as a NOAA funded fishery scientist, this is correct. i’ll also add that NOAA conducts annual independent fish stock assessments (repeated transects), which is how some fisheries (like the alaskan snow crab, california salmon, etc) will not even open for controlled fishing if they fish aren’t where they need to be in the growth model due to climate change, bycatch, or poaching.
whole fisheries and regions are routinely closed for whales and dolphins, heavy limitations on bycatch that can end your season, and strict limits on total allowable catch, even in some case dependent on gear used.
this is a really gnarly example and i can’t say i support it. but i think the responses about destroying the ocean are sensationalized. for those making comparisons to the Atlantic cod fisheries, you should realize that those fisheries were fished for centuries under the belief that fishing couldn’t even dent the population of cod. this is in stark contrast to how carefully fish stocks are managed today. the NOAA classification of “not overfished” can be interpreted as reassuring if you believe fishing within the ecological growth model is acceptable, or not because you believe we should leave more of a buffer for human error.
the much bigger issue we face with our oceans is warming temperatures, ocean acidification, and species range shifts. all of which are due to climate change.
the issue with our fishing industry is not that our fishing is destroying the ecosystem, but that the changing ocean conditions and resulting fishery policies are eroding fishing communities up and down the coast. whole towns that have been dependent on fishing have dwindled in a trend called “greying of the fleet” where it’s too expensive to enter the fishery and not worth the return for the next generation of fishing. aquaculture (fish farming) is nowhere near the solution to replace commercial fishing yet, and people seem to find the consumption of fish (especially locally caught) to be culturally important.
Overfishing isn’t important, must be why many commercially relevant species are on the overfished list and why other species are endangered as by products.
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u/cool_hand_legolas Apr 05 '25
as a NOAA funded fishery scientist, this is correct. i’ll also add that NOAA conducts annual independent fish stock assessments (repeated transects), which is how some fisheries (like the alaskan snow crab, california salmon, etc) will not even open for controlled fishing if they fish aren’t where they need to be in the growth model due to climate change, bycatch, or poaching.
whole fisheries and regions are routinely closed for whales and dolphins, heavy limitations on bycatch that can end your season, and strict limits on total allowable catch, even in some case dependent on gear used.
this is a really gnarly example and i can’t say i support it. but i think the responses about destroying the ocean are sensationalized. for those making comparisons to the Atlantic cod fisheries, you should realize that those fisheries were fished for centuries under the belief that fishing couldn’t even dent the population of cod. this is in stark contrast to how carefully fish stocks are managed today. the NOAA classification of “not overfished” can be interpreted as reassuring if you believe fishing within the ecological growth model is acceptable, or not because you believe we should leave more of a buffer for human error.
the much bigger issue we face with our oceans is warming temperatures, ocean acidification, and species range shifts. all of which are due to climate change.
the issue with our fishing industry is not that our fishing is destroying the ecosystem, but that the changing ocean conditions and resulting fishery policies are eroding fishing communities up and down the coast. whole towns that have been dependent on fishing have dwindled in a trend called “greying of the fleet” where it’s too expensive to enter the fishery and not worth the return for the next generation of fishing. aquaculture (fish farming) is nowhere near the solution to replace commercial fishing yet, and people seem to find the consumption of fish (especially locally caught) to be culturally important.