Marine Fisheries Flashcards
What is marine fishery?
The industry or occupation related to commercial fishing from seawater
Where in the ocean do most fisheries exist?
Most fisheries are supported by continental shelves
What is a standing stock?
Enough individuals to repopulate ecosystem after harvest
Why is standing stock important for fish populations?
If it didn’t exist, fish would eventually become extinct
Why are global fishing stocks in a significant decline?
We’ve become too good at finding and catching fish
What is bycatch?
Accidental fishing of marine organisms other than the species of commercial interest
What kinds of organisms are caught as bycatch?
Birds, turtles, sharks, dolphins, and many fish
How are fisheries managed?
Through an organized effort directed at regulating fishing activity with the goal of sustaining a long term fishery
Is fishery management effective?
No, many fisheries management are more concerned with keeping jobs for fisherman than they are with maintaining standing stocks
Some examples would be:
Poor regulation of fishing vessels
Fish migrate through international waters (jurisdiction), lack of science, misreporting/fraud, and environmental issues (e.g. reduction of habitat)
How are subsidies used? Why?
They make up for the money lost in fishing (global fish fleet spent $120 billion to fish $80 billion worth of fish)
Problems:
Compounds the overfishing problems
Allows them to keep their fleets large
Is climate change impacting fisheries? How?
Yes, the subtropic and temperate oceans’ fish composition changed to those who prefer warm water and less cold water fish
The tropics lost almost all subtropical fish and even their number of tropical fish are declining; AKA it’s too hot!!
