Discuss the ways in which the marine environment could be managed more sustainably.

Fish stocks are decreasing world wide largely due to overfishing. This is a major problem for the marine environment. I am going to be identifying and discussing possible solutions to managing the marine environment more sustainably, such as: fishing quotas, minimal catchable size, fishing effort limits, no take zones and closed seasons Fishing quotas sets a certain weight of a fish that can be caught by each boat. The idea is that it would stop fishermen from catching too many fish. On paper this looks very good but in reality these quotas have resulting in the wasting of many perfectly good fish, as fishermen throw back the surplus fish back in to the ocean to avoid fines. By controlling the mesh size of fishing nets it allows smaller juvenile fish to escape the nets and leaving the full-grown fish behind. This allows the younger fish to reach maturity and replenish the populations. However some fish reach full size before they reach sexual maturity e.g. tuna and cod. Regulations can be set to limit the size of nets, boats and the time spent out fishing. By reducing the fishing effort the catch will also be reduced. This can be achieved by setting incentives such as giving money to fishermen to sell their boats and stop fishing. No take zones have proven to be a very successful tool in replenishing the fish stocks. A no take zone is when an area is completely out of bounds to fishermen. They allow the population to increase undisturbed and it also eventually benefits the fishermen as the area around the no take zone often becomes more fruitful. A similar concept with a closed ban means that there is no fishing is allowed during a certain time usually when breeding occurs. In conclusion I think that the current management of overfishing is adequate but a lot needs to be improved for example the waste problem with the fishing quotas. Also I believe that there should be more of successful solutions such as no take zone and closed seasons.