaller fish. The population levels of the predators such as large mammals, sharks, birds and other fish are declining at a rapid rate due to a decrease in their food supply and because of the high by catch rates. [] === **3- How will collapsed fisheries effect the growing human population? (Answer same as above)** === The population of the world continues to rise at a rapid rate. Many people depend on these fish for their source of nutrients and protein. As ocean fisheries collapse due to overfishing, the supply of these fish would see an immense decline, seeing that almost half of our fish supply is still from these fisheries. Many people would be deprived of their main source of nutrients and protein, leading to under-nutrition.

=== **4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? (Answer same as above)** === To help the ocean rebuild back to its former balance we must stop the fishing of the predators (either through fishing or by catch) and maintain the rapid annual increase of fish farming. Experts say we must double our production from fish farms to keep up with the growing demand of fish, without exhausting the oceans fisheries. === **5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research?** === Could soybean protein reduce the demand for fish and become an alternative source of protein in developing countries?

Jordan Taylor ** 1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, and explore. ** The globes fisheries are acting at or over their sustainable yield in order to keep up with the ever-growing fish food market. The worlds global fish food supply consists of 46% being from aquaculture and 32% of these sites are in need of serious repair because of their overuse. This is due to the world becoming more and more reliable on fish and this over use of fishing and fisheries is possibly destroying the fisheries. [] ** 2- How will collapsed fisheries effect the ocean food web? ** The collapse of a fishery web would probably be very detrimental because fisheries are made for fish to be killed, but if the fishery collapsed and the fish were free they would possibly overpopulate the oceans food web. [] ** 3- How will collapsed fisheries effect the growing human population? ** Well, since fish food from fisheries is such a huge amount of our global food consumption, collapsed fisheries would limit the amount of food that our younger generation would be able to consume, or at least limit the variety of fish type food and increase the amount of other types of food. ** 4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? ** One possible solution suggested by Mr Kevern Cochrane would be to make sure that the production of the fish was at the same level that it is now, but that it also is at a healthy stock of fish, otherwise the fish production will be counterproductive. [] ** 5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research? ** How long will it take before we figure out a successful solution for this issue with the fisheries, and how will it affect the next generation?

Chris Munoz 1) The demand for fish farming continues to grow as it leads the way for fastest growing area of animal food production. Even though around 32% of the world's fish stocks are overexploited, fish consumption is rising. Aquaculture is seen as the only way to increase the supply of fish for most of the world's fisheries (which are operating at or above their sustainable yields). (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/business/global/01fish.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=fisheries&st=cse)

2) Over fishing has caused a shift in global fish harvests. Populations of predator fish have been depleted, forcing fishers to harvest what is left (lower trophic level species). If t he current rate of overfishing continues, the ocean food web could become unbalanced. (http://naturalscience.com/ns/cover/cover6.html)

3) The global demand for fish continues to grow. Collapsed fisheries would affect human population growth negatively, causing people to have to find another major source for protein.

4) Some ways to manage the ocean's resources are to end overfishing, reduce pollution and habitat loss for species, and reduce the number of unwanted fish in nets. Scientists say that as long as marine ecosystems are biologically diverse, they have the ability to recover quickly once overfishing and other threats are minimized. (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/science/03fish.html)

5) At the current rate of overfishing, around what year would most of the planet's fisheries collapse?

Katie Biggert

** 1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, and explore. ** Most of the world’s fisheries are operating at or above their sustainable yield. About 32% of world fish stocks are overexploited, depleted, or recovering and need to be rebuilt. The demand for fish is increasing, putting more pressure on fisherman to increase their productivity. As we studied with population growth, every population has a carrying capacity that can sustainably sustain a population. Once that carrying capacity is surpassed, the size of the population that can be sustained decreases. ([])

** 2- How will collapsed fisheries affect the ocean food web? **  Overfishing of certain species leads to overpopulation of others. When we reduce the population size of the large, predator species of fish, we create circumstances for smaller fish populations to increase. This increases competition and eventually leads to a population crash. Overfishing smaller fish species to feed the larger fish in the fish farms creates a collapse in the bottom of the food chain. ( [] )

** 3- How will collapsed fisheries effect the growing human population? ** Many people (especially in developing countries) depend on fish as their source of daily protein. With the collapsed fisheries many people aren’t going to be able to afford protein and will therefore be malnourished. In the near future, we will not be able to produce enough meat to keep up with the growing population.

