fishing problem

Fishing problems: Destructive fishing practices

Many fishing practices are destructive to delicate habitats - particularly vital fish breeding grounds like coral reefs and sea grass.

1. Bottom trawling

2. Cyanide fishing

3. Dynamite fishing

4. Ghost fishing

1.Bottom trawling

Bottom trawling

Bottom trawling destroys far more ocean habitat than any other fishing practice on the West Coast.
In this fishing method, large weighted nets are dragged across the ocean floor, clear-cutting a swath of habitat in their wake. Some of these scars will take centuries to heal.
bottom trawling reduces the complexity, productivity, and biodiversity of benthic habitats--damage is most severe in areas with corals and sponges.
The damage from bottom trawling is not limited to habitat destruction. As the net drags along the seafloor, all creatures in its path—fish, animals, marine mammals, plants, and turtles—are scooped up along the way.

2.Cyanide fishing

Cyanide fishing, whereby divers crush cyanide tablets into plastic squirt bottles of sea water and puff the solution to stun and capture live coral reef fish, is widely practiced throughout Southeast Asia despite being illegal in most countries of the region.
The practice began in the 1960s in the Philippines as a way to capture live reef fish for sale.
the greater damage inflicted by cyanide fishing is to the coral reefs where it is employed, as cyanide kills the reefs and also many of the life forms that rely on them.

Cyanide fishing

3. Dynamite fishing

Dynamite fishing

Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is the practice of using explosives to stun or kill schools of fish for easy collection.
This often illegal practice can be extremely destructive to the surrounding ecosystem, as the explosion often destroys the underlying habitat (such as coral reefs) that supports the fish.
Underwater shock waves produced by the explosion stun the fish and cause their swim bladders to rupture.
Researchers believe that destructive fishing practices like blast fishing are one of the biggest threats to the coral reef ecosystems.

4.Ghost fishing

Ghost fishing

Ghost fishing occurs when fishing gear is lost or abandoned at sea.
The gear can continue to catch fish, dolphins, whales, turtles, and other creatures as it drifts through the water and after it becomes snagged on the seabed.
When driftnets were used on the High Seas, an estimated 1,000km of ghost nets were released each year into the North Pacific Ocean alone.
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. These nets, often nearly invisible in the dim light, can be left tangled on a rocky reef or drifting in the open sea.
According to the SeaDoc Society, each ghost net kills $20,000 worth of Dungeness crab over 10 years. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science calculated that ghost crab pots capture 1.25 million blue crabs each year in the Chesapeake Bay alone.