The Reality of Overfishing

What Is Really Happening With Overfishing?

We are conditioned to see the ocean as an infinite blue void. But it’s not — and we’ve been proving it for decades.

The most visible sign of this breakdown is the war on the guardians of the sea. Sharks have outlived the dinosaurs, surviving five mass extinctions — but they may not survive us. Since 1970, populations of open-ocean sharks and rays have fallen by about 71%, mostly from overfishing, and over a third of all shark and ray species are now threatened with extinction.

One widely cited study estimated that about 90% of large predatory fish — sharks, cod, tuna and swordfish — have been removed from the oceans since industrial fishing began. When you strip away the top of the food chain, the entire structure beneath it begins to buckle.

While the world worries about deforestation on land, another loss is happening beneath the surface. Every year, bottom trawlers drag nets across millions of square kilometers of seabed, an area approaching the size of the Amazon rainforest. They can smash slow-growing coral and sponge habitats that take centuries to recover, and in some fisheries most of the catch is thrown back dead as bycatch. Imagine burning a forest to harvest a single basket of berries.

38% of Global Fish Stocks Overfished

About 38% of fish stocks are harvested faster than they can reproduce. Most of the rest are already fished right at their sustainable limit, leaving almost no room for more pressure.

Source: UN FAO, State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture

Top Predators Stripped Away

Sharks, tuna, cod and swordfish have been heavily depleted over the last century. Removing the top of the food chain throws the whole marine system off balance.

Sources: Myers & Worm, Nature (2003); Pacoureau et al., Nature (2021); Dulvy et al., Current Biology (2021)

Seabed Scorched Earth (Bottom Trawling)

Industrial trawlers scour a vast area of seabed each year, crushing deep-sea corals and sponges. In some trawl fisheries, the majority of the haul is discarded as dead bycatch, including juvenile fish, sea turtles and dolphins.

Source: Sala et al., Nature (2021)

"We are no longer living off the interest of the ocean — we are burning through the principal."