Problems and Concerns caused by Human Influences on the Environment

Fishing

Over-fishing is occurring because the fishing industry is becoming so much more efficient. Small fishing boats have been replaced by fishing "factory" ships which can remove thousands of tonnes of fish from the sea with one catch. If too many reproductive adults are removed, the numbers of fish will gradually decrease. There needs to be a ban on fishing in certain parts of our seas and oceans for a few years. This would allow the numbers of fish to build up.

There has been a lot of argument about whaling. When the people who live in the tundra regions of the world kill a whale, they use all of it, either for food or for clothing etc. More important is the fact that the whales are only killed to supply the needs of the natives.

The large whaling ships, however, kill whales and sell their meat, bone and blubber all over the world. The table below lists just a few items which are made from whale products. The whaling ships are so efficient at finding and killing whales that many species of whales are nearly extinct.

FACT 1	In 1958 we took 27 million tonnes of fish from our seas and oceans. This number had increased to 68 million tonnes by 1982.
FACT 2	Because of over-fishing off the coast of Peru, the numbers of anchovies caught dropped from 13 million tonnes to 1 million tonnes in twenty years.
FACT 3	Over-fishing in the North Sea has meant that the herring catch fell from 7 thousand million tonnes in 1966 to a quarter of a million tonnes in 1976.

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© Paul Billiet, Shirley Burchill, Alan Damon and Deborah James 2009