Overfishing: Overview

Introduction

The ongoing debate over ocean fishing rights and responsibilities has taken place between the commercial fishing industry and conservationists worldwide. Over the years, legislators have worked with these polarized constituents to ensure a sustainable yet profitable industry. Subsequently, there has been much compromise between fishers and environmentalists, but both sides have remained antagonistic toward each other.

The growing demand for fish has been spurred, in part, by nutritionists and doctors who promote the health benefits of seafood over red meat. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service, Americans consumed 14.6 pounds of fresh and frozen fishery products per capita in 2020. At the same time, they consumed 4.1 pounds of canned fishery products per capita.

To fulfill demand, the fishing industry has introduced other types of fish as substitutes for cod, mackerel, shark, herring, and other species that have been overfished. Naturally harvested fish stocks are now supplemented by aquaculture, which the NOAA Fisheries Service reported accounted for about 7 percent of the seafood produced in the United States in 2020 and approximately one-half of world seafood production.

The NOAA Fisheries Service reported in 2023 that it had jurisdiction over 163 endangered and threatened marine species. Some scientists believed that most edible saltwater species could near or reach extinction by the middle of the twenty-first century. The largest fish, including shark, bluefin tuna, and the Atlantic cod, are especially at risk. Eel, king crab, and Atlantic salmon are other species that have been overfished to critically low levels.

There is little disagreement that overfishing is the result of a combination of increased demand for fish worldwide and industrial fishing methods that catch large quantities of fish in a short period of time by means of driftnets, trawling, long-lining, and seining. Environmental pollution and the destruction of marine habitats, especially related to trawling, are also factors causing the shortage of fish.

Mobile fish-processing plants have helped build an industry that plays an important role in international trade. Economic considerations complicate the issue and provide the foundation for debate over legislation that restricts the industry. Yet fishing quotas, restrictions on fishing methods, and establishing marine habitats that are off-limits to fishing serve not just to appease environmentalists and marine biologists but also to garner support from many fishers who understand that only a sustainable industry will be able to fulfill global needs in the years to come.

Others in the industry resent governmental regulations and accuse scientists of manipulating research. They cite fisheries that have made a quick comeback after being overfished as proof that the situation is not nearly as dire as environmentalists claim. Illegal fishing has also become a major obstacle to sustainable fishing.

Understanding the Discussion

Aquaculture: Popularly referred to as “fish farming.” Commonly farmed species include salmon, tilapia, catfish, and shrimp.

Bycatch: Any fish or marine animal that is unintentionally caught in a net or hook and tossed back to sea, whether dead or alive. Bycatch typically includes dolphins, turtles, whales, birds, coral, and immature fish.

Drift Nets / Gillnets: Huge nets, up to a few miles in length, that can capture a vast amount of fish; often referred to by environmentalists as a “wall of death.”

Fishery: A region that supports a particular fishing industry, or the industry itself. Fisheries include the Atlantic bluefish tuna fishery, the Alaskan salmon fishery, and the Newfoundland cod fishery.

Long-Lining: A method of fishing in which a main fishing line, sometimes more than fifty miles in length, is loaded with many shorter lines and baited hooks. Long-lining is especially dangerous to seabirds.

Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006: The amended version of the United States Fishery Conservation & Management Act of 1976, named for the sponsors, former senators Warren G. Magnuson (D-Washington) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA): An agency of the United States Department of Commerce that monitors climate and weather and, through the National Marine Fisheries Service, manages fishing and other marine issues.

Overfishing: Harvesting a particular species or population of fish to unsustainable levels, from which it may be unable to recover and thus face extinction.

Purse Seining: A method of fishing that uses a large net that can be pulled together like a bag to harvest fish.

Seining: A method of fishing that involves dragging a huge net, weighted at the bottom and attached to floats at the top, through the water to encircle a school of fish; often used to catch fish near or along the bottom of the sea.

Trawling: A fishing method that involves dragging a steel-reinforced net along the sea bottom. A trawling net scrapes up everything within its path and can destroy habitats, including coral reefs.

History

With the exception of a few documented instances of overfishing in lakes, rivers, or streams, the natural supply of fish throughout the world was adequate to satisfy the needs of humans and other animals until shortages began to occur in the mid-twentieth century. After World War II, industrial fishing equipment and techniques began to replace traditional, smaller-scale, sustainable operations. Schooners were replaced by large factory trawling, seining, and long-lining vessels that were outfitted with enormous nets, fish processing and packing plants, freezing systems, and technology obtained from military research, including sonar and heat and depth sensors.

The high seas were unregulated, and fishing vessels could harvest fish far away from home. Competition from European and Japanese fishers off the New England coast was fierce. In 1956, the United Nations organized the first UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The convention promoted the rights of all countries to establish boundaries offshore and suggested regulations that could help ease the tensions resulting from competition for marine resources.

