In Rhode Island fisheries announced they want a deduction in the amount of summer flounder caught. In 2016 8.12 million pounds of flounder were caught commercially, and a recreational 5.42 million pounds were caught. This will help recover this fish’s population as a study showed that from 2008-2016 these “fluke” had been overfished from 2008-2016. The fisheries called for a 30% reduction in fish caught. This was because they wanted to reduce fish mortality and improve its stock biomass.
This relates to environmental science as a tragedy of the commons. When their is no regulation on the amount of fish being caught, people will try to catch as much fish as they can, due to the fact that they will make more money. This can deplete how many fish in the lake to the point where the fish will become extinct. This will screw up the ecosystem due to the fact that it will allow smaller fish that are normally eaten by the flounder to grow.
It is sad to read that people want to reduce fish mortality to improve its stock biomass. By doing this ecosystems can be destroyed and leave some species extinct or others endangered. We need to come up with a system that is environmentally friendly and leaves the fish healthy and striving while making a profit.
I know it seems the people running this fishery are worried about money, not the long term effects that reducing flounder caught could affect the ecosystem. I think there is a balance, where there is a healthy fish population through environmentally sustainable practices, while making a profit. Thank you for reading my article.
This is interesting, i think it is important to reduce the amount of fish caught after years of over fishing. This is also important as the human population grows and we have to more heavily turn to the waters to feed the growing pop.
I agree it is important to recover the fish population as it has been depleted for years. We need recover the population, and not constantly overfish so we keep going in the same cycle, overfish, regrow, overfish etc. Thank you for reading my article!