Environmental Management of Fisheries

Obdeen Omer, Department of Healthcare Management, Sanda University, Shanghai, China, Email: ommereen48@yahoo.com

Received: 29-Dec-2022, Manuscript No. JENVOH-23-89837; Editor assigned: 02-Jan-2023, Pre QC No. JENVOH-23-89837 (PQ); Reviewed: 16-Jan-2023, QC No. JENVOH-23-89837; Revised: 23-Jan-2023, Manuscript No. JENVOH-23-89837 (R); Published: 30-Jan-2023

Description

Fish availability, overfishing, fisheries management, as well as the effects of industrial fishing on other environmental factors like bycatch, are all factors that fishing has on the ecosystem. These problems are a component of marine conservation, and fisheries science programmes deal with them. The main causes of the decline in the health and purity of the ocean’s water are fishing and fishing-related pollution. Ghost nets, also known as nets left in the ocean after being used, are made of plastic and nylon and do not decompose, causing severe harm to the ecosystems and wildlife they disrupt. Since the oceans cover 70% of the globe, overfishing and damage to the marine ecosystem have an impact on everyone and everything here. In addition to overfishing, there is a shortage of seafood due to both the enormous quantities of waste produced by the seafood industry and the contamination of consumer seafood with microplastics. The latter is primarily brought on by fishing equipment made of plastic, such as drift nets and longlining gear, which is breaking down due to use, getting misplaced, or being thrown away. The scientists claimed that overfishing, pollution, and other environmental variables were to blame for the decline, which was happening at the same time as fisheries’ ecosystems were being destroyed. Due to the massive nets that are dragged along the ocean bottom during trawling, reefs are also being destroyed as a result of overfishing. Numerous corals are being killed, endangering the ecological niche of numerous species.

Effects on marine habitat

Some fishing methods destroy habitats. The neighbouring habitats are harmed by illegal fishing methods like cyanide and blasting. The practise of utilising explosives to catch fish is known as blast fishing. The term “cyanide fishing” describes the practise of stunning fish with cyanide before catching them. These two methods are frequently employed in the live fish food and aquarium trades. Because they have an effect on the habitat that reef fish inhabit after the fish have been gone, these practises are detrimental. A single run of bottom trawling, which involves pushing a fishing net along the ocean floor behind trawlers, eliminates 5 to 25% of the local sea life. This type of fishing frequently results in large amounts of bycatch.

Overfishing

Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally, resulting in the species becoming increasingly underpopulated in that area. Any size of water body, including ponds, wetlands, rivers, lakes, or oceans, can experience overfishing, which can lead to resource depletion, slowed biological development rates, and low biomass levels. The fish population can become critically depleted, or unable to support itself, as a result of persistent exploitation. Shark overfishing is one type of overfishing that has disrupted entire marine environments. Growth overfishing, recruitment overfishing, and ecological overfishing are a few examples of overfishing types. Whether a fishery’s total carrying capacity and the range of ecological circumstances are suited for the recovery relies on whether it can recover from overfishing. An ecosystem can shift as a result of drastic changes in species composition, and other equilibrium energy flows may entail species compositions that are different from those that were present prior to the depletion of the original fish population. For instance, after trout populations have been overfished, carp may take advantage of the shift in competitive equilibria and take over in a way that prevents trout from re-establishing a reproductive population.

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