The global fishing fleet has more than doubled since 1950, but it's not because the fishing has gotten easier.
Rather, fishing boats travel farther and work longer hours to catch a declining stock of fish, according to a study to be released Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America -- and that could have an impact on the environment.'use strict';CNN.Videx=CNN.Videx || {};CNN.Videx.mobile={};CNN.INJECTOR.executeFeature.then {CNN.VideoPlayer.
Divers swim with rare great white shark 01:00Looking at data on the number of fishing vessels, researchers determined the global fishing fleet went from 1.7 million to 3.7 million boats between 1950 and 2015, the study says. Technology is a large driver of the increase: Fishing boats that had been powered for centuries by sails and oars are now primarily powered by engines. By 2015, 68% of the global fishing fleet was motorized.
The authors argue their estimates of fishing vessels should be used by local governments to better set regulations to protect the environment from overfishing.Overfishing can change the size of the fish that remain and impact how quickly they reproduce, further depleting fish stocks. And fewer fish can make more people who depend it for protein vulnerable to food insecurity. Depleted fish stocks also hurt the $362 billion industry that relies on this highly traded commodity.
If fishing fleets are having to travel further to find fish it’s not a question of how the environmental could be affected... the environment is already being affected by commercial & over fishing. conservation commercialfishing poaching finning deadlycatch wickedtuna