Saving Nemo Research Paper

The consumer market for freshwater ornamental fish and related products in the US exceeds $700 million annually and is growing at a rate of nearly 9% per year

Overfishing is a death sentence to the world’s oceans. As technology continues to improve a great deal of fish can be caught quicker; but at what cost? The effects of overfishing can lead to the extinction of not just the animals being fished, but also the predators that rely on fish to eat. Ninety percent of the ocean’s largest animals have been wiped out due to overfishing (“Overfishing- A Global Disaster”, 2011). National Geographic cites the academic journal Science (2006) that predicts by 2048, all fisheries will collapse due to lack of ocean wildlife. Fish are not the only animal caught in the nets used by fishing vessels. Often animals such as dolphins, sharks, turtles, and seabirds are

One of the most commonly shared beliefs about aquaculture is that it has potential to amplify and transfer disease/parasites to wild fish populations, but strict management practices and guidelines have been utilized and supplemented to ensure that US farming operations mitigate current and potential environmental risks associated with aquaculture (NOAA, 2015). Among these practices are regular diver-led inspections to investigate the integrity of nets and net infrastructure, surveillance cameras and even public webcam feeds that monitor the fish farms and in particular monitor efficient use of feed, regular health inspections in efforts to have a head start on disease prevention and detection, and “comprehensive sanitary and biosecurity programs to prevent the introduction and/or spread of pests or diseases from one farm site/cage to another or into the environment.” (NOAA, 2015). Additionally, movements are being made to stop the spreading of disease and to limit oceanic pollution by containing salmon in solid tanks rather than in netting. “In Washington State, Domsea Farms has launched a land-based, freshwater system to produce coho salmon.” (David Suzuki Foundation, n.d.) This method is not only environmentally sound, but it opens up aquacultural boundaries. By containing fish in these large tanks, there is potential for salmon aquaculture to

May 2007 to April 2009 Update Over the past two years, AFC has faced more intense competition, particularly from aquaculturists in Chile. In addition, Chilean output has increased the supply of salmon and the Canadian dollar has strengthened in relation to the U.S. dollar. As a result, AFC has been unable to meet its budgeted revenue targets. Stocks of unsold harvestable fish have increased, as well as the corresponding cost of maintaining the fish, and the company barely made a profit in fiscal 2009. In January 2009, AFC lost one of its largest retail customers, S&F Seafood, to a new salmon aquaculture firm, Nu-Farm Inc. This new

New England Seafood Company executives face a potential two-stage plan to move into the freshwater catfish market because of the banned oyster harvesting along much of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, and increased competition from foreign producers.  These factors have resulted in significantly lower yields for New England Seafood.  In order to stay in business, New England Seafood Company needs to look at harvesting and processing something other than seafood.  New England Seafood Company looks to

The population of many fish species have decreased drastically through the years and, even with current regulations,

Luke Combs Mrs. Daugherty English 9 March 20, 2017 Are Fishing Regulations Strict Enough? Fishing has been around for thousands and thousands of years. It has been a crucial part to our survival and well being as a human race. Nowadays fishing is not only done for food, it has also become a recreational activity. With the large affect fishing has on our society isn’t it important we regulate what we do with the fish? Fishing regulations are used to protect what we do with the fish and the limits we have. Commercial fishing regulations need to be stricter or fishing may not be around forever. Fish populations are declining much faster than scientists ever thought. In fact the population of fish has declined by nearly fifty percent since the

The Atlantic and Pacific Coasts fish stocks overall show little improvement, despite the management strategies that have been implemented to try to increase fish population. This is primarily due to overexploitation

When going through life there are some adventures you have to face. Meeting new people, going places you’ve never been, and dealing with problems that get in the way. A couple movies by Walt Disney have underlying stories that reflect exactly what those adventures can be like. The movies Finding Nemo and Cars show what its like to go through life’s battles but have a prize at the end. The relationship of the two are not precisely the same but portray some of the same challenges that life throws at you. They both have very different stories but almost the same layout and structure to them.

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.

Delgado, C. L., Wada, N., Rosegrant, M. W., Meijer, S., & Ahmed, M. (2003). Fish to 2020: supply and demand in changing global markets. Retrieved from http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/pubs/pubs/books/fish2020/oc44.pdf

When fish like salmon are farmed, often the fish are still kept in the ocean; however, they live inside of nets so that they are still contained. There are many ethical arguments based around these net systems because these nets pose threats to wild salmon. Captive salmon can escape from the nets, which allows them to breed with wild salmon. This can disrupt the natural gene pool of wild salmon. Farmed salmon have been shown to outgrow wild salmon when introduced into the wild, and typically have higher mortality rates, which would be poor traits to be introduced into the wild gene pool, (Hindar, et al., 2006). Unfortunately, with the invasive farmed salmon being introduced to wild populations from escapees of net systems, the recovery of the original wild salmon is unlikely, even if decades went by without more intrusive farmed salmon being present, (Hindar, et al., 2006). Another problem is that the nets do not contain wastes from the captive salmon inside, wastes such as uneaten feed, and feces from the fish are dispersed into the open waters of the ocean. Wild salmon can contract infections and parasites from captive farmed salmon in nets. A study indicated that these parasites, such as sea lice, and infections lead to high mortality rates in wild salmon passing near

Many breeds of fish are being captured at a faster rate than they can reproduce. Some species such as orange roughy fishing became popular in New Zealand in the 1970’s. Over time, it spread to many countries around the world. In the last 20 years, there has been a decline in catch up to 75%. It is no longer common to see in grocery stores as well as restaurants. The amounts of fish that are captured and distributed around the world are alarming opposed to the rate the fish can multiply.

Walmart has a large retail seafood business and it is always a challenge to reduce cost and promote sustainability. With upward trend for the demand of sea-food, depletion of the seafood supply is inevitable unless Walmart have a deep engagement of their supply chain. One strategy that Walmart wants to promote to their suppliers is for all of them to take up the Marine Stewardship Council’s certification program. This process will be time consuming, expensive and complex. The depletion of some fish poses a threat to Walmart and its seafood supply chain.

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