Humans have depended on the oceans for their food intake. New technologies have enabled people to massively remove fish from the ocean in recent decades to supply food to the population of Earth. Unfortunately, these practices have many negative effects on the environment and over-fishing has been identified in many aquatic systems as a primary cause of ecosystem collapse.
|
Overfishing means that the population can not reproduce enough to replace them. Overfishing can lead to fish populations being depleted or extinguished. The depletion of top predators, such as tuna, allows the overpopulation of smaller marine species affecting the rest of the food chain. Due to their slow metabolism and lower breeding rates, deep sea fish are thought to be more at risk than shallow water fish.
|