Oceans without life

Ocean without life

The End of the line: Life without fish is a documentary that explains and shows the danger of overexploitation. Until recently, humankind seemed to view the ocean as a source of infinite resources. Its vast size and depth and unexplored frontiers made the ocean appear invulnerable to overexploitation.

The truth is that the populations of many species are decreasing at an unsustainable rate, and the number of species listed as endangered from marine life families such as blue fins, whales, dolphins, manatees and dugongs, salmon, seabirds, sea turtles, and sharks to name a few, are on the rise. The threats to marine species are difficult to perceive because marine animals are not as visible as animals on land. But unfortunately, marine creatures are equally, if not more, vulnerable to problems such as habitat destruction and overexploitation. Shallow water animals that breathe air, like turtles, manatees, dugongs, and whales are often hit by boats and caught in fishing gear. Species such as turtles that lay their eggs on land often lose their nurseries due to coastal development. Animals that have taken millions of years to evolve, that are invaluable to all ecosystems, have and continue to vanish from places where they once flourished.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Marine Species

Loss of habitats, the spread of disease, pollution, and unsustainable fishing practices are directly related to the actions of humans and recovery from these problems is rarely straightforward. Many marine species live in small, specific habitats while others require protection across their migration routes that cover vast areas and include breeding and feeding grounds. Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been designated in many places worldwide, which can help protect and restore threatened species, but MPAs are limited in size and therefore, limited to the marine life that inhabits those areas. There are over 4000 of those sites exist throughout the world however; it is only 1 percent of the water.

This documentary not only explains what happened but also how it happened. As the boats got bigger and bigger and need to catch a fish became bigger as well. With the help of technology fisherman not only know where the fishes are but also the quantity as well. Therefore the fishing boats use huge nets to do a big catch all at once and by doing that they disturb the seabed along with the catch. Without seabed there is no new life because the new born needs to stay hidden to survive.

Every year the demand rises and fishermen go further and further in the ocean to catch. But the catch is getting smaller and smaller also in that process there are many species that have been extinct and there are some on endangered list. Back in 1992, fisheries minister had to put a ban in St’ John’s to stop fishing for several years in order for fishes to reproduce and become sustainable and cod fish were extinct because of overexploitation.

The life in oceans is very important because it keeps the ocean clean and alive. When fisherman use to fish on small boat there was so much fish that they didn’t even need hooks to catch the fish, they just simply scoop the surface and catch the fish. Because there was plenty and they would touch the boat surface. Now to catch the fish the fishermen spends days in ocean and put nets as deep that touch the bottom of the ocean and then scoop from the bottom of the ocean. The world wonders where all the big fish are gone, but the people are in denial they don’t know that they ate all the big ones.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/end-of-line-world-without-fish/

http://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2010/2010-08-18/html/sor-dors173-eng.html

Posted By: Ali M.