Depletion of Fish Stocks From Overfishing

Throughout recorded history, humans have exploited marine resources. One of the earliest known maritime societies occurred along the Baltic Sea approximately 10,000 years ago. These Mesolithic era fishermen did not regulate their fisheries. Because their populations were small, early fishermen did not alter their marine resources. Hence there was never a need for them to constrain their practices. In more recent times, however, the fishing industry has grown to massive proportions. Following the second world war, it took mechanized fleets only 20 years to treble the world's annual fish production. In 1989, the total sea catch amounted to over 86 million metric tons. This increase in fishing, however, has had a devastating effect on the resource. All of the world's major fisheries have either reached or exceeded their limits; many are in serious decline. Such developments have served to emphasize the need for regulation. In 1982, the United Nation's Convention on the Law of the Sea established measures directed towards the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean's living resources. This law--as well as others enacted by individual governments--has had variable effects.

For nearly four decades, both land-based and oceanic food global supplies have expanded at unprecedented rates. At the present time, however, world food production is experiencing a "massive loss of momentum" (Brown & Kane, 199

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tory ships, 2,800 smaller side trawlers, and over 500 support vessels (i.e., refrigerated fish carriers, supply ships, and fuel tankers). One area targeted by the fleet included New England's Georges Bank. According to fisheries expert, William W. Warner, the Soviet ships "paced out in long diagonal lines, plowing the best fishing grounds like disk harrows in a field" (Griffin, 1992, p. 744). At first the ships concentrated on cod and herring. When these stocks declined, however, they were forced to harvest haddock. Of course, smaller fishermen in the area were adversely affected by the factory ships. These vessels rapidly depleted their fisheries. Eventually, in 1976, Congress acted to protect U.S. fishing interests by passing the Magnuson Fisheries Management and Conservation Act. This statute gave the federal government the power to manage all fisheries lying between 3 miles and 200 miles offshore. The area, which amounted to approximately 2 million square miles of ocean, was called the United States Fishery Conservation Zone (it was later renamed the Exclusive Economic Zone). While the Magnuson Act did initially prevent foreign factory ships from exploiting the United States' coastal waters, it also had various
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Approximate Word count = 5483
Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page)

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