** 4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? ** We can reduce the number of unwanted fish caught in nets set for other species, establish marine reserves, ban destructive fishing in the most sensitive habitats, and get rid of overfishing where most people agree it is a bad thing. ([])

** 5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research? ** Once an area has been significantly overfished, how long does it take that area to recover?

Meredith Woodson

1. Because fish can be raised in tanks, ponds, lakes, rivers and oceans, they seem to be an easy way to provide protein to a hungry world. But middle class populations in developing countries are growing at staggering rates, and fish farming is increasing 6.6% annually. Aquaculture has peaked to become a $98.4 billion dollar industry, and growth can not be sustainable at such a high levels. Because rates of fish consumption are increasing, about 32% of the world’s fish stocks are overexploited, depleted, or recovering and need to urgently be rebuilt. __[]__

2. 29% of fish species have been fished so heavily, and effected by pollution and habitat loss that they have collapsed to 10% of previous fishing levels. This loss of biodiversity has left marine ecosystems as a whole more vulnerable to overfishing and less able to overcome its effects. Marine life has consequently experienced acceleration of environmental decay, and further loss of fish. This effects the food web by increasing the smaller fish populations once consumed by the collapsed fish, and a decrease in the population of larger fish that once consumed the collapsed populations. __[]__

3. Human population is currently growing exponentially, reaching beyond the rate of sustainability. Many people depend on fish as a primary source of protein. As more fisheries collapse due to over exploitation, lower and middle class populations of developing countries will be neglected from important sources of protein and consequently undernourished.

4. One way to save ocean fisheries would be to cut back on consuming fish at the top of the food chain, such as salmon and tuna, and fill our plate with their pray, such as sardines, which would rebalance the marine ecosystem. While predator fish populations have shrunk almost 2/3 in the past 200 years, the total stock of “forage fish” have more than doubled over the past century. __[]__

5. In what ways could we make accessibility of protein sources easier for developing countries?

Millie Thomas

1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, and explore. (Press Edit, copy and paste your answers below (include your first and last names at beginning of your post). About 32 percent of world fish stocks are overexploited, depleted or recovering and need to be urgently rebuilt, according to the report. With most of the world’s fisheries operating at or above their sustainable yields, aquaculture is seen as the only way to increase the supply of fish in a world hungry for protein. Fish is a growing source of protein for our world's population, and we need to more closely monitor fish populations in order to ensure food for our future. ﻿[]

2- How will collapsed fisheries effect the ocean food web? (Answer same as above)
Collapsed fish stocks create large ecological dead zones in our oceans. Although fish will eventually be reaplaced by organisms such as jellyfish and shrimp, species like whales and dolphins will eventually diminish along with the fish. The 1992 collapse of the Northern Cod Fishery in Newfoundland, Canada is probably the best example of a collapse. Atleast 40,000 people lost their jobs and the cod has never returned. []

3- How will collapsed fisheries effect the growing human population? (Answer same as above)
Collapsed fisheries will lessen the availability of jobs to our human race, as well as change ocean food webs. While the human population continues to grow, the fish populations continue to shrink due to over exploitation. We will have to find new sources of protein for our world population.

4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? (Answer same as above)
To save healthy marine ecosystems and future fish stocks, we need to see an end to destructive fishing practices and a move towards sustainable fisheries. A sustainable fishery is one that can continue indefinitely without reducing the targeted fish’s population to dangerously low levels. It's also one that does not adversely impact on other species within the ecosystem – such as turtles and sharks – by removing their food source, accidentally killing them, or damaging their physical environment. The fishing industry needs to make real changes to fishing practices for its own future. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries also need to be stopped and organisations responsible for fisheries need to better scrutinise industry practices. []

5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research?
What current laws are in action to protect marine biodiversity?

