Save the beach

Pubblicata da neil · 693 giornis fa ·

At Corona Save the Beach, we are committed to recovering endangered beaches across Europe. However another real problem facing the coastlines today is overfishing. The worldwide fishing industry has been in decline since 1988, when the global fish catches fell for the first time.

As stocks decline, extreme fishing methods have been employed to maximise catches of those that remain and many of these methods, such as bottom trawling, can be extremely destructive. For example, it was reported in 2004 that bottom trawling killed up to 16lb of other animals in order to produce just 1lb of marketable sole. So what’s the solution?

While there are conflicting views, experts suggest the establishment of a large scale network of marine reserves (national parks at sea) are needed to protect marine species and their habitats and could be the key to reversing the global fisheries decline. Marine reserves are not just about overfishing, they are also seen as an essential tool in protecting the marine environment from pollution, caused particularly by the disposal of wastes (radioactive wastes, munitions and carbon dioxide). Further, it is alleged that if 40% of the world’s oceans were covered in marine reserves and the other 60% were fished sustainably then fish stocks and ecosystems could begin to recover.

Greenpeace has been one of the main bodies partitioning for marine reserves and were behind this fantastic Stephen Appelby animated video imagining a future without marine reserves. We all have our part to play…

Sources: www.greenpeace.org