Canadian researchers have published an astonishing study. They found that over fishing is killing most of the large fish in the ocean. Examining data, back to the large-scale fishing techniques in the 1950s, they found that the populations of all large ocean fish species have been dying, each killed off by more than 90%. Each fishing group is competing to harvest as much of the resources as quickly as possible until it is gone. Fisheries have been poorly managed, and governments have allowed fisherman to fish without giving populations a chance to recover. Technologies, from long-line fishing to sonar allow fisherman to easily target and catch fish. Moreover, there are simply too many fishing boats and too few fish.
Governments have officially reported subsidies up to 13 billion per year. But officially reported analysis found that these numbers underreport the actual level of global fishing subsidies. The analysis says that the reason governments have under reported is a combination of carelessness and a purposeful mistreating of the facts.
The analysis gives detailed new evidence that governments are constantly violating legal obligations imposed by the World Trade Organization. These obligations require countries to provide data about their subsidy programs. This is a clear sign that a lack of devotion to this issue does exist. .
Not only have governments failed to take meaningful actions to slow the destruction of the ocean's large fish, many have promoted it by subsidizing fishing boats with billions of dollars each year. Getting rid of these billion-dollar handouts and using the funds to help fishing communities better use available resources, would go a long way towards easing the pressure on fisheries. Providing air tight regulations over ocean life, or giving individual users control over the ocean life and provide them with a way of preserving it, would greatly increase the chances of survival for the ocean life.
