What does the phrase wreak havoc mean in paragraph 4 of the passage?
Overfishing
1 The world faces a calamitous food crisis if we do not stop overfishing. According to the United Nations, about one billion people, mostly in developing countries, rely on fish as their primary source of animal protein. What will they do when the fish run out? That crisis could occur soon. While there will probably never be a time when we do not have fish, there could come a time when we no longer have enough fish. The cause of this fish shortage is overfishing. Overfishing occurs “when more fish are caught than the population can replace through natural reproduction,” according to the World Wildlife Foundation. Once this occurs, the species is no longer “sustainable.”
A photo shows a Thai fishing boats moored just off shore
How Bad Is It?
2 Eighty-seven percent of all the world's fish stocks that we know about are at the “breaking point,” according to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). If the EDF is correct, many species of fish may be lost as a sustainable food source forever, unless we change the way we fish the oceans. The Atlantic cod is one example. The cod was once one of the great food resources on earth, but its numbers are now at an all-time low. The populations of other fish are also in danger of being lost as a food source, including herring, Chilean sea bass, and blue fin tuna.
A photo shows an underwater view of a school of codfish
3 How did we reach this breaking point? One cause of overfishing has been a cavalier attitude toward the earth's oceans. Fishers and fishing fleets saw oceans full of fish and concluded that the oceans were inexhaustible. They treated the oceans as if their actions would have no future consequences. Take as many fish as you want; throw out or kill what you do not want; do whatever harm you want: these attitudes have all too often ruled the seas. Currently, only 1.6% of our oceans are protected through international agreements; no fishing is allowed within these areas. Fishing is regulated in approximately one-third of the earth's seas, under national or international laws. However, the vast majority of our planet's waters are an unprotected free-for-all.
A circle graph shows that about two-thirds of the ocean's are unprotected by fishing laws
Using the Ocean as a Fishing Factory
4 The greatest damage to fish stocks has happened in the last fifty years. During this time, large, organized fishing fleets have become weapons of mass marine destruction. These “giant factory ships” use GPS and sonar to locate large schools of their target fish. These trawlers are equipped with massive nets and long, hooked fishing lines that can catch huge volumes of fish at once. With processing plants right on board, these ships package and freeze tons of fish in one operation. The biggest, fastest, and most technologically advanced fishing trawlers wreak havoc as they float along the ocean's surface.
5 In addition to depleting the stocks of the target fish, such as tuna, huge fishing trawlers are responsible for the death of other fish, marine mammals, turtles, and birds that get caught in the ship's nets and on the hooks. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about one-quarter of all fish caught with nets and hooked fishing lines get thrown out because they are the wrong kind of fish, or what the industry calls bycatch. The fastest way for large commercial operations at sea to deal with bycatch is to discard it.
Possible Solutions
6 Many steps have been taken to deal with the problem of overfishing. As a first step, scientists have researched and documented the problem. Using that documented, scientific data, many organizations, such as the World Wildlife Foundation, the Environmental Defense Fund, and Oceana have worked to educate the world about the problem of overfishing. These organizations have also put programs in place to protect marine habitats and to encourage sustainable fishing methods.
7 Some governments have stepped up by passing stricter laws to regulate fishing, such as catch and release programs, catch limits, stricter fishing licenses, and season limits, in efforts to protect fragile stocks and habitats. Additionally, educational information brochures can be supplied to the public for greater awareness about the various fishing methods and their results. Teaching the public about the various fishing methods — e.g., hook and line, which catches just the intended species with little to no bycatch, versus trawling, where a huge net drags along the ocean floor, picking up both the intended fish and bycatch — can help consumers make informed decisions about purchasing their fish.
New Problems
8 Unfortunately, one response to these regulations has been pirate fishing: fishing done without regard to national or international laws. Motivated by both need and greed, individual and commercial fishers alike have violated fishing regulations and laws the world over. As the World Wildlife Foundation reports on its website, “Pirate fishing accounts for an estimated 20% of the world's catch and as much as 50% in some fisheries. The costs of illegal fishing are significant, with the value of pirate fish products estimated at between $10–$23.5 billion annually.” Not only is this a noteworthy illegal profit, these pirate fishers are difficult to stop.
9 Moreover, some governments have failed to respond to the overfishing crisis, or have responded in ways that only make the problem worse. For example, some governments continue to subsidize their fishing industry. While subsidies are meant to help industries that are suffering as a result of the decrease in fish stocks, environmental organizations say subsidies are counter-productive. The governments end up actually paying small fisheries to continue to overfish. These organizations believe that the world's commercial fishing fleet is already far larger than is required to catch all the fish we need.
The Future
10 Overfishing is a complex problem. Governments and organizations are hard at work to try to figure out a solution. So, what can you do to help the situation? Be more aware of where the fish you eat originates. Is it farmed or caught in the wild? Find other sources of protein to eat. Work to expand areas where fishing is prohibited. Solving the problem of overfishing will not be easy, but we can all play a role.
A. find great success
B. catch many fish
C. cause vast destruction
D. serve commercial goals