Oceans Pack 7

Question 1

What is overexploitation?

Answer 1

Harvesting a species from the wild at a faster rate than it can replenish itself

Question 2

Why is there overexploitation?

Answer 2

• Population
• Wealth
• Fishing fleets
• Technology
• High seas and EEZ enforcement
• Government subsidies
• Protected areas

Question 3

How does population cause overexploitation?

Answer 3

• Increased to 8 billion people
• Increased demand for food

Question 4

How does wealth cause overexploitation?

Answer 4

• More spending power
• Change in diet to buy more fish to match changing taste
• Fish consumption doubled from 1960 to 2016

Question 5

How do fishing fleets cause overexploitation?

Answer 5

• Increasing in numbers
• Can stay at sea longer
• 55% of oceans are now fished industrially

Question 6

How does technology cause overexploitation?

Answer 6

• Boats can find and track fish shoals
• Previously would have gone unnoticed

Question 7

How does high seas enforcement cause overexploitation?

Answer 7

• Limited rules in high seas
• More fishing

Question 8

How does EEZ enforcement cause overexploitation?

Answer 8

• Size of fishing grounds and lack of resource
• Difficult for nations to enforce regulations

Question 9

How do government subsidies cause overexploitation?

Answer 9

• Given to large scale fisheries
• More boats at sea

Question 10

How do protected areas cause overexploitation?

Answer 10

• Only 1.5% are protected
• most are still open to fishing
• Deplete fish stocks

Question 11

What are the consequences of overexploitation?

Answer 11

• Food supply
• Exports
• Livelihoods
• Employment
• Government quotas
• Alternative diets

Question 12

What are the consequences of overexploitation on food supply?

Answer 12

• Decrease supply in developing countries
• Prices rise out of reach

Question 13

What are the consequences of overexploitation on exports?

Answer 13

• More developing countries with export fish for international trade ST
• Only locally caught fish available for population
• Eventually exports will decrease LT

Question 14

What are the consequences of overexploitation on livelihoods?

Answer 14

• Small fishing operations will be taken over by commercial fishing fleets
• Locals lose their livelihoods

Question 15

What are the consequences of overexploitation on employment?

Answer 15

• Unemployment
• In fishing and associated industries (e.g. processing)

Question 16

What are the consequences of overexploitation on government quotas?

Answer 16

• EU Common Fisheries set quotes
• Blamed for unemployment

Question 17

What are the consequences of overexploitation on alternative diets?

Answer 17

• Other fish have to be eaten

Question 18

What happened in Newfoundland as a result of overexploitation?

Answer 18

• Cod populations declined in 1990s
• Collapse of fishing caused 40,000 to be unemployed

Question 19

What did the International Whaling Commission (IWC) do?

Answer 19

• Moratorium on commercial whaling of all species from 1986
• 88 countries in involved
• Iceland and Norway have their own national quotas due to history of whaling

Question 20

Why did Japan pull out of the IWC moratorium?

Answer 20

• Japan’s whaling comes from post WW2 era
• Whale meat became an important food source during shortages
• Japan continued to hunt whales after the IWC 1986 ban
• Under the premise of scientific research but practice was ruled illegitimate by the International Court of Justice in 2014
• Japan withdrew from the IWC in 2019 to resume commercial whaling in its own waters
• 2025 whale quota in Japan was 413

Question 21

What is being done in the Mediterranean to combat overexploitation?

Answer 21

• Management plans
• No fishing zones

Question 22

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the strategies in the Mediterranean?

Answer 22

• Overexploitation has decreased
• Species with a management plan have recovered and have less pressure
• 73% of commercial species are still overexploited

Question 23

What are the 4 solutions to overexploitation?

Answer 23

• No catch zones
• Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
• Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs)
• Fishing quotas

Question 24

What are no-catch zones?

Answer 24

• Marine areas where the removal of any resources is prohibited
• 3 zones in the UK where fishing is prohibited for nature conservation
• Lundy, Flamborough Head and Lamlash Bay

Question 25

What are MPAs?

Answer 25

- Areas of marine environment that have been reserved by law to protect the natural resources - Protected or managed LT with purpose of conservation - Most are in territorial waters where they can be enforced by the government - Level of protection varies but human activities are restricted - Could have zoning with scientific research or low impact activities (e.g. tourism, artisanal fishing) - Individual sites or a network E.g. Great Barrier Reef

Question 26

How much of the sea is protected now?

Answer 26

- 30% of coastal and marine areas - Due to 2030 High Seas Treaty

Question 27

What are MCZs?

Answer 27

- Protect a range of nationally important marine wildlife and habitats - Enabled under the 2009 UK Marine and Coastal Access Act - 50 MCZs around England protecting 20,000km2 of sea E.g. Offshore Brighton

Question 28

What are fishing quotas?

Answer 28

- Total Allowable Catches (TACs) - Reduce catches to a biologically and sustainable level - Based on scientific advice on fish stocks E.g. EU, USA and New Zealand

Question 29

What is the evaluation of MPAs?

Answer 29

- Many are paper parks without proper management or law enforcement - Criticised for a race to designate than to achieve effective protection - Crisis needs more than MPAs as fish can move - Increased efforts and interventions needs in highly damaging energy, agriculture and fishing sectors

Question 30

How could the approach towards MPAs be rethought?

Answer 30

- Traditionally been static areas - Cannot protect highly mobile species of shifting distributions - Large scale MPAs or mobile MPAs

Question 31

What is the Misool resort in Indonesia?

Answer 31

- In the Coral Triangle - Used to be an extractive industry until 2005 (including fish, sharks and turtles) - Created an MPA - Ecotourism resort funds conservation projects - Employs 200 locals for rangers and hotel workers - 600% increase in biomass of marine life - 25% increase in sharks inside MPA than outside - Illegal poaching increased - Very small scale

Question 32

What is the 2023 High Seas Treaty?

Answer 32

- Aims to protect and sustainably manage the ocean areas outside any single country's control - 60 ratifications reached in 2025 - Operates as a binding international law to create MPAs in international waters - Aims to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030

Question 33

What are the key goals of the High Seas Treaty?

Answer 33

- Protect marine biodiversity by creating legal framework for conservation and sustainable use - Establish MPAs and other management tools in international waters to safeguard species and habitats - Require environmental impact assessments for activities that might harm ocean life - Ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources - Support capacity building and technology transfer to help all countries participate