A New Evil is Born: Over Harvesting

When animal cruelty is mentioned, people usually think of domesticated animals that are living at home and are easily trained. The truth of the matter is, that everyday marine animals suffer more more through the common activities of harvesting.

As humans, we look at marine mammals, especially fish, as overpopulated creatures which main purpose is served through food. But the fact that seafood is such a major part of our diet, consumption grows and grows. The thing is that no one stops to think of the consequences of catching too many fishes.

What we don't know is that the number of fish life available to us is decreasing immensely year by year because of over harvesting. The explanation to this problem is very simple; The more fish we catch, the less adult fish are available to lay eggs, which means less fish to catch the next time around. The eggs that already have been laid will then later hatch. These will be caught providing us humans with smaller and bony fishes to eat. Unfortunately there is no simple solution to this increasing problem.

The only possible alternative in slowing down the process of over harvesting is trying to limit the amounts of fish being caught per season and in each major coastal area. No, this isn't going to solve the problem completely, but it will help increase the fish population by a little.

Another thing we don't realize is that by over harvesting fish, we are not only affecting ourselves food wise, but also the other marine life that depend on fish for survival. If fish are completely killed off, what will mammals such as seals eat? So on top of us taking away their main source of food, we are also hurting them by adding competition.

To think that severe results have to occur in order for people to understand what is happening is very upsetting. Its as if we need to see it to believe it. Instead of just waiting around for it to happen, government and society have to take action...before its too late.






http://www.animalcruelty.com/acfastfacts.html
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/29362606/?qo=13&q=fish&qh=boost%3Apopular+age_sigma%3A24h+age_scale%3A5