Destructive Fishing Habits

[Isabella Erickson]

In addition to the priorities that Greenberg proposed I would suggest that we entirely eliminate the usage of any type of fishing gear or practice that directly damages the ecosystem. This would include bottom trawling, the use of dynamite, the use of cyanide, and dredging. Bottom trawling and dredging have much the same problem: they crush and scoop up everything in their path. They bring up boulders, corals, endangered species, the target species, unknown species, sponges, and more while also crushing anything that does stick to the bottom. Most anything caught in these dies, whether they were the target species or not. Understandably this has devastating effects on the seafloor environment and anything that relies on it, from the removal of species to a complete change in habitat. The fact that we do not entirely understand what we are destroying simply makes it worse. There are some regulations on bottom trawling and dredging, but these methods of fishing is still legally used today.
On the other hand the use of cyanide and dynamite in fishing is illegal in all of the countries in South East Asia, where this is a major issue. These methods are typically used on coral reefs to make fish leave the safety of the coral reef, both are very destructive. Cyanide is squirted into the crevices of coral reefs to daze fish and make it so they are easy to catch alive, but cyanide also kills the coral it comes into contact with. When dynamite is set off in the water by a coral reef the fish that were residing in the coral reef float to the surface, making them easy to catch. It also has a predictable effect on the coral reef, turning it into rubble. Stopping these fishing practices would be harder than stopping bottom trawling and dredging; however, I believe that it is possible.

PS. Here is an interesting article about cyanide and dynamite fishing.
https://userpage.fu-berlin.de/heiss/riffe_de/infos/cyanide.html

[rmwilliams7]

Thats an interesting topic of methods of illegal fishing using cyanide and dynamite, I’d never heard of that before, and I agree that is very destructive and should be banned along with dredging and bottom trawling.

[Ron Sheldon]

Great recommendation. I hadn’t thought about it because you always assume that the destructive methods wouldn’t be allowed because after all, it is common sense. I don’t think most people understand the impact bottom trawling has on the environment. Bycatch gets most of the attention and although the fishing industry has made improvements to bottom trawl gear it is still very destructive.

[sdensmore]

It’s crazy to think that we make these things acceptable actions, even if it should be common sense to make things such as trawling and dredging the bottom waters very violating to the law and the ecosystem …especially the illegality of cyanide and dynamite…I feel like people aren’t really aware of how destructive these things are, and especially from the fishing industry, are causing the environment such distraught to the coral reefs and the ocean…

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