The Environmental Impacts Of The Fishing Industry In Tanzania

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

“Why should the leaders of chemical businesses be held responsible for polluting the marine environment with a few grams of effluent, which is sublethal to marine species, while celebrity chefs are turning out endangered fish at several dozen tables a night without enduring a syllable of criticism” (Charles Clover, 2004).

There are also some negative effects that fishing has on the environment. Destructive fishing practices devastate the marine environment and include bottom trawling, bycatch, the use of poison and explosives, and ghost fishing. The larger and better equipped boats mean the more devastating the impact of illegal fishing techniques. Bottom trawling is an industrial

To elaborate, the article mentions how mere individuals/companies are able to do such unjustifiable damage to the environment, but without much opposition. This implies that there is a preference of the interests of such individuals/companies, which are indeed affluent for they would otherwise not be able to do such actions towards the environment and government decisions, over the majority of the people, whom are poor and prefer for the environment not to be utterly destroyed. As mentioned previously, this inequality in terms of power is because of the promotion and allowance of social hierarchy and wealth inequality under capitalism. Moreover, the desire to continue to exploit and degrade nature resources is because of the desire to continue to attain profit and wealth, in which the pursuit of attaining profit and wealth, as mentioned previously, is the basis of capitalism. Based on all of the dangers posed by extensive natural resource degradation, it is critical that we combat this issue to achieve a sustainable economy for the well-being of everyone and for a promising

Lake Victoria in Africa is on the verge of dying because of environmental crises: raw sewage and chemical pollution, illegal fishing and many other problems. In addition, the lake is shrinking by as much as 150 feet a year in some places. 40M Africans in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are depending on the lake for their sustenance and life in general, making this one of the worst unfolding environmental disasters.

As an ordinary consumer in the United States walks through the grocery store and observes the piles of food, they probably do not think twice about it. However, the process of globalization is fueling consumerism, which causes the overabundance of food present in environments such as grocery stores. One of the often-overlooked items that has a large impact is the high demand for fish, which causes overfishing that disrupts fish populations and by extension coastal communities that depend on fishing as part of their subsistence strategy. Consumerism also increases pollution, climate change, and plastic waste, all of which also devastate marine and freshwater organisms. The consumer industry that is growing along with globalization has a severe negative impact on both aquatic ecosystems and local cultures and economies.

Besides fishing for Nile perch, fishermen raise them in controlled cages underwater (Global Invasive Species Database). Fishermen do this to curb the possibility of not being able to catch Nile Perch in the Lake Victoria (Global Invasive Species Database). Communities surrounding Lake Victoria do not know exactly how to reverse the impact of Global Warming and overfishing (McDonnel). Serious economic damage would happen if Lake Victoria’s fish all died. Lake Victoria provides income for two million individuals (McDonnel). The shortage fish in Lake Victoria raises the market value (McDonnel). This causes food shortages because fish has become unaffordable for the lower class majority (Mcdonnel). Besides stirring up economic problems from the pond, the Nile perch impacts a much bigger picture. The nile perch is an oily fish (Lowe). Tree’s are cut down to make fires to dry out the catch (Lowe). The absence of trees has caused landscape erosion and habitat damage to Lake Victoria and surrounding areas

“The Nile perch was introduced to Lake Victoria, Africa in 1954 to counteract the drastic drop in native fish stocks caused by overfishing.” (Browne) It has caused the extinction of more than 200 different fish species through predation and other means. The Nile Perch has gone through a variety of names from 1758 all the way to 1932, common names that the Nile perch also goes by is the African snook and the Victorian perch. In 1929 there was a study done in order to examine the fish in Lake Victoria to see their commercial liability.

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.

Surprisingly, Lake Victoria is one of the largest tropical lakes in the world. As many as 1484 Folsom lakes could fit inside of this substantial lake. This body of water is identified by the Queen of the United Kingdom or Queen Victoria. The rain was the cause of the expansion of Lake Victoria, this rain fills up 80% of the lake, and the other 20% comes from any other nearby, streaming lakes. All in all, the institution of exotic fish species, especially the Nile perch, has altered the freshwater

Research has shown that fish population has decreased due to human interference. Enough that laws are being demanded for the protection of the fish. Large amounts of rainforest have been cleaned out for human use. Also they have planned dams which will interfere with the water flow that

The production and consumption of any good can be traced by the demand that people have for that good, on both a local and global scale. However, many factors affect the demand; on the local scale factors such as the cultural significance the good holds with the people, and on the global scale the environmental impacts of the production of the good can cause repercussions that ultimately disturb the demand. One such good are shark fins.

Another global effect of overfishing is fish farming or aquaculture. It was first started to help preserve the ocean and hoped to help people to obtain a reliable fish source. Unfortunately, what many came to realize is the downside of fish farming. One example is water contamination, where consequently waste products such as foods eaten, feces and other dead fish, are all dumped into our main water supply which contributes to water pollution. Moreover, chemicals that are used to treat the fish farms like antibiotics and algaecides are all released into the ocean; which is a real cause for concern for our oceans. Fish that come from the fish farms are pumped full of drugs, to prevent sickness in the fish but this is not healthy for us to eat. There is also a great environmental impact which includes the fact that to sustain fish farms, portions of

Additionally, many environmentalists argue that consumerism has severe affects on the environment and blame it for many issues society is currently facing. Some major concerns about consumerism are that it can cause pollution, land contamination, and forest degradation. The production and waste of products used in consumption is related to pollution. Industrial waste and automobiles are primary examples, as well as waste from industrial agriculture and individual consumer waste. A main issue that exists is the exporting of pollution and waste from developed countries to poorer countries, a process which is done due to the fact that poorer countries have lower standards or exempt from the emission reduction targets (Shah, 2010). Similarly, according to the Chief economist for the World Bank Larry Summers the World Bank should be encouraging more migration of dirty industries to less developed countries, ironically the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is perfect, however there are many countries in Africa that are vastly under-polluted. Their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently low compared to city like, Los Angeles or Mexico City (Robbins, 1999). According to Larry Summers,

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