By Vicky Bond, PhD
Bycatch
We know that practices like bottom trawling and longline fishing claim the lives of iconic marine animals like sea turtles. In addition to turtles, species like sharks and dolphins face the most danger of becoming “bycatch”—animals unintentionally captured by fishing equipment. The fishing industry doesn’t report on it, even though bycatch impacts millions of fish and marine animals.
As apex predators, sharks are essential to the natural balance of ocean ecosystems, but they are rapidly disappearing. A combination of bycatch and deliberate fishing (particularly for what fins) kills up to 273 million sharks each year, permanently altering the underwater ecosystems they call home and endangering some shark species beyond recovery.
The fishing industry also devastates cetaceans like dolphins and whales. A 2020 report published in the Endangered Species Research estimated that commercial fishing killed more than 80 percent of dolphins in the Indian Ocean. Although tragic, these examples only represent a small fraction of the animals who are victims of indiscriminate fishing practices.
Toxic Water Conditions
Industrial fishing practices harm ocean ecosystems long after the catch is reeled in. Fishing operations abandon old nets and gear in the water, leaving them to entangle marine life and contaminate the oceans with plastic for decades. This lost and discarded fishing gear—known as “ghost gear”—represents the oceans’ most significant source of plastic pollution. A 2023 Nature article states, “Macroplastics represent 88 percent of the anthropogenic debris, and, like other debris types, peak in deeper reefs… with fishing activities as the main source of plastics in most areas.”
Fishing nets account for almost half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch’s contents, a collection of floating ocean trash larger than Texas.
Aquaculture farms keep fish away from their natural habitats, but their impacts extend beyond their operations and into the ocean. Crowded and filthy fish farms create the perfect conditions for diseases to spread. A study found that disease-causing viruses and bacteria were twice as common in areas surrounding salmon farms. Parasites like sea lice escape from factory fish farms, impacting wild fish populations. Sea lice infestations are painful and sometimes deadly, growing more common as factory fish farms expand their operations.
Overfishing
Overfishing occurs when fish are caught and killed faster than their populations can replenish. Slow-reproducing species, like sharks, suffer the most from overfishing.
“[O]ne-third of the world’s assessed fisheries are currently pushed beyond their biological limits,” stated a 2022 UN blog based on information from the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Commercial fishers will decimate fish populations to profit in the short term, ignoring that the practice destroys ocean ecosystems in the long term. This irresponsible fishing hurts marine life, habitats, and human communities that depend on the oceans for survival.
Illegal Fishing
Governments try to regulate the fishing industry to protect against overfishing, but this regulation has limitations. Commercial fishers continue to operate without licenses, kill populations in protected marine areas, and purposely leave catches unreported despite regulations. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is rampant in the fishing industry. “Researchers estimate that at least 1 in 5 fish caught globally are caught illegally, with a total cost to coastal nations between… $10 billion and $23 billion a year,” according to a 2023 Pew article. A September 2014 study published in the Marine Policy found that an estimated 20 to 32 percent of U.S. seafood imports came from illegal catches.
Sadly, illegal fishing has a disproportionate impact on developing countries, as well as on those communities most dependent on the sea for food security and income.
Managing Fishing
Overfishing and illegal fishing are plaguing our oceans. Fisheries continue profiting from these reckless and dangerous practices because we lack the management and enforcement to stop them, especially in international waters.
When regulatory agencies and governments don’t have the resources to regulate ocean areas, these areas suffer from the negative impacts of overfishing and reduced biodiversity. A study by PEW Charitable Trusts found that “insufficient and ineffective management of industrial fishing” contributed to decreased ocean biodiversity.
According to a 2019 Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report, “More than 40 percent of amphibian species, almost 33 percent of reef-forming corals, and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened [with extinction].”
Illegal fishing has even taken a toll on marine protected areas (MPAs)—critical marine habitats—where fishing is prohibited but still occurs due to lack of enforcement of protections. In December 2022, world leaders took relevant steps to reverse the damage to our marine ecosystems by making a “commitment to protect and conserve 30 percent of the world’s land, freshwater, and ocean by 2030,” according to the World Wildlife Fund. There is a need to ensure this goal is achieved by coming up with meaningful conservation measures and dedicating more human and financial resources toward this goal.
The Cruelty of Fishing
The fishing industry prioritizes profit above all else. Whether catching fish in the wild or raising them in a crowded factory fish farm, the industry operates with the same goal: kill the maximum number of fish in the shortest time. Its reckless pursuit of profit leaves ocean environments damaged beyond recovery and inflicts massive suffering on marine life everywhere.
These fish are not mindless creatures; each one is a unique individual. They have complex inner lives, social dynamics, and problem-solving skills. They will go to great lengths to care for and defend their babies and even seek comfort from one another when they are stressed. As we learn more about the underwater lives of fish, it becomes clear that they are not so different from the land animals we know and love.
And, like land animals, fish can feel pain. The commercial fishing industry inflicts pain on an unfathomable scale. When they are suddenly and violently pulled from their ocean homes, the rapid change in pressure their bodies experience causes decompression sickness—the same illness that scuba divers refer to as “the bends.” The resulting gas build-up can rupture fish’s swim bladders or cause blood clots and hemorrhaging.
After fish are reeled to the surface, they suffocate to death. Their agonizing last moments can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours or even months.
Many fish species must constantly move to get a consistent water flow over their gills. When they stop moving, they suffocate from lack of oxygen. Discarded fishing equipment like nets and longlines indiscriminately don’t only suffocate fish. Still, entanglement by such equipment also kills an estimated 300,000 whales, dolphins, and porpoises each year, according to the International Whaling Commission.
The industry’s cruelty doesn’t stop at the pain it causes marine life. Investigations by the Environmental Justice Foundation revealed slave labor in the fishing industry in 2019. Workers endured dangerous and filthy conditions aboard fishing vessels, spending long hours doing manual labor without food or water. In interviews, workers shared that their bosses would dock their already meager wages, verbally threaten them, and sometimes physically assault them.
All of this exploitation and abuse goes on to bolster the multibillion-dollar global seafood market. When it comes to maximizing profits, there are no depths to which the fishing industry won’t sink.
What You Can Do
The fishing industry sees only the bottom line. It abuses workers and animals to maximize profit. It plunders ocean ecosystems, turning once-vibrant, diverse environments into barren wastelands and weakening our planet’s defenses against climate change. However, we have the power to stand up to the fishing industry and end its destruction.
When we remove fish from our plates, we remove the industry’s incentive to destroy ocean wildlife and our environment. Instead, we can opt for foods that are kinder to animals and the environment.
Innovations in plant-based seafood are challenging the fish industry, with companies offering fish-free, ocean-friendly versions of everything from sushi to fried shrimp. Some startups are experimenting with “lab-grown” seafood, harvesting natural fish cells to create authentic seafood without killing fish.
Switching to compassionate, plant-based options benefits the oceans and can make a huge difference for the planet.
Vicky Bond is an animal welfare scientist and president of The Humane League, a global nonprofit working to end the abuse of animals raised for food. She is a contributor to the Observatory. This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.
