There are not Always More Fish in the Sea

We have all eaten fish at one point.  You slice in, and take a bite, and the unique taste overwhelms you.  The fish has come a long way, but it has been swimming in clean water for its whole life.  For people in South Africa, they are having to start giving up this pleasure because of the poor quality of the ocean water.  The disgusting, silty fish is just one of the results of people destroying the ocean around South Africa.  From overfishing to poor run off control, the ocean is not going to support the people’s livelihood in the future of South Africa.  This issue has been going on for too long to leave unmonitored.  As the African population is affected more and more by the issues that they are making for themselves, it will begin to affect everyone.  The ocean is connected to itself everywhere, and the fish that live in it go back and forth inside of it.  As the population grows more, the fishermen collect more fish, leading to the fish population going down to the point of extinction in certain areas (Basson).  People have currently started small places where fishing is not allowed, and that allows for the fishes to repopulate, making fishing easier and more sustainable (Matern).  However, it is not catching on despite how effective it is, because the water that is best to section off is polluted.  The polluted water comes from the rivers, which comes from the land.  The land normally doesn't pollute the ocean, but current ways of mining and farming are filling the ocean with pollutants and silt.  The current mining operations should be filtered out, but because it costs too much, the mining companies just dump everything into the ocean(Johnson).  The same problem comes from the farming, where the farmers overuse the rivers and fill it with the silt from their farms, which fill up the rivers and then empty into the ocean (Paton).  That impure water makes it impossible for the fish to survive.  These problems don’t only affect South Africa, but they are just as ignored worldwide.  There are policies in place to stop the abuse of the ocean, but they are ignored and not enforced.  For now, the fishermen will have to continue fishing the bare minimum so that small amount will stay, hoping for a day that the ocean, and with it the fish, will bounce back.

Works Cited
Matern, Gerald, and Steve Brooks. "Environmental Tipping Points: A New Slant on Strategic Environmentalism." Global Issues In Context. World Watch, 1 Nov. 2005. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.    
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. New York: Collier, 1986. Print.
"Analysis: Water, sanitation and disease." UPI International Intelligence 29 Sept. 2006. Global Issues In Context. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Basson, Janine. "Overfishing - a Rising Threat to Our Planet - MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet." Overfishing - a Rising Threat to Our Planet - MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet. Environment Magazine, Summer 2011. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Gosling, Melanie. "Worrying Pressure on SA's Fish Stocks | IOL." IOL. IOL, 9 June 2015. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Johnson, Tyler De. "Paying the Price for Mining." IRIN. IRIN, 14 Feb. 2008. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.