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Fish & Sea Creatures
How fishing impacts fish and sea creatures
Since 1970, the amount of fish in the oceans has halved, in a plunge to the "brink of collapse" caused by over-fishing and other threats, a report by the WWF conservation group states.
"There is a massive, massive decrease in species which are critical", both for the ocean ecosystem and food security for billions of people, he said. "The ocean is resilient but there is a limit." ~ Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International
The report said populations of fish, marine mammals, birds and reptiles had fallen 49% between 1970 and 2012. For fish alone, the decline was 50%.
Fast Facts
SUFFERING
FISH FEEL PAIN
Although fish lack the ability to cry out as humans or other land animals demonstrate when in pain, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that fish can indeed feel pain. Their complex nervous systems and how fish behave when injured challenge long-held beliefs that fish can be treated without any genuine regard for their welfare.
When a fish is caught with a hook that pierces their mouth, their reaction is a conscious response to the pain they feel. Fish have a high concentration of nociceptors, sensorial receptors for painful stimuli, located in their fins, tails, eyes, mouth and nostrils.
Fish breathe by oxygenated water passing through their gills. When removed from the water, fish cannot breathe and slowly suffocate and die.
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“Just as drowning is painful for humans, this experience is most likely painful for fish."
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Research has shown that the hormones associated with stress, such as cortisol, significantly increase when fish are out of water.
PLENTY OF FISH
OVERFISHINGS IMPACT ON THE OCEAN
Overfishing is the term for when more fish are taken than can be replaced via natural reproduction. It is one of the most significant issues marine ecosystems face today.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reports that in the past 50 years, the number of overfished stocks across the globe has tripled, and a third of the earths assessed fisheries have been pushed past their biological limits.
While many people think of overfishing as something that only impacts saltwater fish from the ocean, a 2021 report shows the impact overfishing is having on freshwater fish. Freshwater fish are vital to many ecosystems. Over half (51%) of all fish species and 25% of all vertebrate species on Earth are freshwater fish, yet nearly 1/3 of freshwater fish species are threatened with extinction.
Overfishing has led to a 76% decline in migratory freshwater fish, and 94% decline in mega-fish (heavier than 30kg) such as Danube sturgeon since 1970.
Overfishing also has a huge impact on marine ecosystems and the climate.
“Overfishing and destructive fishing not only devastates fish populations and wildlife, breaks down the food web and degrades habitats,” says Rebecca Hubbard, Our Fish’s Program Director. “It undermines the ocean’s ability to perform critical ecosystem services such as storing carbon that is needed for climate mitigation.”
BY-CATCH
UNINTENDED VICTIMS
Modern fishing practices such as longline fishing, trawling, gillnets and blasting result in huge numbers of fish being caught, but as they are non-discriminate, many other animals are caught as well.
Since 2010, roughly 85,000 sea turtles have been killed as by-catch. A further 300,000 marine mammals, 160,000 albatross and 3 million sharks are killed incidentally as by-catch every year.
Long lived animals like albatrosses and sea turtles, both who are slow to reach sexual maturity, are signficantly impacted by overfishing and many populations have declined seriously over the past several decades.
The effect of animals killed as by-catch extends beyond the individuals and species directly impacted. Ecosystems that have evolved over millions of years are left suddenly with far fewer predators or food sources. This can have a cascading impact on biodiversity as habitats can no longer support a wide range of marine life.
MARINE HABITATS
DREDGING UP DESTRUCTION
Aquatic habitats are often damaged or destroyed by fishing.
Industrial fishing practices such as dredging or seafloor trawling decrease the biomass and destroy species like burrowing worms integral to ocean ecosystems. These practices also destroy corals and oyster reefs, and sponges that form healthy marine habitats and can lead to harmful algal blooms and widespread marine die-offs.
Oyster beds and coral reefs form habitats that act as nurseries for many fish. Without these critical habitats, the numbers of many species of fish rapidly decline.
FISH FARMS
CONFINED, DEPRESSED AND SICK
The United Nations reports that, in 2020, fish farms across the globe produced 90.3 million tonnes of fish (in live-weight), accounting for just over 50% of fish products produced. This represents a decrease of 4% compared with the average over 2017-2019, likely due to disruption in fishing operations caused by COVID-19.
