Along the global topics of deforestation and global warming, over fishing joins the party so that all land, sea and sky are in dire straits. Over fishing may not have been as heavily emphasized as global warming but it is definitely a fast growing threat.

Firstly, this is the phenomenon known as the tragedy of the commons, an economic term that describes a resource being abused by people because it is free and no one owns the right to stop people from using the resource.

Fishing boats have been non-stop hoarding fish in order to supply enough for the global population. However, the price to pay is that this has caused many species to dwindle in number and caused many to be near endangered. Ethically, this is unacceptable because it is unjust to purposefully over fish when most clearly know that the species is endangered. Fishermen are profit driven and because it doesn’t affect them directly, they  do not care.

One more thing to note is that according to the article, there are many cases of abuse on fishing boats which is probably due to the large amount of illegal workers employed. A large number of workers were forcefully enslaved against their will and suffer terrible living conditions. Its disheartening to read and the subject of human rights come into question.

The industry is very murky and have very questionable ethical operations. I personally think that action must be taken especially on malpractices like shark fin hunting, whaling and extreme quantities of fishing. The problem lies on how international law works on seas and how these criminals can be caught.

Prices of fish are predicted to skyrocket because this large amount of fishing is simply not sustainable. With the supply of fish taking a big hit, price will bound to rise and “the era of cheap fish is over”

So i guess, you reap what you sow?

Article:

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1633380/era-cheap-fish-over-says-expert-industry-forced-tackle-slavery-and

Look also:

http://overfishing.org/