The Impact of Overfishing on Ocean Ecosystems

Overfishing impacts our ocean ecosystems in many ways, explaining why there has been a lot of national and international organizations attempting to enforce regulations and quotas on fishing so that fish stocks are kept stable.

Firstly, overfishing depletes certain populations in the ocean and leads to imbalances in food webs. For example, when a top predator in a food chain has been overfished and significantly reduced in population, there will be no species in the ocean that could capture enough of the predator’s prey and regulate their population, this leads to a surge in population of the small fish that used to be the prey of the top predator. This can have further negative consequences, as the surge in the population of these small fishes means that there will be a lot of demand for the aquatic vegetation that they consume as their diet, thus leading to the depletion of such types of vegetation.

Moreover, overfishing also damages deep sea habitats. Fishing practices such as bottom trawling involves pulling a net across the sea floor, capturing everything that is in that volume of water. Other than capturing fish, the net will also be brushing against the bottom of the sea floor, destroying natural habitats while causing sand on the sea floor to rise and lower the turbidity of the water. This can have harmful effects on the aquatic plants nearby by impeding the penetration of sunlight to deeper waters and stopping them from photosynthesizing.

Overall, overfishing is a serious issue that can have great impact on the ocean ecosystem. It is thus important to push for reasonable quota and regulations regarding fishing in both national and international waters.