Environmental Issue in the Philippines

First of all, fish is a common food source in the world especially in areas around the ocean. People all around the world rely on fish for their main food source everyday. The fish population is severely depleting because of lots of overfishing. To show how much less fish there are, my research shows that the amount of fish consumption has gone down in the past few years. Many types of seafood have been overfished also. Places like restaurants have had to replace normal fish on the menu with similar looking and tasting fish because of the lack of seafood. Species like eel and king crab have been overfished to critically low levels. Loads of these species get caught in nets everyday with the chance to escape.

The earliest accounts of overfishing occurred in the 1800s, when the demand of whale blubber nearly wiped out the whale populations. In the mid 1900s, the harvesting of Atlantic cod, herring, and California sardines drove them to the brink of extinction. These high disruptions cause regional depletions of animal resources which is starting to cause a global problem. There has never been a more urgent time for fishing nations to make a commitment towards the sustainability of our oceans. More than 80% of the world’s fisheries have been, or are being pushed beyond their limits and are in dire need of strict management plans. Populations of fish and elasmobranch fish such as tuna, grouper and sharks have been declining to the point where the survival

Have you ever been in a deadly earthquake? In 2013, the people of the Philippines experienced one. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake that affected around 43,000 people with 2,211 aftershocks that ended up killing a total of 185 people. Earthquakes are known as one of the most dangerous natural disasters. This horrific event happened October 15th, 2013. The earthquake hit hardest in the central Philippines, it was reported to be caused by the East Bohol Fault. People act in a response to a natural disaster by gathering resources, spreading word, and government aid.

Overfishing is a global issue that has many negative effects on the environment (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2009). Fish are a major resource that many people rely on for not only nutrition, but also for a means of income (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2009). As the population of the world increases, so does the demand for fish, which puts oceans under a lot of pressure (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2009). Due to advanced fishing technologies and equipment, going out further into the oceans and catching huge amounts of fish is easier than ever (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2009). Froese (2004) defines overfishing as capturing the fish before they reach their full growth potential and diminishing their chance of reproduction. In other

According to the new study made by the international professional team of ecologists and economists, all species of marine seafood are predicted to be collapsed within the 50 years. “Research concludes that the loss of marine biodiversity worldwide is profoundly reducing the ocean's ability to produce seafood, resist diseases, filter pollutants and rebound from stresses, such as climate change and overfishing.” (Stanford University, 2006). The impacts of overfishing marine species loss, can go beyond declines in seafood, which can extend to human health

2. Physiographic natural disasters: Southeast Asia is a realm of islands, peninsulas containing high mountains and deep valleys that is under constant threat from natural disasters. From earthquakes, tsunami, to volcano eruptions, this region has seen it all, including cyclones, floods, landslides, and other hazards. The Pacific Rim is part of the Ring of Fire, in 2004 a tsunami will 300,000 people, 1883 the Krakatau volcano erupted killing 30,000, and in 1815 the Tambora volcano erupted affecting the climate for 20 years. There is a widespread of casualities in this diverse region, putting a struggle on human survival.

The habitats that are exploited to farm fish are becoming ineffective, as a result of disappearing mangroves. Humans should be protecting wild fish instead of over farming them. The issues caused by aquaculture are rendering the ecosystem unsustainable. In this chapter, we learned about aquaculture and all the various problems that come with it.

Oceana.org says, “The ocean feeds hundreds of millions of people and have the capacity to provide a healthy seafood meal to a billion people, every day.” As of now, the world’s population is seven billion, and by 2050, the population will be at nearly nine billion (Oceana). This means the oceans must produce at least twenty percent more fish for the upcoming population (Oceana). Overfishing will cause more of a problem in the future because it is an immense source of food for people across the world. If there is no action taken upon this, the world hunger rate will only continue to increase over time. Overfishing also has an economic impact because it does not guarantee protection in the fishing industry (ESchoolToday). Once the fish population is low, company's supply of fish will become low as well. Once the companies do not have enough food to supply their customers, it will put them out of business. This will lead to unemployment of many workers across the globe

The Pacific Ring of Fire is a long string of volcanoes and volcano sites, that are of seismic activity and or earthquakes, which are surrounding the edges of the Pacific Ocean. The pacific ring of fire is also a very deadly place to live around because on an estimate 90% of all the earthquakes have occurred along the Pacific Ring of Fire, and has 75% of all volcanoes along it.

