Action Plan : Overfishing

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What is overfishing?

Overfishing is catching to much fish at once, so fast that the fish left over cannot mate and breed to keep up with the demand of fish being caught. Overfishing happens when there is poor fishing management and when there is not enough appropriate rules.

Goals:

Goals to reduce overfishing and destructive fishing would be…

  • Set up fish-breeding sanctuaries. This is a good goal because at the “fish farms” (sanctuaries) fish would breed, and when the population is steady again all the fish would be released.
  • Make fishing nets “BYCATCH” proof. This is a good goal because by doing this it would reduce the number of animals that are not wanted (whales, dolphins, turtles and other cross bred fish) being caught.

By using these goals it will reduce the amount of bycatch and increase the amount of fish in the oceans. By increasing the amount of fish in the oceans, eventually it will increase how much fish we eat.

Teams that would support:

Oceana- Oceana Inc. was founded in 2001 and has a goal to “have rich, healthy, and abundant oceans as they once were”. Oceana would support these two goals (fish breeding sanctuaries and “BYCATCH” proof nets) because they are tying to recover from the affects of overfishing and destructive fishing in local oceans. Oceana also works with the people (civil society, academics, fishers, Indigenous Peoples and government) to have oceans return to health. Oceana Canada has education in different countries, Brazil, Belize, Chile, the European Union, Peru, the Philippines and the United States and with different marine animals that are being caught.

MSC- The Marine Stewardship Council works with fisheries, grocery stores, restaurants, and other companies in hopes to change the way oceans are fished. MSC also is a label that shows good fishing management. This label is displayed on items in the grocery store. MSC would supports my ideas because they want to stop the way fish are being fished through their label, but need organizations to fish sustainably so it can be used. MSC has education in creating a trusted helpful company through expanding their label on items in stores.

MSC label

Why Oceana and MSC?

I chose Oceana because they are trying to fix the affects on oceans made by overfishing. Oceana sets fishing limits to reduce fishing and bycatch. I chose MSC because they work with grocery stores and have made a label to show weather sea food has been fished safely and sustainably. MSC also has a high reputation because many people and companies trust MSC to supply them with healthy and “not mass produced” seafood.

Resources:

Fish sanctuaries-

  • Local body of water: to keep fish in
  • Large fish tanks: to keep fish isolated
  • Water filtration system: to continuously give fish fresh water
  • Fish food: to keep fish fed
  • Waste system: to clean out the fish waste and to keep the waste as fertilizer
  • Fish minerals: to give the fish vitamins to sustain mating
  • Fish farmers: to take care of the fish
  • Sea grasses and rocks: to make the fish enclosure feel more alive and so eggs can be laid safely.

“BYCATCH” proof nets-

  • Netting material- to create the right size holes in the net for the desired fish
  • Pulley system- to pull fish out of water onto a boat
  • Safe netting material- so marine animals don’t get stuck in the net, cut themselves or chock.
  • Trusted fisherman: to fish sustainably and to reduce bycatch
Holes in nets so smaller fish can slip through

Timeline:

Fish sanctuaries:

MSC- since MSC works with grocery stores and seafood related companies their help would come first to spread the word and gather sponsorships about fish sanctuaries.

Oceana- would come next, Oceana (since they work closer to the oceans) could help by collecting rare fish breeds to bring to local fish sanctuaries to stable the populations.

MSC- MSC has a large reputation from working with many grocery and food stores and have a great label. MSC could provide fish farmer to help manage fish sanctuaries after fish are collected.

Oceana- after rare fish populations are stable Oceana would then release the fish back to the oceans.

(This process would happen yearly with different fish breeds.)

“BYCATCH” proof nets:

MSC- MSC could provide material needed to make these fish safe nets because they already have factories making their labels.

Oceana- Oceana has multiple people working for them to fix overfishing affects and many of these people could be hired as “sustainable fisherman” that uses these bycatch proof nets.

(These nets will continuously be made to ensure overfishing does not happen.)

Sorces:

Oceana. Our Mission. https://oceana.ca/en/our-mission

MSC. What is MSC? https://www.msc.org/en-us/about-the-msc/what-is-the-msc