Back for more save the seas action, Melanie Laberge on bycatch, commercial fishing and its part in the destruction of the oceans. How you can be a responsible consumer, what exactly "bycatch" is and the toll it's having on marine life as well as human kind.
Ever since I got into conservation,
I stopped enjoying my biggest pleasures in life, fish and seafood. I remember going to family gatherings and they would offer me shrimp and I refused, saying I won’t eat any because I want to save the ocean. They never understood why I didn’t want to consume sea creatures, and I would never push my convictions on them by judging their diet. I would just sit there and watch them enjoy their meal, knowing how much their actions were supporting the destruction of the most fragile and important ecosystem on earth. I don’t push my values on others, I respect our differences and know everyone is on their own path and will be educated one day on this crucial issue, but the clock is ticking and we can no longer afford to wait for change to happen, we need it now!
Our earth is dying, global ecosystems are in trouble, natural disasters are getting stronger each year because of the way we are living and abusing nature by incorporating certain actions in our daily lives. Everything you know and love is on the verge of total collapse and I refuse to let it all die without at least trying to alter people’s perception on commercial fishing and urge them to stop buying and encouraging this industry.
The reason for my frustration is bycatch, or the catch of non-target fish and ocean wildlife, which is one of the largest threats to maintaining healthy fish populations and marine ecosystems around the world. Why is commercial fishing so destructive to our ocean?
According to some estimates, global bycatch may amount to 40% of the world’s catch, totaling 63 Billion pounds per year.
Many people are unaware catching one pound of shrimp produces 20 pounds of bycatch. Shrimp is possibly the most environmentally damaging source of food on earth.
When you buy unsustainable fish and seafood, this is what you are encouraging. It’s no wonder everything is dying in the sea, because of the countless fishing practices going on, they are destroying every life form they encounter. Of course, sustainable fishing techniques do exist, but they are not as popular.
In the United States, despite strong management measures and conservation initiatives in some regions, bycatch remains a persistent problem for far too many fisheries. Some fisheries discard more fish at sea than what they bring to port, in addition to injuring and killing thousands of whales, dolphins, seals, sea turtles and sharks each year.
An estimated 50 million sharks are caught unintentionally as bycatch in commercial fisheries every year. Today’s fishing techniques include bottom trawling, drift nets, gill nets, long lining which is a fishing line that stretches for miles and has thousands of hooks on it and catches many creatures, most of them are killed and discarded because it wasn’t the targeted species.
Bycatch is inevitable but there are ways to minimize unintended injury and waste by using cleaner gear, avoiding areas where vulnerable species are known to be present and enforcing bycatch limits each season.
This is what you are supporting when you buy fish & sea food, the collapse of the most crucial ecosystem on earth and the decimation of apex predators needed to keep the balance in the sea. If sharks go extinct, the oceans die and so do we. It is people’s responsibility to find out the ecological impact of their diet, and since eating from the ocean is damaging to the planet and to our health, society should give it up and help regenerate nature to what is once was. Unless we stop eating fish and sea food right now, nothing will change. If you love the ocean and want to save it, don’t eat from it.
Look at the statistics mentioned above and think about them the next time you buy something at the store. If you truly want to keep eating from the ocean, look for the ocean wise or sustainable label on it, if there’s no indication, don’t buy it.
This article written and contributed by: Melanie Laberge
September 2019
Want to learn more? Check out Melanie's article about SQUALENE here and learn more about how you can be SharkFree in order to save sharks and the sea!