5. Sharayah McDonald- Outside Reading 1

 In class on Thursday, February 16th, we watched a documentary about the causes and effects of overfishing. While this information is extremely important to understand, sometimes it can feel a bit hopeless- like there is nothing we can do except sit back and watch major corporations destroy fish populations and the planet's future. Due to this feeling of helplessness, I decided to look up some of the things that we can do, or things that need to be done, in order to help fish populations. There are 10 solutions that seem to be continuous on multiple different websites, and all have good justifications and logic as to why they would help. These 10 solutions are:

  1. Rights-Based Fishery Management- fishers are guaranteed a certain portion of the catch if they adhere to rules and regulations that include the quantity of fish they can catch and what time of year they can fish. In this system, each member has a stake in the fishery that grows when the fishery does, and this stake can be passed down to family members.
  2. Sustainable Fishing Reforms- includes regulation fishing nets/equipment to prevent by-catch (other sea creatures that are not meant to be caught but the nets are so big they are accidentally caught)
  3. Traceability Standards- fish importers/vendors must label the fish about where it was caught to eliminate illegal fishing and help consumers know where it is coming from.
  4. Declaring Marine Protected Areas- partial protections may be easier to enact than completely stopping fishing in some areas, but it has been proven to prevent overfishing.
  5. Fish Farm Standards and Reform- if farmed fish escape, they can spread disease to wild fish, and mate with them producing offspring that is not capable of survival in the wild. The solution is to buy wild-caught fish and demand better conditions for these farmed fish.
  6. International Fishing Regulations- a complete ban on fishing in international waters may be hard to convince governments of, but it would definitely help stop overfishing. The documentary detailed a law that prohibited international ships from fishing within 200 km of the coast of another country, but a complete ban would surely contribute to local, sustainable fishing.
  7. Overfishing Education- Help inform fishers about overfishing and how to comply with regulations without sacrificing profit
  8. Fishing Subsidy Reform- ending subsidies to keep unnecessary fishers out of the water, or redirect the subsidies to pay fishers for information/data on fish populations rather than actually fishing.
  9. Protecting Essential Predator Species- predators help to keep populations of prey fish intact and prevent overpopulations and algal blooms. Stricter regulations about careless trawling and overfishing could prevent them from disappearing.
  10. Agricultural Investment and Reform- Making sustainable agriculture will help communities that depend on fish for the majority of their food to be fed when the fish populations decline. 
I found these solutions to be very helpful, and am glad to know that there are changes I can make to help as well. As a consumer, it is my responsibility to know where the fish I am buying is coming from, and if it is from a sustainable fishery or fish farm. I hope that we are the generation that can start to put some of these solutions into practice, even if it means arguing with powerful corporations and governments. 

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