How fish are farmed depends on whether they are salt or freshwater species, but all farmed fish are bred indoors in fish hatcheries. As the hatchlings grow they are moved to larger tanks, (farmed salmon spend up to 16 months of their lives in on-land tanks). Salmon and other saltwater species are then moved to outdoor pens in the ocean where they remain until they are killed. Freshwater fish, like Barramundi, spend their entire lives in tanks or pens on land.
Fish in fish farms are kept in incredibly high stocking densities and have limited area to move. Many species of fish naturally travel thousands of kilometres. On fish farms, they are lucky to have a couple of hundred metres, indeed in supposedly ‘high welfare’ Tasmanian fish farms the circumference of underwater cages is a mere 240 metres.
Living in such unnatural conditions increases stress in fish and disease outbreaks are common. These outbreaks can spread to wild populations of fish
Farming fish also places additional pressure on wild fish stocks due to the fact that the majority of farmed fish species are carnivores and are fed wild caught fish. Just as is the case with every form of animal farming, the feed ratios highlight the inefficiencies.
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"On average (weighted according to global production levels of the nine aquatic species studied), 100 g of protein in aquaculture feed will be converted into 19 g of protein for the human food supply (19% retention), and that 100 kcal of aquaculture feed will be converted into 10 kcal for the human food supply (10% retention)." ~Fry, J.P., Mailloux, N.A., Love, D.C., Milli, M.C. and Cao, L., 2018. Feed conversion efficiency in aquaculture: do we measure it correctly?. Environmental Research Letters, 13(2), p.024017.
RECREATIONAL FISHING
UNDERSTATED IMPACT
In many instances, the impact of recreational fishing on marine environments needs to be more recognised and reported. Fishing lobbyists work hard to keep the focus on the impact of commercial fishing operations when in reality, in many coastal regions, recreational fish harvests exceed commercial harvests.
A CSIRO report states, "The environmental impacts from recreational angling can be both ecologically significant and broad in scope."
In Australia in 2000/01, recreational anglers caught 72 million finfish. Aside from the impact of removing this amount of living beings from ecosystems, recreational fishing impacts marine environments in several ways:
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Discarding by-catch.
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By targeting higher-order carnivores in ecosystems and often seeking out the largest fish in the population, typically the breeders, recreational fishing can lead to trophic cascades, an ecological phenomenon triggered by removing top predators.
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The impacts on habitat from bait harvesting;
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impacts of introducing or translocating species to support angling fisheries;
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direct impacts on sea-birds, marine mammals and reptiles; and
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angler-generated pollution.
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Catch and release is a common practice in recreational fishing, with high mortality rates, especially in some fish species. A metastudy in 2005 found that the average catch and release mortality rate was 18% but varied considerably by species.
Save Our Seas
Create a kinder world
Aside from the cruelty, all animal products are inherently inefficient to produce. Because animals are living beings who grow, move and spend energy just living, they use up more calories than we end up being able to extract from their products (meat, milk or eggs). The ratio of how much feed goes in vs how much we get out is known as the 'feed conversion ratio'. The feed conversion ratio for farmed fish in Australia is 1.3. That means it requires 1.3 kilograms of feed for every kilogram of fish meat produced. Alarmingly, often the feed fed to farmed fish is made up largely wild caught fish (meaning more fish are taken from the oceans than fish meat is produced through fish farms).
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The number of fish and sea creatures killed through fishing and as by-catch each year is mind-bogglingly huge, and this doesn't even include fish caught by recreational fishers. Annually, between 1 trillion and 2.8 trillion fish meet their end, either for direct consumption from fish farms or as food for the fish we consume from the wild.
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But let's put these colossal numbers into perspective:
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A million seconds is about 12 days.
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Now, a billion seconds, which might seem like 24 or 48 days, is actually 31.7 years.
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And when we talk about a trillion seconds, it's a whopping 31,709.8 years!
In simpler terms:
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One million is a thousand thousands.
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One billion is a thousand millions.
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One trillion is a thousand billions, or you could say a million millions.
Today there are lots of ways to replace animal products that are better for the animals, the planet, and your health.
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Save Our Seas - Spare TRILLIONS of fish and sea creatures by swapping animal products for plant based alternatives.
Kinder Options
