The ocean is vast and the resources are inexhaustible? Centuries ago, scientists thought so. Unfortunately, a series of illegal fishing, bycatchers, indiscriminate fishing, and wanton destruction of fish habitats have changed the fate of the oceans. After reading the following 12 facts, I am afraid that no one can laugh. (By Greenpeace) 1, since 1950, because of overfishing, 1/4 of the world's fisheries have collapsed.
2. 2.77% of marine fish stocks have been completely depleted and have suffered from overexploitation, diminishment or slow recovery.
In 1992, the cod fishery in Newfoundland, Canada, collapsed, leaving 40,000 people unemployed. The local fishery has not yet recovered.
4) Scientists estimate that 90% of the world's large fish species have disappeared from the oceans. These include many tuna, sharks, halibut, grouper and other predators at the top of the ecosystem. Without them, we also lose good helpers in maintaining ecological balance.
There are 3.5 million fishing vessels in the world, but only 1.7% of them are giant industrial fishing vessels, which catch nearly 60% of the world's fish every year.
6. In the Indian Ocean alone, the artificial fish collectors used by purse seine fishing boats kill 1 million sharks every year.
Each year, the global fleet receives about $30 billion in government subsidies, most of which are given to large-scale industrial fisheries.
On average, industrial fishing fleets kill and discard about 27 million tons of fish each year, equivalent to 1/4 of the annual catch. Buy 1 kg of shrimp in the market, behind which you may be lurking more than 10 kg of tropical marine life sacrifice.
9. Trawling uses fishing nets to drag along the seabed at high speed, which will damage fragile corals and seabeds, causing fish to lose their habitat.
10) The world loses more than US$20 billion a year to illegal fishing, most of which involve fishing vessels in Europe, the United States and Asia. The United Nations estimates that the African countries of Somalia and Guinea lose about $300 million and $100 million a year, respectively.
11. In the Croze Islands, Prince Edward Island and Marion Island in the Indian Ocean, the Antarctic fish (usually Chilean perch) was heavily fished for its profitability, ending in extinction in just two years.
12 Of the 24 known albatrosses worldwide, 20 are in danger of survival, two of which are critically endangered. Scientists estimate that in 1997 alone, illegal fishing had killed more than 100,000 albatrosses and petrels in the Southern Ocean.