Love seafood??

For seafood lovers, it is always good when the fish is big, so that there is more for everyone, isn't it? The bigger the better! But if everyone thinks that way, we are going to keep fishing the big fishes.

We have already consumed 90% of the big fishes- turtles, tunas, sharks and whales (Earle 2009). Even the small fishes are depleting due to bottom trawl fisheries. Before young fishes gets to grow big, we fish them out.

World hunger is not a problem of production but that of distribution. For every 1 pound that reaches the market, 100 pounds gets thrown away as bycatch (Earle 2009). A simplified illustrated of the extent of wastage is that for every 1 sardine you eat, 300 gets thrown away(rough estimation using the average weight of sardine given by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife). If we are not careful and continue unsustainable fishing, world hunger would turn into a problem of  production when there no more fishes in the ocean.

PHOTO BY WESTERN SAHARA RESOURCE WATCH

References: 

Earle. S. 2009. TED: My wish: Protect our oceans. [Online Video]. February 2009. Available from:http://www.ted.com/talks/sylvia_earle_s_ted_prize_wish_to_protect_our_oceans. [Accessed: 20 August 2014]

Washington Department of Fishing and Wildlife. 2011. Purse Seine Fishery for Pacific Sardine- Sardine Biology. [ONLINE] Available at: http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/commercial/sardine/biology.html. [Accessed 11 September 14].