Plastic Oceans Debate

How to reduce the ocean's plastic

One of the most controversial questions in the world is how to reduce the ocean's plastic. However, becoming tied up with this question may prevent people from understanding the larger threat to the ocean and our survival.

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The only way to save the ocean is to regulate IUU (Illegal Unregistered Unregulated) fishing.  Illegal fishing is destroying the world's oceans by reducing the fish populations the oceans and increasing the dumping of plastic and toxic chemicals into the ocean.  Overfishing causes instability in the food chain, increasing carbon dioxide.

if the world's oceans were destroyed, we would lose 97% of the things that suck up carbon dioxide

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If we can destroy IUU fishing vessels and crew together, we might just have a glimmer of hope to save the oceans and ourselves.

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The Effects of IUU fishing

IUU fishing is a practice that is destroying the world. More than 100 million sharks die each year because of IUU fishing. But why don’t people stop it? The simple answer is that the government doesn’t care because they think other people will do it. But nobody wants to devote their lives to the oceans, and everyone thinks this way, and IUU fishing goes on!

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The only organization that has ever done something effective to combat IUU fishing is Sea Shepherd. Sea Shepherd has rammed and sunk many illegal whaling and fishing vessels. But before we dive into the complex, horrible, evil, twisted world of IUU fishing, I need to tell you why there is IUU fishing.

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Why IUU Fishing Exists

The story is that a long time ago, men thought that the ocean was just a bucket with an infinite supply of fish. People ravaged the oceans for fish, disregarding limit laws about the maximum number of each type of fish you can catch per day.  Instead, the IUU fishermen sweep the fish with nets causing them to have quickly decrease in number.

Because of overfishing, boats now have to go further out into the ocean to catch fish. They catch less fish than was common in the 1960s when one boat could bring home a catch the size of what a whole fleet might bring in today.

The increase in the need for more boats uses more oil and supplies, costing the fleets more money to operate. This increased cost resulted in many boats turning to other sources of income, such as human trafficking and other illegal activities, to make a stable amount of money.

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Today, the main species of large fish, like Atlantic Cod, have been critically overfished.  This means that the IUU fishermen have had to turn to protected species such as sharks.

The more barren the oceans become, the more illegal things the IUU fishermen turn to for profit.  Until finally, they have turned their once legal fishing operation into an entirely illegal syndicate. It starts with IUU fishing, when fishermen create fake ship ID code numbers, fishing identification numbers, and many different names. Most vessels are old and decrepit, yet they can carry thousands of illegally fished marine animals.

After this short explanation, you might guess that people are ravaging the world's oceans, but the IUU vessels are persistent and devious. Sea Shepard has arrested many vessels, and the various governments that found them sneaking into their waters to illegally catch their fish most likely blew them up.

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But many vessels escape back to China, which is the most notorious country for illegal fishing. Here is a famous story of the sea Shepard sinking the world's most infamous poacher ship. Six years ago, Sea Shepard found the illegal poaching vessel, thunder, catching Patagonian toothfish, which was given a fancy name to appeal to people, Chilean sea bass. This resulted in a 110-day chase that broke records, and the vessel thunder tried ramming, going through the ice, burning equipment, and many other tactics, but sea Shepard persisted and pulled up many of their gillnets which were towering wall of death that killed many sea creatures. More than 100 toothfish were found, and the thunder had many more in their freezer. But on the last day of the chase, the thunder’s crew burned their equipment, and the captain ordered them to scuttle the ship. The crew wasn’t even aware of the evil they were doing, and the captain and crew boarded a lifeboat and escaped, but Sea Shepard used one of their small inflatable boats to board it, and though they didn’t manage to save the ship, they raided it and recovered the most vital things. This included a bag from the freezer, and the fish meat inside it was later analyzed as Chilean sea bass or Antarctic toothfish.

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Another example of IUU fishing is fishing for Totoaba.

