Marine life imbalance
- Targeted fishing of top predators (such as billfish, sharks and tuna) eventually disrupts marine communities, causing increased abundance of smaller marine animals at the bottom of the food chain.
- This in turn has impacts on the rest of the marine ecosystem, such as the increased growth of algae and threats to coral reef health.
- Overfishing is also closely tied to bycatch, another serious marine threat that causes the needless loss of billions of fish, along with marine turtles and cetaceans.
Decreased food security
- Coastal communities around the world depend on fish as their primary source of protein.
- Overfishing threatens their long-term food security, particularly in developing countries.
- Arctic
- Costal East Africa
- Coral Triangle
- Major fishing villages and towns
Economic loss
- Fishing is integral to economies around the world.
- Overfishing threatens coastal nations down to the local level, devastating communities whose chief source of labor and revenue hinges on healthy, plentiful stocks of fish.