Fishery Observer


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Fishery Observer

Fishery Observer

Everything has to be in balance; the world is no exception. Human beings have altered the world faster and much more than any other species yet. All actions have consequences so while civilization and progress have tipped the scale towards humans other species have been less fortunate.

The State of Extinction

By now it is undisputed that furthering progress consumes resources. What is consumed by civilization is taken from the pool of resources that other species have available. Fisheries become depleted, soils become arid, and forests are leveled because the need for food escalates as humans multiply and species numbers dwindle.

Just as there is no record of the amount of species that exist, there is no figure for the total of endangered species. Nevertheless, of the 47,677 species evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, 17,291 are threatened. In other words, around 36% of the world’s known species face extinction.

A notable example is the group of mammals: out of 5,490 mammals 79 are extinct or extinct in the wild. However, the group of species at the highest risk of extinction is the amphibians. From a total of 6,285 amphibians 1,895 are endangered (“About biodiversity” IUCN, What we do, February 11 2010).

Moreover, from the planet’s total of wild marine fisheries half are completely exploited and another quarter are overexploited. These results were made public in 2007 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and are included, along with the ones referenced ahead, in the publications issued by the Convention on Biological Diversity (“The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” CBD Publications, 16, March 9 2010).

The Causes of Extinction

Humans thrive in a world rich with resources and so agriculture has claimed 35% of the Earth’s surface according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005. Besides, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports that 26% of Earth’s surface is covered by grazing land. Livestock corresponds to the main use of land, with a third of the entire arable land used for animal feed crops (“The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity” CBD Publications, 19-20, March 9 2010).