Section B
It's difficult to imagine the sea ever running out of fish. It's so vast, so deep, so mysterious. Unfortunately, it's not bottomless. Overfishing, coupled with destructive fishing practices, is killing off the fish and ruining their environment.
Destroy the fish, and you destroy the fishermen's means of living. At least 60 percent of the world's commercially important fish species are already overfish ed, or fished to the limit. As a result, governments have had to close down some areas of sea to commercial fishing.
Big, high-tech fleets ensure that everything in their path is pulled out of water. Anything too small, or the wrong thing, is thrown back either dead or dying. That's an average of more than 20 million metric tons every year.
When you consider, that equals a quarter of the world catch, you begin to see the size of the problem.
In some parts of the world, for every kilogram of prawns (對蝦) caught, up t o 15 kilograms of unsuspecting fish and other marine wildlife die, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
True, some countries are beginning to deal with this problem, but it's vital we find rational ways of fishing, before every ocean becomes a dead sea.
It would make sense to give the fish enough time to recover, grow to full size and reproduce, then catch them in a way that doesn't kill other innocent sea life
It's difficult to imagine the sea ever running out of fish. It's so vast, so deep, so mysterious. Unfortunately, it's not bottomless. Overfishing, coupled with destructive fishing practices, is killing off the fish and ruining their environment.
Destroy the fish, and you destroy the fishermen's means of living. At least 60 percent of the world's commercially important fish species are already overfish ed, or fished to the limit. As a result, governments have had to close down some areas of sea to commercial fishing.
Big, high-tech fleets ensure that everything in their path is pulled out of water. Anything too small, or the wrong thing, is thrown back either dead or dying. That's an average of more than 20 million metric tons every year.
When you consider, that equals a quarter of the world catch, you begin to see the size of the problem.
In some parts of the world, for every kilogram of prawns (對蝦) caught, up t o 15 kilograms of unsuspecting fish and other marine wildlife die, simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
True, some countries are beginning to deal with this problem, but it's vital we find rational ways of fishing, before every ocean becomes a dead sea.
It would make sense to give the fish enough time to recover, grow to full size and reproduce, then catch them in a way that doesn't kill other innocent sea life