Fish are a renewable resource if populations are managed sustainably, but overfishing has become a problem recently due to advances in fishing technology allowing much higher catches. Issues arise from large nets catching unintended species and damaging ocean habitats, while methods like dynamite fishing destroy reefs. Conservation efforts are needed like limiting catches, protecting spawning populations, and creating marine reserves to allow fish stocks to recover.

1. Are fish a renewable or a non-renewable resource? Why do you think that?

2. Fish are renewable resources If we catch a fish and eat it, other fish will be born to replace it. However, in many parts of the world too many fish have been caught ( over-exploited ) This means the number of fish available has reduced ( depleted ).

3. Q. People have always caught fish to eat. Why do you think that the problem of over fishing has arisen only recently?

8. Ireland has many fishing ports. Fishing is extremely important to many of these small fishing villages. Fishing has been carried out in these areas for generations.

9. Big ships (trawlers and super-trawlers are used) Factory ships Modern Equipment Easy Targets

12. What problems might arise from using large nets to capture one type of fish?

13. Bycatch refers to fish and other marine life caught ‘incidentally’ in the pursuit of another species Some organisms include 1. Turtles 2. Starfish 3. Sponges

14. Winc Winch Sonar Equipment

15. Dragging huge, heavy nets along the sea floor. Large metal plates and rubber wheels attached to these nets move along the bottom and crush nearly everything in their path. Water life forms are very slow to recover from such damage.

16. Explosive fishing – the use of dynamite or other explosives to kill fish. Causes for major destruction of reef . Long-line fishing – long baited hooks used to catch swordfish, tuna, sharks, birds, and turtles. They are estimated to kill 180,000 birds worldwide every year.

18. How can we stop over- fishing?

20. The population of breeding tunas has been declining steeply for the past decade Will be wiped out completely in 3 years if nothing is done Tunas that are able to reproduce – being wiped out The size of mature tunas has more than halved since the 1990s. The average size of tuna caught off the coast of Libya has dropped from 124kg in 2001 to only 65kg last year. Industrial fishing is the main reason for the problem WWF is calling for the immediate closure of the Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery to give the species a chance to recover. Trying to create a marine reserve for bluefin tuna in the Balearic Islands.

21. Many types of fish are now endangered because of over fishing. Governments and the EU are trying to limit the amount of fish being caught. They have taken the following steps; 1. Made conservation zones around some countries. 2. Excluded foreign fishing boats from fishing in Irish waters. 3. Reduce the number of fishing fleets. 4. Introduced yearly quotas for fish catches. 5. Banned the fishing of some endangered species. 6. Made the fishing season shorter for some types of fish.