Whenever one thinks about conserving the ecosystem, people only think about the land ecosystem in the first place. Very rarely do we see the people coming up with ideas to conserve the aquatic and marine ecosystem. The shallow mindedness of human beings has made our vision very limited and confined to only a certain zone of conservation methodologies. But one must not forget that there is an interwoven relationship between land, air and water ecosystem. Conserving aquatic and marine ecosystem is equally important as conserving the land ecosystem. Over the past few years, there have always been speculations about fishing techniques and the fish farming practices. Some environmentalists claim that fishing has resulted in disturbing the balance of the marine ecosystem while the defendants often come up with the idea that fishing is an age old trade and can never really disturb the ecosystem cycles. What is the hidden truth behind fishing? Read on to unravel the pros and cons of fishing.
Fishing has been one of the primary occupations of the human kind since the ages. Fishing or the fish farming is done majorly for the sea food purposes. The sea food lovers are many. Some countries like France depend a lot on the seafood for their daily dietary needs. This has resulted in decline of the number of fishes in the nearby French coast zones. Fishing during the breeding season of fishes always disturbs the cycle of nature and inhibits the growth of more fishes. Fishing is also done to obtain other products like shells, cod liver oil etc.
Advantages of fishing
A primary occupation
As mentioned earlier, fishing is one of the primary activities that people have been doing in order to sustain a living. Fishing or the fish farming is often the only source of income for the farmers living in the coastal areas. At times when the farmers and other people lose their priced possession or when there is a crop failure, fishing comes as a rescue for such people. Fishing ensures that they have some sort of substantial earning in the most adverse situations. Through these means, fishermen and farmers are able to have a more secure way of earning a living.
Creation of Fish farms boost Economy
This is somewhat related to the previous point. When the farmers tend to depend a lot more on the fishing for their income, they tend to make a transition towards being the fish farmers. Fish farming gives employment to a big number of coastal people. When this happens, a group of farmers always have the option of creating a fish farm. Fish farm is nothing but a particular region in a water body which a fish farmer targets for getting the fishes. This region is often the region where the probability of finding the fishes is the maximum and has the most suitable water configurations to say in a scientific jargon. The farmers then utilize this region for their fishing activities and try to incorporate a flourishing business. The job of the fish farmers is not only to trap the fishes but also make sure that the marine ecosystem is maintained and the fishes get sufficient time to grow mature. Farmers are entitled to respect the breeding season of the fishes and not do any fishing activities during that phase.
Just for fun?
Along with being a primary activity, fishing is often also seen as a leisure activity. Fishing is often done by people who are on a vacation in the coastal lands. This gives them the much needed recreation after toiling working days. They can then enjoy the self caught fishes and get the taste of the seafood.
Seafood
Fishing enables the world to enjoy an entire genre of food which is the seafood. It is the most liked food item around the globe. With growing demand of seafood, the fishing activities have intensified manifold in the previous years. Aquatic and marine ecosystem does this job of providing some lovely delicacies in raw form for the human beings to enjoy.
Cons of Fish Farming
Risk of Toxins?
The more and more demand of seafood has led to the intensified fishing activities. The farmers are often having the responsibility of not only getting the fish but also making sure that the fish are not affected by other pests or organisms. In order to ensure this, the farmers often add some pesticides and chemicals in their fish farms which can later contaminate the water and be a threat to the future generations of the fishes and other marine ecosystem organisms.
The merciless killing?
Adding to the previous point, the farmers do need to ensure that the fishes are safe. Thus they tend to kill other marine ecosystem organisms which pose a threat to the fishes. Soon enough, they see that they can utilize the other organisms for various purposes, like manufacturing of leather. Thus, their greed seems to increase and as a result, the series of merciless killing begins. This totally hampers the marine ecosystem.
Environmental Impact
To have capacity for the building of fish farms, part of the ecosystem and aquatic animals’ locale is destroyed. One of those is the very common example of mangroves along the coastal line.
Disruption in natural Cycles
Fishing is often linked with disruption that is caused to the natural habitat and the natural cycles. Unlike the other organisms, the fishes need a time period to reproduce. They cannot reproduce in every season. They have their own specific breeding season in which they reproduce. But as the demands for the fishes and the seafood have increased, the farmers have started ignoring this breeding season and continued harnessing the fishes for their greed. This has resulted in depriving some of the large areas of seas of fishes around the nations of Europe like France and Sweden. This certainly damages the marine ecosystem.
The world does enjoy the seafood and the benefits they get from the aquatic and the marine ecosystem but then, they should ensure that they respect the rules of nature and give back something to the nature.