Matthew Kerber Almost 1/3 of fish stocks in the world are overexploited, in need of rebuilding, or depleted. This is because rates of fish consumption are increasing. Most of the world's aquacultures are operating at or above sustainable yields. The current 90 million tons of fish harvested each year from aqualcultures is expected to be over the sustainable limit. But aquacultures continue to grow. In the past 4 years aqquacultures have risen from 43% to 46% of the worlds fish food supply. If this overharvesting continues then the sustainable population of fish could crash. []
 * 1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, and explore. **

Many scientists believe that if even the current rate of overfishing continues and is not decreased then marine ecosystems could completely collapse. People are haresting many non-tertiary predators which is having a devestating effect on the rest of the food webs. If these fisheries collapse it would lead to a completely out of sync food web with too many predators or not enough basic food because of overpopulation. []
 * 2- How will collapsed fisheries effect the ocean food web? **

Fisheries are becoming an extremely important part of human food sources. If these fisheries were too collapse there could be an extreme shortage of protein based food. This would lead to extreme malnutrition in most third world countries. Because of the human population's exponential growth, there will be extreme shortages of food even without the collapse of these fisheries. It would be impossible to compensate on land for the loss of so much potential food.
 * 3- How will collapsed fisheries effect the growing human population? **

Global fisheries should be able to regenerate as long as they are diverse enough. One of the biggest problems is the harvesting of solely top predators. If we begin to eat lower on the food chain then most of the natural marine food webs should be able to rebalance themselves. However, scientist believe that even such a thing as trying to reduce the number of unwanted fish caught in fishing nets could have an enormous impact. [] At the current rate would it be possible to overfish so much that the aquacultures would never be able to fully recover?
 * 4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? **
 * 5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research? **

Taylor Theodossiou About 32% of the world's fish stocks are overexploited, depleted, or recovering and need to be urgently rebuilt yet people are eating more and more fish. With middle class populations in developing countries growing at staggering rates fish farming is increasing at a rate of 6.6% annually. Even with aquacultures there is still the practice of harvesting wild ocean species, often small fish like anchovies, to provide fish oil and fish meal for farmed carnivorous fish like salmon and tuna and this is an inefficient way of producing protein. By harvesting these smaller fish farms are overexploiting the ocean and leading the world's fish stocks closer and closer to a collapse. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/business/global/01fish.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=fisheries&st=cse <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; text-align: left;">**fishing down the marine food web**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, and explore. **
 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">2- How will collapsed fisheries affect the ocean food web? **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">The changes in marine ecosystems due to over fishing are often called **
 * . As top predators are removed by fishing, fishers target smaller fish lower in the food web, reducing their numbers. This reduces the average trophic level of the food web, which means there are less fish higher up on the trophic levels to eat the smaller fish. Making those populations increase with no higher level consumers there to balance it out.**

http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/oceanography-book/marinefoodwebs.htm <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">3- How will collapsed fisheries affect the growing human population? Collapsed fisheries will affect the <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">growing human population because there will be less access to the necessary protein that fish provides. Currently 90 million tons of annual harvest come from fisheries and scientists believe that we have maxed out with what we can get from sustainably harvested fisheries. This means that we might not be able to provide growing populations with fish once we pass the limit and the fisheries collapse. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/business/global/01fish.html?scp=1&sq=fisheries&st=cse <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">**<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) recognizes and seeks to incorporate the complex interactions of fish stocks with one another and with the broader ecosystems that support them into fishery management. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2. Marine spatial planning is related to the concept of ecosystem-based management, and focuses specifically on better integrating management of the sundry, and often conflicting, human activities in the sea. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3. Improved incentive systems for sustainable fishing include, most recently, an exploration of dedicated access such as catch-share programs, as well as more effective governance at national and local levels. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">http://www.actionbioscience.org/biodiversity/duffy.html In all the things I have read it seems like we will have to either choose between the growing population or overharvesting fisheries. Is there any way that we can sustain both the growing populations and the fisheries?
 * <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research? **

