Crisis in New England Fisheries - Essay Example

This will be done on the basis of an article titled ‘Crisis in New England Fisheries’ and will also cover stakeholder issues, perspectives, concerns, interests, consequences, and the relevance of environmental science and ethics to the current situation. The said article appears as chapter 3 in the book ‘Watersheds 4: Ten Cases in Environmental Ethics’ by Newton et al. Summary of article: This article successfully puts across the seriousness of the situation, the consequences, and the probable outcomes of remedial actions.

The paper starts with the depleted state of the fishing population and industry worldwide. The authors start off with the nature of fisheries worldwide before moving on to the specific case of New England Fisheries. According to them, nearly 90% of predator fish that is preferred as sea food has been depleted worldwide. This statement has been backed by other researchers, according to the Washington Post. The newspaper states that the world will be totally devoid of seafood by 2048 if not restricted and corrected (Eilperin, 2006).

The total stock has fallen from more than 4 million tons nearly two and a half million tons in the North Atlantic Region where the fisheries in question is situated. The article then provides a detailed history of the fisheries about how it began and boomed starting from the mid 1860s. The area, according to the authors was ideal for fish and its prey due to the climate, vegetation, the shallow water, and the currents. The boom which provided sustenance and livelihood to a larger number of fishermen, their families, and employees was cut down by the arrival of the large factory ships from primarily from Russia and Spain.

These large scale fishing factories practically wiped out all edible and in-demand fish from the area in a matter of ten years. The Federal Government belatedly put a ban, through the introduction of the Magnuson Act, on banning fishing within 200