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Totoaba is a large-sized fish with an abnormally large swim bladder. Most people in China who like to buy illegally smuggled fish bladders are wealthy and believe it will bring them good health. Such baloney is absolutely ridiculous, and the Chinese government is having a hard time controlling this smuggling of fish bladders. Chinese and Mexican human traffickers and drug cartels have teamed up, and together, they smuggle 100,000 dollars for each fish bladder into China. Sea Shepard is working hard with the Mexican Marines to battle these thugs, but the brainwashed local fisherman always protests, and the marines just let the drug cartel fisherman they catch, go! the marines are sometimes even bribed, and the remaining marines are starting t fear just the protestors. Mexico's government is already weak, and it cannot control this outbreak of drug cartels switching from cocaine and other drugs to Toatoba swim bladders, commonly called the "drugs of the sea."

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Sea Shepard has already eradicated whaling in the southern ocean, but Mexico's Totoaba problem and Antarctica's toothfish problem are just a water gun fight compared to China's IUU fleet. There is an estimated super armada of 16,966 IUU fishing vessels, and many have illegally trafficked human victims onboard, threatened with death, and many other horrible illegal sentences. When Sea Shepard captured a Chinese illegal fishing vessel called the Lu Rong Yuan Yu 881. it had already been arrested before, but they could not arrest it again. The next morning they came up to a vessel called the Shangtai 802, a ship known for enslaving people onboard. Sea Shepard drove up to the crew and had a conversation with them. Onboard the ship was one man who even confessed that he had been stuck on board this Chinese fishing boat. The asked the crew of the small inflatable boat if covid nineteen had even reached the united states yet! This was already one year after Covid 19 had been declared a pandemic. These boats can illegally unload, refuel, replenish and stay forever at sea. Many boats have not been in port for two years! Most of these ships are run by Pink Tan marine enterprise vessels, an infamously notorious company for its atrocious savage IUU fishing vessels. However, these vessels do not have factory ships, which is a great advantage for the sea Shepard and the governments where they perform IUU fishing. However, other countries do have factory ships.

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Pacific Marine Trawlers owns the largest factory vessel ever constructed, its name is Damanzaihao, and this massive ship has already been reported twice doing IUU activities. On the second time, sea Shepard's MV John Paul Dejoria vessel. Since then, it has been parked in Peruvian waters and is still there, a massive victory for the Peruvian government and Sea Shepherd. However, many other factory ships remain Unnoticed, illegally fishing, and many focus on other things because of a LOOPHOLE!!!

Illegal whaling. Whaling is a practice that has long been performed, and some consider it a traditional practice. However, since the mid-1800s, when people first invented the massive factory ships that could process and store more than 1000 whales, the population of these intriguing animals has dropped rapidly. The practice, called commercial whaling, has been banned since the 1960s because of the wiping out of whales, some species entirely. However, the IWC (international whaling commission) stated that whaling could be used for scientific research purposes. A very significant and unseen loophole. most whalers gave up, but Japan, which has a history of defying international laws, used its deviousness and started whaling for "research." Every year, they killed 950 whales for "research." however, after returning to Japan, they just sold the whale meat that had already been butchered and packaged on the decrepit and evil ship the Nisshin Maru! But, since 1998, Sea Shepard Conservation society has butted heads with the Japanese fleet consisting of three Yushin class harpoon boats, three individual security ships, and the hulking 7000 ton Nisshin Maru itself.

But before we dive into this war for whales, we need to explain WHY we need to protect whales.

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Whales roam all the world's oceans during their long lives, and each gigantic whale absorbs 33 tons of carbon dioxide each year! Compared to trees which only suck in a minuscule 48 pounds, whales are much more crucial. After 100 years, the whale dies and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. It will lock away carbon dioxide for hundreds of years. without whales, our oceans will be flooded with greenhouse gasses or carbon dioxide. however, after many years of campaigning, Japan fled from the antarctic sanctuary, and the fleet has been inactive ever since!

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So IUU fishing goes on, but only when ordinary people choose to fight for a cause will the earth finally be saved. Chinese IUU fishing boats still ravage the oceans, Patagonian toothfish hunters stalk the seas with gillnets, and Mexican drug cartels continue to obliterate their local ecosystem. but there is still a slimmer of hope that we can reverse the damage. We might already be too late, but it's never too late to try!