Evidence of Over-Exploitation

4. Evidence of Over-Exploitation

We can assemble a large amount of evidence that points to the fact that our marine resources have been over-exploited. First, there is a long list of over-utilized resources. These are some species which have been overfished:

 New England groundfish and flounder

 Southeast Spiny Lobster

 Atlantic Bluefin Tuna and Swordfish

 Main Hawaiian Island Bottomfish and Pelagic Armorhead

 Large Coastal Sharks

 Gulf of Mexico King Mackerel and Pink Shrimp

 Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean Reef Fish Complex

 Pacific Ocean Perch

 North Pacific Albacore

 Oysters, Hard Clams, and Abalones in many location

Secondly, the dates at which over-fishing began for various North Atlantic fisheries are alarming. From the table below, we can see that as we overfished one species, we simply moved to another and overfished that as well.

Table 2: Peak catch year of some fish species

Species	Peak Year	Peak Catch	1992 Catch	Decline (in millions of tons)	Percent Change
Pacific herring	1964	0.7	0.20	0.5	-71%
Atlantic herring	1966	4.1	1.50	2.6	-63%
Atlantic cod	1968	3.9	1.20	2.7	-69%
South African Pilchard	1968	1.7	0.10	1.6	-94%
Haddock	1969	1.0	0.20	0.8	-80%
Peruvian anchovy	1970	13.1	5.50	7.6	-58%
Polar cod	1972	0.35	0.02	0.33	-94%
Cape hake	1972	1.1	0.20	0.9	-82%
Silver hake	1973	0.43	0.05	0.38	-88%
Greater yellow croaker	1974	0.20	0.04	0.16	-80%
Atlantic redfish	1976	0.7	0.30	0.4	-57%
Cape horse mackerel	1977	0.7	0.40	0.3	-46%
Chub mackerel	1978	3.4	0.90	2.5	-74%
Blue whiting	1980	1.1	0.50	1.8	-26%
South American Pilchard	1985	6.5	3.10	3.4	-52%
Alaska pollock	1986	6.8	0.50	1.8	-26%
North Pacific hake	1987	0.30	0.06	0.24	-80%
Japanese pilchard	1988	5.4	2,5	2.9	-54%
TOTALS	---	51.48	21.77	29.71	-58%

Source: FAO

Finally, specific examples of fishery declines highlight the over-consumption problem.

5. New Methods, New Targets, and Over-Capacity

N
umerous statistics point to over-capacity:

Despite warnings of a slowdown in the marine catch in the 1970's and 80's, the fishing industry increased fishing efforts. Over the past 40 years, the technology used in fishing has improved. Now, boats are more powerful, fish are located electronically through sonar, larger nets are used, and there are just more fishing operations.

Today, the industry is twice as large as necessary. It could go back to the smaller, fewer boats of 1970 and still produce the same yield. This overcapacity is global: Norway is 60% over, while the European Union is 40% over. In the U.S., there are ten times the number of boats needed for the surf clam industry.

Figure 3: Drift net in use

How did this overcapacity develop? Competition led to an all-comers welcome approach. More competition for declining resources leads to overcapitalization in ever larger boats and nets.

Drift nets (see Figure 3) are a spectacular example of the new more efficient fishing methods. These monster nets (50 feet by up to 65 km) kill all that they encounter. They are banned by every fishing country within its own territorial waters. The combination of Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese drift nets cast every night in international waters reaches about 48,000 km--enough to encircle the globe.

Another piece of evidence suggesting that we are overharvesting our seas is that we have been relegated to fishing for previously unfished stocks. We are now eating species heretofore thought of as "bait".

The Peruvian Anchovy Fishery

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