Waste Treatment

It is clear to me, after reviewing the video, that the water resource problem at hand is overfishing. I believe that overfishing has always been a problem, however, I feel as though it has become more of one recently. When you think of the word overfishing, what comes to mind? I am sure that the same thing came to your mind as it did to mine. Simply put, fishing too much. If that’s what you thought, congratulations, because that is exactly what overfishing is. Commercial and non-commercial fishermen are fishing so much that the fish cannot sustain their population. The fish become fewer and fewer, until there are no more fish to catch. This is also the result of fishermen catching so many adult fish that not enough remain to breed and replenish the population (Overfishing, 2007).

Overfishing has become a huge problem recently. I know that I could talk until I am blue in the face regarding this issue and how it has become more of a problem. I do not know about how, however, I seem to understand things more fully if I can actually see it. The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) release a two yearly report that breaks down what percentages of certain species of fish are either exploited or close to being exploited.

• 52% of fish stocks are fully exploited

• 20% are moderately exploited

• 17% are overexploited

• 7% are depleted

• 1% are recovering from depletion (Overfishing, 2007)

Based upon the statistics shown above, it is obvious that nearly 80% of the world’s fisheries are fully to over-exploited or depleted. With statistics as clear as these, one can only assume that overfishing is more destructive to the ocean than toxic pollution or degrading water