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Fish, an endangered species?

Intensive exploitation of the oceans since the end of the Second World War is now threatening many species of fish. Overall, one species of fish to three is threatened with extinction and half just managed to renew itself. Seven percent of marine species have disappeared since1950. Since 2000, the quantities of fish have declined by five percent, not due to less fishing but depleted resources. The debate was revived in 2006 by the magazine “Science”, which has predicted the exhaustion of resources before 2050, if the marine pollution and fishing continues at the current rates. So, what are the risks of the overexploitation of fish? Is this a real danger for future consumption and fish species?

Eighty million tones of fish are caught annually in the oceans and seas of the planet. Between 1945 and 1972, demand has grown considerably almost multiplied by four to reach sixty million tonnes. Soon the first consequences of overfishing appear. Stocks of certain species such as cod in the North Atlantic or the anchovies of Peru began to go down in the early seventies. To manage their fish resources, the States then brought up the “exclusive economic zones “(EEZs), which set the boundaries of territorial waters. But this tool will not reverse the trend: in 1994, the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) estimated that over two species of fish to three stocks are exploited to the limits of their reproductive. Beyond this limit, the stock can not be renewed and the species are threatened.

Today, all types of species are affected: cod, hake, haddock, swordfish, shrimp or red tuna. So, fishermen are carried on species with low commercial value, such as herring and sardines. In addition, the intensive exploitation by Western countries of inventory located in the South produces regular "fish wars". Heavily subsidized by their governments, European fleets were accused of creating unfair...