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Mitigation Strategies & Solutions For Oceans

MITIGATION STRATEGIES & SOLUTIONS FOR OCEANS
Over fishing has caused a massive loss of fish in our oceans. The damage is close to complete but it is almost completely reversible if action is taken soon. Several government studies supporting evidence that several species of fish such as tuna and swordfish are in great danger of extinction if protective measures are not taken soon. Reports are showing that the fishing industry is left fighting over somewhere around 10 percent of the remaining species left. (Declining Fish, 2008).
In the United States there are currently over 30 bills in the both houses of the government to change the way we are managing the ocean’s resources. One such bill is H.R. 21 known as Oceans 21 which is based off of the premise that the nearly 140 laws governing ocean issues are managed by over 20 government agencies with no unified direction but singular goals and that these should be combined into one agency to provide better scientific data, protection, education, and responsibility for the oceans ecosystem.(Ocean Protection, 2007)
Such a task would certainly change the management of the ocean’s resources but until such time there are several steps that could be taken to reduce the damage and promote stewardship for saving the oceans. The cause of most of the problems with fish populations seems to stem from pollution and over fishing. Most over fishing is caused by extremely large industrial fisheries who take more than 49 million tons of fish from the ocean per annum. More than half of this amount is made into meal to feed livestock. The conflict of interest between the government subsidies which total more than 30 billion dollars a year, while lack of ocean protection and regulation is obvious by the budget for the National Marines Fisheries Service being cut by 22 million dollars in 2005. (Bush Greenwatch, 2004) Most subsidies are currently awarded to industrial fisheries furthering the damage to the ocean fishing...