The Terrible Truth About Fishing Populations

One of the most common rebuttals to a tale about a terrible date or breakup is “there is plenty of fish in the sea”, however, this saying is proven to be an empty promise, as current statistics show that this is no longer the case. In this case, I am not referring to the number of people in the modern dating world, I am referring to the literal fish in the ocean. According to National Geographic, by the year 2048, all marine fisheries will be depleted due to overfishing and pollution. This fact may seem too giant to grasp, but the effects of overfishing and marine pollution can be felt globally. 

I first noticed that marine ecosystems seemed to be on the brink of an ecological disaster when I began working at Bar Jack Fishing in Lantana, Florida in November of 2021. As the company’s regulars came in from their drift fishing trips, they would constantly tell me about how they barely caught fish and how they used to catch an immense amount of fish per trip. Then, the captains and crew started talking about the extreme decrease in “keeper” fish (fish that are within the size and amount limits allotted by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission). That is when I decided I wanted to find out if the claims from local fishermen and fishing crews had any scientific grounding, which led me to ask: have humans destroyed marine biodiversity for good? In this article, I interviewed two subjects in Lantana, Florida: a local fisherman and a drift boat captain to see what their firsthand experience was with the alleged decrease in marine fish populations over the years.

Photo from Bruce Cyr

Seventeen percent of the total amount of animal protein that is consumed internationally is fish products. This number remains steady, even as the population of the world increases. However, according to Scientific American, the amount of fish in the Ocean has been halved since the 1970s. Daniel Hall has been a fisherman for as long as he can remember. At 23 years old, some of his favorite childhood and adult memories consist of going out on the water to catch fish with his dad, but even in his considerably shorter life than other Lantana fishermen waiting “line in the water” on some of the Florida docks, he still has noticed a drastic change in the amount and size of the fish he has caught over the years.

“You see guys nowadays pulling in baby Mahi and King Fish and keeping them. They used to be so much bigger. And they’re only catching a few, they used to have fish boxes filled with stuff. I honestly am scared to know what’s going on in the Ocean,” recounts Hall. 

Hall’s observation is not wrong. A report published by the World Wildlife Federation, showed a significant decrease in the number of marine species between the years 1970 and 2012, with fish alone showing a 50% decline in populations over that period. 

Captain Bruce Cyr, captain of the Lady K, a drift fishing charter boat in Lantana, Florida, has been working in the fishing industry for 17 years. He first worked as a mate on the B-Love III Drift Boat in Lantana, Florida and the Lady K. He then began running the Lady K as a captain in the year 2010. He attributes the fall in fish catch due to many factors, such as global warming, water pollution,  and overfishing. The increase in the effect of these destructive factors on the fish populations has come from unregulated human activities that have been practiced over centuries. Yet, they are beginning to show signs of unalterable consequences.

“Overfishing has caused an enormous impact on the fish stocks. I remember acre-sized schools of sardines and other baitfish and how, over the decades, those schools shrank down, and have become nothing more than a memory,” said Cyr. 

The facts prove Cyr’s observations. According to Oceana.org the sardine population on the West Coast Pacific, in 2017, fell by 95 percent since the year 2006. Since 2006,  the sardine population biomass has dropped to a dangerously low level, falling from 1.8 million metric tons to 86,000 metric tons. These patterns have been uniform in sardine populations on the east coast as well. 

Chart courtesy of Oceana.org

In addition to overfishing, pollution- in both chemical and solid form- has had a huge effect on marine fish populations. 

“The flow of high nutrient and chemically rich fresh water that has been discharged into rivers or canal systems for over a century has impacted our reef systems,” said Cyr. “The chemicals from insecticides and fertilizers, as well as organic tannic acids have diminished water quality and clarity.”

Fish that are exposed to pollution can either die immediately upon ingestion or absorption, or the pollutants can accumulate within the fish’s body, causing illnesses and- ultimately- death. Some illnesses that are caused by pollutant exposure include epidermal papilloma, fin/tail rot, gill disease, hyperplasia, liver damage, neoplasia, and ulceration. All of these illnesses cause fish death and decrease the fish population in the ocean. 

The Earth is on the brink of an ecological disaster. The fish populations are being strained by pollution, overfishing, as well as other human influence. If we do not regulate what we put into the ocean and what we take out, then the ocean’s fish populations will never recover.

“The balance of the ocean is very delicate, and without any human impact, would sustain life for eons,” explains Cyr. “We have no one to blame other than ourselves, as a race, for the destruction of our oceans and the declination of sea life.”