According to a study done by Living Planet Report in 2015, 29% of the world’s fishing stocks are considered overfished and an additional 61% is fully exploited with no possibility to produce more fish. Our environment is currently afflicted by a number of different problems, one of which is overfishing. Overfishing is defined by FishOnline as, “Fishing with a sufficiently high intensity to reduce the breeding stock levels to such an extent that they will no longer support a sufficient quantity of fish for sport or commercial harvest.” The overfishing situation is being exacerbated by non-sustainable and destructive fishing practices and unfair fisheries partnership agreements; while there are currently attempts being made at fixing these problems and their effects on overfishing, nothing has been extremely effective.

Over the year, millions of people came to South China Sea for fish. This eventually caused huge downfall in number of fishes. Eugenio Bito-onon, Jr., a former mayor of the Kalayaan municipality, said, “For 3 years China never leave. Chinese fishing boats come and go, replacing each other. There are never not boats within sight of the island (Bale 2016).” It is impossible for the volume of the fish not to go down since people are constantly fishing. The article also mentioned that China are building artificial island on top of the reefs, which are the main cause for reef destruction. “When a reef is destroyed, the ecosystem unravels. Reef fish lose their habitat, and pelagic fish such as tuna lose an important source of food. Furthermore, reefs in the South China Sea are connected. Fish larvae from one reef ride the current across the sea to repopulate another reef. If a reef disappears, so does that source of larvae, increasing the chance that local extirpations of fish species will be permanent (Bale 2016).” Destruction of reefs will cause a chain reaction in losing many species of fishes. They are not only destroying natural habitat of fishes, they are also destroying various population of fishes. When one can’t catch freely, they need to catch illegally in order to survive. The author mentioned, “These fishermen would use Blast fishing, which Filipinos call “bong bong” fishing, involves setting off homemade bombs underwater to kill dozens

The main causes of overfishing are poor fishery management with a lack of regulation, unrestricted access to the ocean and illegal fishing. During the last few decades the demand for edible seafood globally has skyrocketed and the high demand is causing us to overfish to keep up with the demand. Unfortunately, fisherman are catching more fish than can be naturally reproduced. There are only limited regulations in place, which means that fishing companies are basically fishing when and where they want to with out any oversite. Overfishing causes such serious effects such as the ocean life getting knocked out of balance. Coastal communities rely on the benefits of the fishing for social and economic health. When we overfish it

In order for there to be plenty of fish in the years ahead, fisheries will have to develop sustainable fisheries and some will have to close. Due to the constant increase in the human population, the oceans have been overfished with a resulting decline of fish crucial to the economy and communities of the world. The control of the world's fisheries is a controversial subject, as they cannot produce enough to satisfy the demand, especially when there aren't enough fish left to breed in healthy ecosystems. Scientists are often in the role of fisheries managers and must regulate the amount of fishing in the oceans, a position not popular with those who have to make a living fishing ever decreasing populations.

    World production of fish is 146,27 million tons 3,36 million tons of fish produced in the

According to the United Nations, 17% of fish stocks worldwide are currently overexploited; 52% are fully exploited; and 7% are depleted. This means that only an estimated 20% of worldwide fish stocks are not already at or above their capacity(Seafarms, 2013). Catches of Pacific herring have decreased by 71% since the 1960s, with Atlantic herring catches falling by 63%. Atlantic Cod catches have fallen by 69% in the same time(Seafarms, 2013). These are just a few of many facts and statistics on the topic of overfishing. The effects of these statistics and facts impact people’s and animal's lives around the