Let’s say that there was a man named Bob McLaren, and he was born in 1980. When he was five years old, he took his first trip to the beach. He loved feeling the sand in his toes, and the cool water hugging him. His family took him on a snorkel trip, and he realized how few fish there were in the ocean. In addition, he saw trawler nets, acres wide, catching millions of fish at a time. He came back up, and went back to the sandy beach he had been on. The fish were not the only ones gone, as he realized that there were no seabirds, turtles, or other marine life. The ones he did see were dead. He looked over to the dock, and saw that there were crowds of people fishing, and as he later realized, they were not doing it to feed themselves, they were doing it for some spare spending money. He vowed that from this day on, he would try as hard as he could to stop overfishing and poaching. He spent the rest of his childhood informing friends, family, teachers, and acquaintances about the troubles of poaching and overfishing. He soon became the lead student of his school’s environmental program, as well as the city’s and the state’s. He also went on to do big things, just in his childhood. He was in the news, just for informing people about poaching and overfishing. He grew up to be a well known man that stopped overfishing and poaching from happening worldwide. 

Now, let's just go to an alternate universe, where Bob McLaren had done nothing about poaching and overfishing. By 2030 in that universe, most of the marine species will have gone extinct, and we would think of those animals as mythical creatures of the past.

Poaching and overfishing have been a problem for a long time, because people will pay a lot to illegally obtain parts of sea life. “The consequences of poaching extend across the lines of moral, environmental, and human rights issues. It is an issue that is immensely complex to solve as it stretches to every corner of the planet, including the ocean,”(1) writes a member of the Safe Worldwide organization. The illegal capture and selling of fish and other marine life can result in us humans not having enough food. A writer from National Geographic says that “Favorable policies, loans, and subsidies spawned a rapid rise of big industrial fishing operations, which quickly supplanted local fishers as the world's main source of seafood.”(1) As a result of local fishers becoming our main supply of seafood, we will start to eat more seafood, and poaching for money will get rid of those fish that we eat. But there is hope. Businesses and corporations that make these issues can help. Corporations that poach marine life need to heavily decrease the rate that they are fishing and poaching, because ocean biodiversity is essential to our survival.

There are lots of results of poaching and overfishing, but the causes are more important, because they are the roots of the problem. Around 30 percent of our human diet is composed of seafood, mostly fish, so overfishing would leave us with only 70% of our current diet. National Geographic has another reason as well, their writers stating that “The earliest [instances of] overfishing occurred in the early 1800s when humans, seeking blubber for lamp oil, decimated the whale population around Stellwagen Bank, off the coast of Cape Cod”(Nat Geo 1). This evidence clearly shows that we will kill, even massacre, just for our comfort and nourishment. Whale blubber was used by many countries in the early 1800s, because it was a very flammable resource. What the unusual thing is, is that candles, like the ones we use today, were already invented, and were used by humans nationally. The World Wildlife organization writes that “overfishing is closely tied to bycatch—the capture of unwanted sea life while fishing for a different species. This [] is a serious marine threat that causes the needless loss of billions of fish”(WWF 1). Massive trawling nets can be larger than several football fields, and catch millions of wanted fish, but also millions of unwanted marine life, such as dolphins, sharks, otters, seabirds, turtles, etc. This is one of the main reasons for overfishing.

The effects of losing marine biodiversity are vast, but the most important ones have a very large effect on our lives. When people overfish/poach, they decrease the population of fish in our oceans, creating a lack of food for humans and other species alike. Rachel Spaulding, from SafeWorldwide.org, writes that “An estimated 3 billion people rely on the ocean for food. This quickly turns into a human rights issue, as those most impacted by food insecurity already will be the first affected by a fish shortage” (SWW 1). She explains that “There will also be economic impacts, as the commercial fishing industry adds over $60 billion [6] to the U.S. GDP alone” (1). Food insecurity and the economic crisis is enough to topple countries. Bycatch is one of the reasons that fish cannot reproduce, because when millions upon millions of fish are caught, there are not enough fish left to create a healthy reproduction. Writers from WWF explain that, “Overfishing can impact entire ecosystems. It can change the size of fish remaining, as well as how they reproduce and the speed at which they mature” (WWF 1).

Overfishing will come back to bite us, as marine life is one of the most popular sources of food. Over 30 percent of the average human’s diet is made up of marine life, so if we keep fishing at the rate we are, we will cut 30 percent of our monthly food out. A writer from WWF, the World Wildlife Organization, writes that “When too many fish are taken out of the ocean it creates an imbalance that can erode the food web”(1), and create a loss of food for many species, including humans. According to Spaulding, “It is estimated that 40% of the marine life caught in these nets is thrown back overboard as bycatch, as they are not the intended catch [1]. However, the process can be devastating to the animals thrown back and many of them die” (SWW 1). Over 668 million animals, including sharks, dolphins, turtles, seabirds, and fish are thrown back into the ocean as a result of recreational bycatch. When these animals are caught and thrown back, over 95 percent of them die in the process. This would result in over 600 million animal deaths, just from recreational fishing. If we take into consideration that the total amount of fish caught each year is over 1.3 trillion, about one third of all fish, we can realize how much of a problem we are making for the oceans, and us too.

Overfishing and poaching can also harm our oceans, as some fish are vital to its ecosystem. Let’s just say that there are three animals. A cleaner fish, a blue tail tuna, and a great white shark. The cleaner fish cleans the tuna, and the shark eats the tuna. Now, let's say that the cleaner fish was taken out. The tuna would not be suitable for the shark to eat, because the low hygiene of the tuna will make the shark ill. If we only had the cleaner fish and the shark, the cleaner fish would not have anything to clean, therefore, nothing to eat. The shark would have nothing to eat either, so both animals would die of hunger. Now, as a final analogy, let’s say that just the shark was taken out, leaving the cleaner fish and the tuna. The cleaner fish would clean the tuna, but the tuna would overpopulate, as there are no natural predators to balance the ecosystem.

We do not have a reason not to stop overfishing, because it decreases the amount of species, as well as cutting out 30% of our diet. By overfishing, we increase the problems in our world by tenfold. Fishing in general is inevitable, but there are steps we can take to stop overfishing from happening. We need to contact businesses, corporations, and organizations, so that the people that overfish can realize the harm that they are doing to themselves and others, and so that people that care about this issue can help to stop it. We could also put a ban on fishing more than necessary, preventing overfishing and poaching. The rate that marine animals are fished needs to be decreased heavily, specifically by businesses and corporations that sell marine life.

Works Cited

Main, admin -. “Overfishing: The Biggest Form of Poaching in the World.” SAFE Worldwide, 22 Sep. 2022, safeworldwide.org/news-articles/overfishing-the-biggest-form-of-poaching-in-the-world/. 

McKeever, Amy, and National Geographic Staff. “How Overfishing Threatens the World’s Oceans-and Why It Could End in Catastrophe.” Environment, 7 Feb. 2022, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/critical-issues-overfishing?loggedin=true&rnd=1683551245862. 

“Report: More Sharks, Rays Threatened with Extinction.” AP NEWS, 4 Sept. 2021,apnews.com/article/europe-world-news-environment-and-nature-sharks-climate-change-79d56742f6d6dee4c163221f80f14035.