Peru Overfishing Problems

Economic activity and our environment have been closely linked since man first discovered the concept of trade. In the language of economics, the environment has itself, become an increasingly “scarce resource1”. Since economics is about managing these scarce resources, it will be a useful tool when considering some of the environmental issues facing our planet. One of the major concerns confronting the environment today is the overfishing of the world’s oceans, depleting some species to near extinction. With continued advances in technological and industrial proficiency, fishing vessels are able to fish across the globe, further exacerbating the effects of overfishing. Because the oceans are considered a shared or common

More than 24 billion gallons of untreated sewage waste and storm water are pumped into the lakes annually. Pollution is increasing as well, due to the cottage development, where people enjoy spending their summers relaxing. For many years, the lake habitats have been affected by pollution and habitat destruction. The market for fish is tremendous; so much so, that we have depleted our fishing resources, and have had to market on invasive species.

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

One of the largest factors that is threatening both marine and freshwater fish populations across the globe is the issue of overfishing, which is made necessary in part by the overly voracious desires of the consumer economy. In addition, the unbalanced fish consumption that is encouraged causes only a select few species such as

People often take the ocean for granted due to its vastness since it makes up over seventy percent of the Earth, however the integrity of the ocean is deteriorating. One of the major, worldwide threats to the wellbeing of the ocean and its inhabitants is overfishing. Overfishing affects not only the ocean, but also the land dwellers. Many countries around the world depend on fish as their main source of food. Tons of fish are caught out of the sea daily, however, the rate that fish are being hauled is far too high where fish stocks are incapable of naturally recovering. There is a decline in population size of affected fish and some species have even faced extinction. Overfishing is the leading cause of ecological extinction, foregoing any other human disruptions to marine ecosystems, such as pollution, water degradation, and climate change (Jackson, et al). Overfishing causes an overwhelming devastation upon the oceans because it depletes food resources, disrupts the food web, and destroys habitats of aquatic organisms, due to this, overfishing causes an oceanic ecological collapse worldwide.

The Humboldt Current, also called the Peru Current, is one of the world’s largest ecosystems that support high levels of biological production. The Humboldt Current extends along the coast of Peru and Southern Chile up to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Although the current has unique features, it faces a serious of environmental challenges. The first one being the cold surface currents. Not only does the cool current produces nutrient-rich waters that rise to the surface and attract multiple fish populations, but it causes the concentrated area to become vulnerable to anthropogenic ocean acidification. In addition, high winds are caused by coastal upwelling zones that are disrupted by El Nino. These high winds cause slow productivity, stock

However, the environmental effects caused by the oil industry in Ecuador are not limited to the Amazon region. The construction of the OCP (heavy crude oil pipeline) threatens many of the nation’s other fragile ecosystems. The pipeline, which would connect oil sources in the Amazon with the ocean port and refineries of Esmeraldas on the Pacific Coast, runs over the Andes through various protected areas and reserves and regions of high tourism activity. (OCP alert, 2) The high range of altitudes (up to 6300 meters) of the Andes, through which the pipeline will run, provides fragile and diverse habitats for a variety of plants and animals. Also, the many isolated areas of the Andean region have led to the evolution of an unusually large number of endemic species.

The south pacific is well known for their upwelling especially around the coast of Peru and it is well known for its high productivity around the world’s oceans and supports a great deal of sea food around the world. However, the region is also known for its fluctuation in the fish stocks due to many biotic and abiotic factors (Figure 1) (Cury, Roy, and Faure 1998; Sandweiss et al. 2004).

Peru is in Western South America, bordering the South Pacific Ocean, between Chile and Ecuador. The climate varies from tropical in the east to dry desert in the west to the frigid temperature in the Andes western coastal plain. Lago Titicaca, which is the world’s highest navigable lake, is shared with Bolivia and is the critical source of the Amazon River. Peru’s highest point is the Nevado Huascaran and the lowest point is the Pacific Ocean. 18% of the land is used for agriculture. It has forest covering approximately 53% of the area. The natural hazards include earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding, landslides, and mild volcanic activity.

Millions of people rely on the ocean for basic nutrition in their diet as well as financially, but the majority of those people do not know what effects of catching that fish might have on the ecosystem. Overfishing has been done for century’s and continues to this day with the first group of fishermen hauling in nearly 500 pounds of fish per fishermen on an eighteen to thirty man vessel in the 11th century. Lack of government also contributes to the problem of life in the ocean to ensure there is an equal balance. Although enforcing laws can ensure the survivability of the oceans ecosystem; cretin fishing companies damage the balance due to the dragging of nets across reefs furthermore removing predatory fish.

As if overfishing in the earth’s oceans wasn’t bad enough and little to no time for the fish’s population to reproduce we are slowly exhausting the vast ocean’s natural ecosystem of their wildlife (Dr. Daniel Pauly, Overfishing.org) and with the probable extinction of the sharks bring ruin the entire global economy, with that the number of sea life with decrease exponentially hence our way of life of fishing will become extremely difficult to fish in the earth’s oceans with little to no fish left to catch. Eventually it may become a reality where fishermen may not be able to maintain their basic living lifestyle and millions of people will suffer unemployment with a deteriorating ocean thus the economic foundation will be at risk of

The Amazon river dolphin is a dolphin with pink coloration that lives in the Amazon Rainforest. The Amazon has a tropical rainforest climate with humid/warm weather, one season, and heavy rain getting between 1,500 mm and 3,000 mm a year. Despite the Amazon being a cradle of life, the Amazon river dolphins are being threatened with extinction. Contamination of their habitats, fishing, and humans killing them for bait are the main contributors to their endangered status. Their extinction threatens the disruption of the river ecosystem of the Amazon Rainforest, because there will be an unbalance of predator and prey, causing other species’ populations to fluctuate negatively or positively.

These species, the Irrawaddy River dolphin and the Vaquita, are vulnerable to the effects of human interference in their environment. The overfishing of their food sources depletes the population. The pollution of modern society is having a huge impact on the oceans. Net fishing is dangerous and proposes a threat to the populations of the porpoise and the dolphin. Without these animals there are many problems. Ecosystems become out of balance. People who depend on the marine life for income must find another way of living. Further research is needed in ways to increase the populations without direct

Peru is a nation composed of heterogeneous ecosystems including the coastline of the Pacific Ocean, deserts, the Andes Mountains including the glacial regions, and the second largest portion of the Amazon Forest Basin (US AID, 2011). Its heterogeneity creates such a dire situation for Peru in terms of climate change and the effects it has on each individual system as well as the effects on wildlife and human occupants that live in these regions. In Peru, the climate changes that have been taking place have led to several disastrous outcomes that include not only draught, but have also led to depletion of the Amazon Rain Forest, an increase in disease, extreme temperature changes, glacial ablation, extreme weather, and changes in the

The first thing that comes to one's mind when fish is mentioned is usually, smelly, nasty, or to some, delicious. In a nutritional aspect, fish is a top priority in a diet because of the protein that it has. Many people fish for food, or just for leisure. Overfishing mainly started in the 19th century, when humans started looking for blubber for oil lamps, which they used for light during the night. When humans started overfishing for the whale blubber it severely reduced and damaged the whole population of the sea life. In the fish population, many fish such as the Atlantic cod and herring were overfished to the point where they almost went extinct by the mid 1900’s. The depletion of the fish population disrupted the aquatic food