Overfishing Research Paper

Sharks one of the oldest animals to live on earth, still mysterious to us. What do they do to keep the ocean to be healthy? Do they even help or make the ocean health worse? Why do sharks need them in the first place? We need them to help the ocean be healthy and balance the ecosystem but due to overfishing they are nearly extinct; what would the effect on humans and fish be and what would the ocean look like?
First the ocean must be healthy to be an asset for food for people. The ocean needs sharks to be healthy. In addition, having a healthy ocean means to have an apex predator, sharks, to help maintain the animals below them, limiting the production rate. By keeping the animals below them maintained, sharks make sure that the fish aren’t …show more content…
Dugongs are similar to manatees but can be distinguished by the forked tail. Dugongs constantly have to move to different areas because of the Tiger sharks preying on them. By forcing Dugongs to move, Tiger Sharks keep the grazing in check which maintains sea grass beds.
In contrast, coral reefs without sharks have an abundance of herbivorous fish that feed of the on the harmful algae that preys on coral reefs. If are no herbivorous fish to stop the harmful algae preying upon the coral then the coral reef is at its expiration date. Having sharks in the ocean is important because humans depend on a source of food that comes from the ocean, fish.
Second, having balanced and unbalanced ecosystems. These ecosystems depend on an apex predator to maintain the animals below them so there isn’t overpopulation and food becoming scarce. Take the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as an example of having a balanced ecosystem. Over half of their fish biomass comes from apex predators which means the coral reef around the area is healthy because sharks keep fish stress which reduces the amount of offspring. Different from the main Hawaiian Islands, which have more than half herbivore fish biomass, which means that there is going to be an eventual shortage of food for the fish to feed on. If there is such a shortage the fish would move out of the area or start to die …show more content…
If the food becomes scarce, then the population will dwindle down to zero or nothing. Since the ecosystem is intertwined with other ecosystems, animals feed on the same animal at some point in time until there is no more of that animal left. What about the human in the world without sharks? Humans who overfished will realize that what they did was a mistake and there is no turning back from the situation. If there are no more sharks left, there will not be any sharks left in the wild on the earth.
Lastly, how would the ocean look like if all the sharks are gone? There are three various parts of the ocean: the surface, middle, and the deep. The surface is what we can see with our eyes as well as some of the middle. The middle is where we can see the fish swimming. The deep we cannot see with our eyes. It’s only darkness because no light shines through it.
First what would the surface look like. The surface would be covered in algae. It’s covered in algae because there are no fish to eat it. For example, North Carolina, where they overfished and the surface was covered in algae. If there is more algae on the top of the surface, no light would be able to shine through. It would kill all the aquatic

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