Overfished and under-protected: Oceans on the brink of collapse - CNN.com

(CNN) -- As the human footprint has spread, the remaining wildernesses on our planet have retreated. However, dive just a few meters below the ocean surface and you will enter a world where humans very rarely venture.

In many ways, it is the forgotten world on Earth. A ridiculous thought when you consider that oceans make up 90% of the living volume of the planet and are home to more than one million species, ranging from the largest animal on the planet -- the blue whale -- to one of the weirdest -- the blobfish.

Remoteness, however, has not left the oceans and their inhabitants unaffected by humans, with overfishing, climate change and pollution destabilizing marine environments across the world.

via www.cnn.com

Comments

[Chris Nault]

This article describing how the earth's oceans have been, and are being overfished almost to the brink of disaster is a classic case of the tragedy of the commons. As the article mentions, most of the world's ocean are outside international law and legal control making any attempt at implementing rules or regulations futile due to problems with enforcement. Thus, fisherman and commercial fishing companies are capturing the world's fish resources based solely on their own private interest and not worrying about the negative effects of their actions. This had led to massive overfishing that will only likely continue unless regulations are put in place or conservation efforts are implemented and taken seriously. As the world's ocean are being overfished in some cases by large commercial fishing companies, one has to consider the effects that this overfishing will have on developing communities and peoples who rely on fishing for their livelihood and source of food. This overfishing problem draws comparisons to the issue of climate change regarding the idea that the developing world will suffer most from the effects of climate change when it is the developed countries who have contributed the most to climate change. Similarly, those developing countries and communities who rely on fishing in a subsistence manner will suffer more from the overfishing by developed countries and their large fishing companies.

[Haley Miller]

First of all, the picture of all the kids forming the massive shark and shield is really impressive. Maybe the education of the younger generations will put a halt to ocean destruction and maybe even reverse some of the effects. The situation in Southeast Asia and Indonesia is extremely dire and whole fishing economies could disappear if the first are not even given a chance to reproduce before they are harvested.

The acidification is yet another negative effect of CO2 emissions. I wonder how many negative effects need to be recorded before policy makers take extreme action, or any action at all.