DECLINE IN SALTWATER FISH
POPULATIONS (ECOLOGY
AND HUMAN IMPACT ON THE
ENVIRONMENT)
reshwater and saltwater fisheries are important to both our culture and our economy. Fish-­‐‑ ing provides recreational opportunities and important food sources for society. There have been many debates about what kinds of policies should be implemented to safeguard our fisheries. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Florida’s marine fisheries provide over 2.5 million recreational anglers with sport fishing opportunities and over 15,000 commercial fishers with employment. Previously, it was a general belief that the oceans held an endless supply of fish. There are now many groups of people who think otherwise. Because these groups of people have different interests in the opportunities for fishing, they also have different ideas about the policies that should be enforced to protect the fish in the ocean. By protecting the fish, they are protecting their interests in fishing, including recreational fishing, economic impact (i.e., commercial fishing), and traditional lifestyle. Policies are generally designed to provide limitations by restricting opportunities. Restrictions can mean: • reducing opportunities for businesses to grow by limiting the number of fishermen, the number of fish allowed to be caught, the size of fish to be caught, and the time of year that fish can be caught; • preventing groups of people from practicing fishing as a part of their traditional lifestyles; • impacting the general economy by reducing availability of (or by flooding the market with) fish; • impacting the general economy by changing the costs for fishing and fishing supplies; and • preventing groups of people from fishing for recreation. Fisheries around the world claim that even with current policies, the fish populations are declining. For example, in 2005, the State of the World of Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) released a state-­‐‑ ment that 3% of marine stocks were underexploited, 21% were moderately exploited, 52% were fully exploited, 16% were overexploited and the remaining 7% were recovering from being overexploited (due to strict policies) (Kourous 2005). The authors of this report blame the fish population decline on growing human populations and insufficient monitoring policies that would allow for this increased demand to be met without harming fish populations (i.e., limiting the numbers, the sizes, and the times that fish may be caught). In 2006, the Washington Post published an article describing a report from ecologists and econo-­‐‑ mists claiming that at least 90% of fish species were below their historic maximum catch levels, due in part to commercial fishing and the inability to resist environmental stresses created by the specific practices of commercial fishing. In 2007 and 2008, the number of smolt (salmon migrating to the ocean) increased in the Sacramento River and in Alaska; however, the number of salmon returning to spawn substantially decreased, resulting in a ban on both commercial and recreational fishing of Chinook salmon (king salmon) for two years in California and in most of Oregon. The decline of salmon is blamed on the dams that have been built and the pesticides from farms bordering the rivers. Environmentalists assert that the salmon are unable to return upriver to spawn, and those that spawn in the lower river areas develop abnormalities caused by the pollutants that seep into the waters from farms. In an attempt to address the concern, biologists have been spawning salmon in hatcheries and releasing them into the oceans and rivers. Newspaper reports claim that 90% of the Chinook salmon caught by fisherman in 2008 were from hatcheries rather 1
than naturally spawned. Although several reports continue to express warnings about the decline of saltwater fisheries, in 2010 newspapers and television reports claimed that the salmon numbers increased in Vancouver to numbers greater than any seen in over 100 years. In Florida, regulations for the past 20 years have included a strict management rule, known as a bag limit, of only one red drum fish permitted to be caught per day by recreational fishermen. This regulation has recently been changed to allow for a two-­‐‑fish bag limit (two fish per person per day). The Gulf red snapper has reportedly increased, yet the recreational harvest season was reduced and the commercial quota was increased in 2012. The spotted seatrout have been strictly regulated by allowing anglers to only fish for them in certain parts of Florida during limited months of the year. The previous harvest prohibition for roundscale spearfish has recently been removed and is now a 250 fish season (i.e., the season closes once 250 of them are caught). These observations raise an interesting question: Is our saltwater fish population declining? If so, what policies would be most effective in slowing that decline? Because this is a complicated question that may have different answers for different regions, in this discussion we will be considering the fish populations around the Florida coast. You can use the following materials to generate your argument: • Data tables that have been provided • Information regarding policies and regulations that have been suggested or enforced • Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (http://myfwc.com) • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) education resources (www. education.noaa.gov/Marine_Life) With your group, determine if any of the fish populations are changing and if there is any particular group of people who should be regulated in fishing these populations. Be prepared to discuss what policies would be most appropriate for various groups of people who rely on the fish populations. Use the data that is provided to make inferences about the use of the fish for recreation, economic, and cultural purposes. Make sure that you generate the evidence you will need to support your explanation as you work. Record your method and observations. With your group, develop a claim that best answers this question. Once your group has developed your claim, prepare a whiteboard with your question, claim, evidence, and reasoning. Question:
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