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Cory Nuckolls** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> **1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, explore, and cite your sources. (Press Edit, copy and paste your answers below (include your first and last names at beginning of your post).** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Earth’s Ocean Fishers are rapidly collapsing, over the past fifty years; industrial shipping fleets have been on the rise. Industrial fleets now take more than half of the world’s fish (roughly 45 million tones/year). At this point in time already 30% of the world’s fisheries have collapsed. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> __[]__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> **2- How will collapsed fisheries affect the ocean food web? (Answer same as above)** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> It is scary how fast a rate we are depleting our oceans, aquaculture plays a large part in human diet. But we are not being smart about how we are harvesting fish. We are currently in the process of breaking down the ocean food web; we are over harvesting species of fish to extinction; Species that play vital roles in the lives of other ocean inhabitants. At this rate, if nothing is changed, the ocean food web may be forever broken from our actions, in the near future.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> **3- How will collapsed fisheries effect the growing human population? (Answer same as above)** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Seeing how aquaculture now makes up nearly 46% of the world’s food-fish supply, the full collapse of fisheries would be an unbearable strain on the global food supply. Food that is needed for the growth and development of human life, without this supply human population would not be able to/ afford to grow. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> __[]__

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> **4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? (Answer same as above)** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> To be able to properly and effectively manage our ocean’s resources without over fishing, we must develop a global fishing policy. A policy that has guidelines to make ocean harvesting as environmentally friendly as possible, and have studies done to educate fisheries about the globally sustainable level of our oceans.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> **5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research?** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I know studies have been done about how much over fishing is taking place across earth’s oceans and where; but I would like to ask, if such a study has produced a global map showing the extent of overfishing in areas across the globe. To see what locations are currently overfishing the most.

Alice Jamison

**1- Statement: Earth's Ocean Fisheries are collapsing... explain, cite, and explore. (Press Edit, copy and paste your answers below (include your first and last names at beginning of your post).** The amount of fish produced from fish farms in contrast to those raised wild and consumed by humans is continually rising. The most important constraint that fish farmers are combating is the availability of water (mostly fresh) and the feed for the fish, which is exhausting the small fish populations such as anchovies, which are used to feed carnivorous fish. All countries are turning to fish as a cheaper source of protein, but China in particular is striding in first place as the world’s number one source of freshwater fish, accounting for 62% of farmed fish on the global market.  []

**2- How will collapsed fisheries effect the ocean food web? (Answer same as above)** Over fishing affects the trophic levels above the fish or any animal that is being over harvested. Sooner of later the effects will trickle up (if that can be done) to the humans and disrupt the eating patterns of the “all almighty” human beings. The more direct effects will be on large animals such as whales, seals, and sharks and even sea birds. []

**3- How will collapsed fisheries effect the growing human population? (Answer same as above)** The disruption in the food web and chain will eventually work its way up to the humans and we will find ourselves severely uneven when it comes to predator vs. prey populations in nature. In the past when we take out a predator the prey then overpopulates and takes over. This could happen in this case.

**4- Question: What are solutions to managing our dwindling ocean resources? (Answer same as above)** Fishermen (or women) can aim for a sustainable yield to plan for long-term fishing. Also using properly sized nest to catch only fish of a certain harvesting age. We should have international agreements on fishing regulations. Last but not least, regulation officers should be on board at all times to make sure that the fishing rules are always followed and the boats use the mandatory techniques and technology (turtle finding machines). []

**5- What's a question that you developed as a result of your research?** If such advancements have been made in the fishing industry, why hasn’t such research gone into other forms of protein sources?