Overfishing is when we catch more fish than can be born. This leads to a steady decline in populations. Overfishing is a threat to marine fish – but there may be a bigger threat.
Listen to scientist Mark Erdmann talk about how climate change and overfishing are linked.
EU fisheries ministers exclude the public. The countries' mutual positions are kept secret. We citizens are not allowed to influence the decisions that are decisive for the ocean and the planet. The fishing quotas are set over a couple of hectic days and usually exceed the advice of science. Deep Sea Reporter has exclusively interviewed the EU's own Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly, who condemns the lack of transparency…
The ocean's resources belong to all citizens. We want healthy seas, full of fish and shellfish. So - how could fishing for cod in the Baltic Sea be allowed to continue despite all the warning signs? How can herring fishing get the green light even though EU law prohibits continued fishing? For a long time, I lived under the delusion that the European seas were managed democratically. That it is only in dictatorships that predatory behavior is deliberately allowed to destroy life below the surface and destroy the living space of all living things.
I have just finished a film about the depletion of our oceans. It is frightening to see how people are affected, everywhere, when the fish disappear. How people both lose jobs and their source of protein. But how overfishing has affected the ecosystem, in the ocean, can be a far more serious consequence – long-term.