By the late 1960s, a noticeable decrease in Atlantic cod, halibut, herring, and mackerel populations began to haunt the fishing industry. Small fishing villages throughout New England and the Canadian Maritimes felt the economic impact as fishing vessels returned half empty. Further south a few years later, the sturgeon population in the Chesapeake Bay neared a critically low level.

However, the factory fishing industry continued to grow, supported by federal legislation. In 1976, the United States government enacted the Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, which established “exclusive economic zones” that banned foreign fishing within two hundred miles of the United States coast, established the fishery management council program, and supported the growth of the commercial fishing industry, including subsidizing large trawlers. Many traditional fishers blame the act for the demise of small, traditional fishing operations that could not compete with big business.

As populations of tuna, cod, and mackerel declined, the industry began to seek out and promote other species, such as orange roughy, which became popular during the 1980s. Some companies took up aquaculture, relying on ancient Greek and Roman practices as well as guidance from modern recreational fish hatcheries. They discovered that shrimp, catfish, tilapia, and oysters are among a dozen or so species that thrive when farmed.

The 1982 UNCLOS called on all countries to begin conserving marine resources and to implement sustainable fishing practices. Within a decade, many countries imposed new regulations on driftnet fishing and other practices. The United States followed suit in 1992 with the High Seas Driftnet Fisheries Enforcement Act. The legislation banned high seas driftnet fishing and the importation of fish caught by the use of driftnets.

In 1995, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) declared 70 percent of the world’s fisheries to be exploited or depleted. The following year, Congress passed the Sustainable Fisheries Act, which amended the Magnuson Act (and renamed it the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act) with many environmental regulations, including the establishment of marine reserves and the prohibition of factory trawlers and other large fishing vessels from operating in the Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries until the populations reached satisfactory levels.

The United Nations FAO monitored the percentage of fish trapped in nets that are bycatch, which includes any fish or animal that is unusable or not licensed for fishing by the vessel. Bycatch is most commonly tossed overboard, where gulls and other animals take advantage of the accessible food, but much bycatch can end up dying due to wasteful practices. The amended Magnuson-Stevens Act, reauthorized by Congress in late 2006, set limits on the types and amounts of bycatch allowed for US fisheries.

Educating the public so that wise choices can be made about fish consumption remained a high priority for many conservation organizations. The Monterey Bay Aquarium began serving as a leader in the effort with their Seafood Watch program. The program partners with aquariums, seafood restaurants, seafood suppliers, and others to provide the latest research about fish populations. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service also continued to keep updated information about the current state of US fisheries.

Upon taking office in 2009, US president Barack Obama was urged to take measures to protect against overfishing despite the economic concerns of the American fishing industry. Congressman Barney Frank criticized the Obama administration in January 2011 for not doing enough to help people making a living off of fishing from struggling by raising catch limits. In September 2014, Obama issued a presidential proclamation under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906 that expanded the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument from approximately 83,000 square miles to approximately 491,000 square miles, making it the largest protected marine reserve in the world.

The NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service reports on the status of fish stocks under the management of federal fishery plans. In 2014, twenty-six fish stocks were on the overfishing list, meaning the annual rate of catch was too high, and thirty-seven were on the overfished list, meaning the population size was too small. Of 228 stocks with known status, 16 percent were on the overfished list. The NOAA Fisheries’ Status of Stocks 2014 report claimed that overfishing and overfished numbers had reached all-time lows.

In 2018, the NOAA again reported that the number of overfished stocks had reached an all-time low, with 91 percent of stocks not currently being overfished and 87 percent having reached sufficient population levels that they were no longer considered to be of concern. This was achieved partly by instituting catch shares, in which each person or entity fishing a certain stock is assigned a certain percentage of the allowable catch, giving them incentive to allow the fish population to grow so their total catch would increase in the future. That same year, due to consistently observed ice retreat and melting in the Arctic, the United States and nine other countries reached an agreement meant to prevent the potential for unregulated fishing to occur in newly uncovered areas in the Arctic by banning such activity for sixteen years.

Overfishing Today

While it remained an issue, particularly worldwide, NOAA reports into the early 2020s continued to indicate that overfishing in the United States had remained at more stable, lower levels. In its 2022 report, NOAA Fisheries found that 93 percent of stocks were not subject to overfishing and 81 percent were not overfished. While the organization praised the number of fish stocks that had successfully been rebuilt over the years, it also cautioned that the challenges of rebuilding had only increased with the added complications of climate change. As activists still further pressured the US government to take more action against overfishing both domestically and abroad, in 2022 the administration of President Joe Biden issued a national security memorandum (NSM) to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and related harmful fishing practices.

These essays and any opinions, information or representations contained therein are the creation of the particular author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of EBSCO Information Services.

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