What will happen to the planet, oceans, and people if we do not act? While nothing is certain (except possibly death and taxes), their is overwhelming scientific evidence to suggest severe consequences of inaction: we're facing potential extinction of fish stocks and the subsequent collapse the entire ecosystems (Worm et al., 2006); widespread human costs due to job loss, cultural decline, and nutritional deficiencies, the latter of which will most dramatically impact the poorer developing nations (Ahmed et al., 2003); and climactic changes so extreme that the entire globe will feel the effects.
Marine Ecosystems Collapse
"Human-dominated marine ecosystems are experiencing accelerating loss of populations and species, with largely unknown consequences. We analyzed local experiments, long-term regional time series, and global fisheries data to test how biodiversity loss affects marine ecosystems services across temporal and spatial scales. Overall, rates of resource collapse increased and recovery potential, stability, and water quality decreased exponentially with declining diversity..... We conclude that marine biodiversity loss in increasingly impairing the ocean's capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations. Yet available data suggest that at this point, these trends are still reversible" (Worm et al., 2006, p. 787). With estimates placing the collapse of fisheries and all seafood species by the year 2050 (ScienCentral, 2006), we have little time to take action and save the oceans and global fisheries from unprecedented crises.
Human Impact
Job Loss
This concept is simple: if fisheries continue to overfish, consequently resulting in species or ecosystem collapse, the entire industry will flounder. According to the United States Department of Labor, as of 2004, there were approximately 38,000 people working as fishermen in the United States (US Labor, 2006). Greenland and Faeroe Island produce 85 kilograms of fish per capita per year - second only to the Maldives, where production tops out at 190 kilograms of fish and shellfish per capita per year, placing an extraordinary amount dependence on the productivity of our oceans (NMFS, 2006). The outlook is bleak for nations and individuals dependent on the oceans: for each fisherman out of work, there is a family with an unemployed provider, an out-of-work factory employee, a bankrupted boat company, a boarded up restaurant, and several other affected industries. Though our plan will necessarily call for an overall decrease in fishermen and new job training, we hope to relocate the fishermen to new occupations, thereby avoiding greater unemployment while still retaining a fishing industry.
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"Fish account for approximately 20% of all animal protein in the human diet, with almost 1 billion people relying solely on fish as their primary source of protein. Furthermore, seventy-five percent of fish eaten by humans are marine-caught, as opposed to their freshwater and farm-raised counterparts. Given these conditions, and declining stocks of marine fish, one study suggests that the projected decrease in fish supply over the next two decades will not meet the demands of a growing global population" (Duke). Our solution hopes to shift fish demand in markets where fish does not constitute a necessity so that we can continue to feed the populations dependent on fish.
Global Climate Change
Regardless of cause, the global climate is getting warmer, and will continue to do so in the future. Projections vary wildly between sources, as demonstrated in the below illustration compiled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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