Commercial fishing
Commercial fishing refers to large-scale fishing operations primarily conducted in oceanic waters with the aim of generating profit. This industry began to expand significantly in the mid-twentieth century as efficient fishing fleets sought to meet increasing global demand, leading to the exploitation of coastal and eventually deeper ocean waters. The introduction of advanced technologies, such as factory ships and sonar, has drastically enhanced the capacity of these fleets, enabling them to harvest more fish in a shorter timeframe than was previously possible. However, this growth has raised serious concerns about overfishing, with studies indicating that as of 2021, nearly 90% of the world's fish stocks were overfished.
Commercial fishing practices often result in substantial bycatch, where non-target fish are discarded, frequently leading to their death. Additionally, environmental degradation from fishing methods, such as bottom trawling, has destroyed critical marine habitats. Despite the evident ecological challenges, the fishing industry continues to receive significant government subsidies, which perpetuates unsustainable practices. While aquaculture has emerged as a potential solution, supplying an increasing share of fish products, it too presents environmental concerns. To ensure the future sustainability of marine fisheries, experts advocate for stringent management measures, including the prohibition of harmful practices and the establishment of protected marine areas.
Subject Terms
Commercial fishing
DEFINITION: Large-scale, mostly oceanic, fishing operations undertaken for profit
Beginning during the mid-twentieth century, larger, more efficient fishing fleets began exhausting coastal fishing areas and moving farther from port in their effort to meet growing demand. By the end of the century and into the twenty-first century, such fleets had reached nearly every area of the world’s oceans. Overfishing has depleted marine populations and, in some cases, has precipitated political crises.
Hooks, nets, and traps had little effect on populations of marine life until Europeans began operating fishing fleets during the late Middle Ages. Mechanization of fishing started in the nineteenth century, but world fishing production was still only around three million tons at the beginning of the twentieth century and twenty million tons during the 1950s. The subsequent development of better transportation allowed rapid shipment of premium catches, and the fishing industry reacted to the growing market by investing in larger boats and new technologies and techniques, including sonar, aerial spotting, and nylon nets.
Even more important was the introduction of factory ships. Such ships process and store the catch at sea so that a fishing fleet can work far from its home port. In one hour, a factory ship can harvest more fish than a sixteenth-century fishing boat could harvest in one season. According to a 2018 study, over 70,000 industrialized fishing vessels were operational between 2012 and 2016. In 2020, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated a total of 4.1 million fishing vessels operating globally. The number of industrialized vessels increased while the overall global fleet declined. Large-scale operations often specialize in a single species and throw back nontarget fish. However, the nontarget bycatch fish that are returned to the water are usually dead or dying after being netted, dropped in a hold, and sorted.
Although fishing became industrialized, the old ideas of a limitless supply of fish and an uncontrolled sea remained. The stage was therefore set for a series of environmental disasters and political crises. One problem with fishing is that it is a hunter-gatherer operation rather than an agricultural one. Fishers do not nurture and protect schools of fish as farmers protect herds of cattle. This alone limits productivity. For example, there is little investment in habitat for fish, such as wetlands or rivers.
In addition, fish are considered a common property for which each hunter competes against the others. Any fishers who hold back in catching fish to save breeding stock for the future lose their catch to other boats. American ecologist Garrett Hardin referred to this phenomenon as the "tragedy of the commons," a concept he originally applied to publicly owned grazing lands. However, cattle on land can be counted, while fish populations are often gauged only by catch. Thus fishers working feverishly to catch the dwindling numbers of fish create the illusion of a stable population. An entire fish species may ultimately be fished to near extinction, and the fishery may collapse, but the worst offenders will gain the most profit until disaster occurs. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in 2021, almost 90 percent of the world's fish stocks were overfished.
Meanwhile, ocean pollution has reduced productivity in some areas. Shallow waters close to land are naturally the most productive, but these areas are the first to be affected by pollution. Areas such as the Black Sea, the North Sea, and the Chesapeake Bay in the United States have experienced serious declines in fish production. In the Gulf of Mexico, the Sea of Japan, and other waters, excess nutrients, largely from agricultural runoff, have been blamed for red tides (blooms of a poisonous species of algae).
Another form of environmental degradation is bottom destruction. Powerful boats use "rockhopper"-equipped trawl nets that drag across rough areas of the ocean floor to catch bottom fish such as cod, flounder, and turbot. This practice destroys habitat and food for the young of many species.
Consequences of Unsustainable Fishing Practices
Despite the environmental impacts of overfishing and destructive fishing practices, governments continue to subsidize bigger and more advanced boats that travel farther and deeper to catch dwindling fish stocks. According to the World Wildlife Fund and the World Economic Forum, the world’s commercial fishing industry receives tens of billions of dollars in subsidies every year—support that has helped keep more fishing vessels in business than the oceans can sustainably support.
History shows many examples of unsustainable fishing spurred by economic factors. During the 1950s, Icelandic gunboats and British warships threatened each other during the so-called Cod War to control fishing access in the North Atlantic. Peru had a similar contest of wills with the United States to control foreign production of anchovies caught off the Peruvian coast. However, the Peruvians did not limit their own production, and, as anchovy stocks dwindled, the fishery collapsed in 1972. Similarly, Canada and the United States misjudged the carrying capacity of the Grand Banks shoals southeast of Newfoundland, and by 1992 cod fishing in the area was halted. Despite this moratorium, the cod population has not recovered—in large part because excessive bycatch of this banned nontarget fish has continued to deplete its numbers.
Total fish production would probably have declined during the 1990s had aquaculture not rapidly increased during the same period. According to NOAA Fisheries, fish farming supplied more than half of all fishery products for human consumption in the 2020s, and its output was growing faster than any other animal-based food sector. Farm fisheries can produce indefinitely if they limit catches to practical levels. Even devastated farm fisheries can eventually recover. Doing the same for the open ocean, however, would require major diplomatic efforts. Voluntary bans on whaling and drift nets have been routinely ignored by some countries. Beyond management of wild stocks, fish farming has the potential for great production increases. However, aquaculture raises environmental concerns regarding pollution and genetic weakening of wild stocks if large numbers of domestic stocks escape.
According to the FAO, about 90 percent of global marine stocks were fully fished, overfished, or depleted by 2022. Scientists have noted that if marine fisheries are to recover and be used sustainably, a number of measures must be imposed and enforced worldwide, including the prohibition of destructive and unsustainable fishing practices, the limitation of access rights, and the establishment of protected marine areas. Some researchers maintain that if fishing practices continue unaltered, populations of all fish species caught for food in the early twenty-first century will collapse within fifty years.
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