BRAINCAKEFishing: Depletion of Resources
Fish are a renewable resource, but only if enough adults are left to breed and replace those caught. Overfishing is catching fish faster than the population can reproduce and grow. About a third of assessed fish stocks worldwide are now overfished.
Modern fleets use sonar to find shoals and very large nets, so they can remove huge numbers of fish. The Atlantic cod off Newfoundland collapsed in 1992 and has still not fully recovered.
Overfishing causes several problems:
• removing large, older fish leaves young fish that have not yet bred, so fewer offspring are produced;
• bycatch: unwanted species such as dolphins, turtles and seabirds are caught and killed;
Sign in free to see the rest of this lesson, the R.E.C.I.P.E. recall steps and the quiz
BrainCake is free. Make an account in seconds and pick up where this page stops.
More in Human Influence on Ecosystems
- Risk of Flooding
- The Effect on Organisms
- Changes in Species Distribution
- Farming: Depletion of Resources
- Anthropogenic Changes in the Ocean
- Problems with Conservation
- Fish Farming and Aquaculture
- Endangered Species
All 29 lessons in Human Influence on Ecosystems · All Edexcel A-level Biology topics