Fish Stock Health

[AJ]

I put fish stock health at 7/10. In terms of health of harvest, fish stocks are in a lower abundance and are not harvestable in previous amounts. The demand for fish across the globe is high, resulting in commercial fishing collecting massive amounts, frequently regardless of where the health (population and fish wellness) of stocks lay. The continual demand and inconsistent management of fish stocks makes the practice unsustainable.

If a measure of healthiness in an ecosystem is a fish’s ability to play its role in an ecosystem, then fish stocks are probably unhealthy. I do not know for certain. Fish are an important part of various ecosystems’ food webs, both as predators and/or prey. When a food web is disrupted, there is a role left unfilled. Disruptions can cause an overpopulation or decline–cascading effects.

I come to this conclusion starting our reads, fish documentaries, and bits of scholarly research for previous classes. One take away from a fish documentary that I frequently think about in particular is from Jeremy Wade’s “River Monsters’. There was scarcely an episode he didn’t confront one obstacle: overfishing. Fish normally a staple food source to many, various local villages are endangered and unable to be found in the size or abundance before being exploited.

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