Ocean_fisheries

Ocean fisheries

A fishery is an area with an associated fish or aquatic population which is harvested for its commercial value. Fisheries can be wild or farmed. Most of the world's wild fisheries are in the ocean. This article is an overview of ocean fisheries.

Statistics

Oceans occupy 71 percent of the Earth's surface. They are divided into five major oceans, which in decreasing order of size are: the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean. Over 70 percent of the world catch from the sea comes from the Pacific Ocean.

More information Area million km2, % ...

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the world's oceans, extending from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south. Covering 169.2 million square kilometers, it is larger than all of the Earth's land area combined.[9] The Pacific contains 25,000 islands (over half the islands in the world), most of which are south of the equator.

The Pacific's greatest asset is its fish. The shoreline waters of the continents and the more temperate islands yield herring, salmon, sardines, snapper, swordfish, and tuna, as well as shellfish.

More information Pacific seas : Statistics, Region ...
More information Pacific seas: Maps and descriptions ...

Atlantic Ocean

More information Atlantic seas : Statistics, Region ...

Indian Ocean

More information Indian seas : Statistics, Region ...

Southern Ocean

The Southern Ocean is the fourth-largest ocean, covering 20,327,000 square kilometers. It is typically between 4,000 and 5,000 meters deep with only limited areas of shallow water. The Antarctic continental shelf is narrow and unusually deep, its edge lying at up to 800 meters, compared to a global mean of 133 meters.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current moves perpetually eastward chasing and joining itself, and at 21,000 kilometers is the world's longest ocean current, transporting 130 million cubic meters per second 100 times the flow of all the world's rivers. The Antarctic ice pack fluctuates from an average minimum of 2.6 million square kilometers in March to about 18.8 million square kilometers in September.

Fauna: squid, whales, seals, krill, various fish

Increased solar ultraviolet radiation resulting from the Antarctic ozone hole has reduced marine primary productivity (phytoplankton) by as much as 15% and has started damaging the DNA of some fish[citation needed]. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, especially the landing of an estimated five to six times more Patagonian toothfish than the regulated fishery, likely affects the sustainability of the stock.[35] Long-line fishing for toothfish causes a high incidence of seabird mortality.

The International Whaling Commission prohibits commercial whaling south of 40 degrees south (south of 60 degrees south between 50 degrees and 130 degrees west). Japan does not recognize this and they carry out an annual whale-hunt which they say is for scientific research. See Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals has limited seal-hunting. The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources regulates fishing in the region.

More information Southern seas : Statistics, Region ...
More information Southern seas: Maps and descriptions ...

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five major oceans and the shallowest.[37] Almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America, it is largely covered by sea ice throughout the year. Its temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes;[38] its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major seas, due to low evaporation, heavy freshwater inflow from rivers and streams, and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities. In summer the icepack shrinks about fifty percent.[37]

Endangered marine species include walruses and whales. The area has a fragile ecosystem which is slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage. The Arctic Ocean has relatively little plant life except for phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are a crucial part of the ocean and there are massive amounts of them in the Arctic. Nutrients from rivers and the currents of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans provide food for the Arctic phytoplankton.[39]

See also


Notes

  1. The World's Oceans and Seas. Encarta. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
  2. FAO 2005 statistics: Fisheries and Aquaculture. Includes fish, crustaceans, and molluscs, does not include marine mammals or aquatic plants.
  3. CIA Factbook: Pacific ocean.
  4. CIA Factbook: Atlantic ocean.
  5. CIA Factbook: Indian ocean.
  6. CIA Factbook: Southern ocean.
  7. CIA Factbook: Arctic ocean.
  8. Elert, Glenn Volume of Earth's Oceans. The Physics Factbook. Retrieved 19 April 2008.
  9. "Pacific Ocean". Britannica Concise. 2006. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
  10. Hopley, David; Smithers, Scott G.; Parnell, Kevin E. (2007). The geomorphology of the Great Barrier Reef : development, diversity, and change. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-521-85302-6.
  11. "Tides in Marginal, Semi-Enclosed and Coastal Seas - Part I: Sea Surface Height". ERC-Stennis at Mississippi State University. Archived from the original on 2004-03-18. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
  12. Bleaching Threatens Caribbean Coral Reefs. CBS News. URL accessed on April 29, 2006.
  13. Alarm sounded for Caribbean coral. BBC News. URL accessed on April 29, 2006.
  14. LME 12: Caribbean Sea Archived 2006-05-04 at the Wayback Machine NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center Narragansett Laboratory. URL last accessed May 14, 2006.
  15. "GULF OF MEXICO". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association.
  16. Pinet, Paul R. (1996) Invitation to Oceanography, St Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., (3rd ed.), p.202
  17. Pinet, p. 206
  18. Pinet, pp. 206–7
  19. Pinet, p. 207
  20. Galil, B.S. and Zenetos, A. (2002). A sea change: exotics in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, in: Leppäkoski, E. et al. (2002). Invasive aquatic species of Europe: distribution, impacts and management. pp. 325-336.
  21. "Marine Litter: An analytical overview" (PDF). United Nations Environment Programme. 2005. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
  22. "ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH INQUIRY INTO THE SCOTTISH FISHING INDUSTRY" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-16. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  23. Phillip Colla Natural History Photography URL accessed January 21, 2007
  24. "Hydrographic Survey Results". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  25. "Red Sea & Gulf of Aden". United Nations Environment Programme. 2005. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
  26. "US Coalition Presence in Gulf Helps Cut Piracy: Commander". Arab News. 2005-07-03. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
  27. FishBase. Ed. Rainer Froese and Daniel Pauly
  28. Siliotti, A. (2002) fishes of the red sea Verona, Geodia ISBN 88-87177-42-2
  29. Urbina, Ian (July 28, 2015). "A Renegade Trawler, Hunted for 10,000 Miles by Vigilantes". The New York Times.
  30. NZ National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (2003) [www.niwa.cri.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/29842/fau-2003-06.pdf Fisheries & Aquaculture Update.] No 6. Retrieved 2 May 2008.
  31. Michael Pidwirny (2006). "Introduction to the Oceans". www.physicalgeography.net. Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  32. Some Thoughts on the Freezing and Melting of Sea Ice and Their Effects on the Ocean K. Aagaard and R. A. Woodgate, Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory University of Washington, January 2001. Retrieved 7 December 2006.
  33. Physical Nutrients and Primary Productivity Professor Terry Whiteledge. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 7 December 2006.

References


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