Scenario: Bay of Bengal: depleted fish stocks The Bay of Bengal’s basin contains

Question

Scenario: Bay of Bengal: depleted fish stocks

The Bay of Bengal’s basin contains some of the most populous regions of the earth. No less than a quarter of the world’s population is concentrated in the eight countries that border the bay. Approximately 200 million people live along the Bay of Bengal’s coasts and of these a major proportion are partially or wholly dependent on its fisheries.

The fisheries of the Bay of Bengal have been under pressure for decades and are now severely depleted. Many once-abundant species have all but disappeared. Catches now consist mainly of species like sardines, which are at the bottom of the marine food web. Attempts have been made to regulate fishing in the bay but they have been largely ineffective. In 2015 Sri Lankan authorities claimed to have spotted 40,544 Indian trawlers in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters. Conversely, many Sri Lankan tuna fishermen have also been arrested in India. In Myanmar, until a ban was enacted in 2014, the catch collected by foreign fishing boats was 100 times greater than that of local fishermen.

At night specially equipped, long-armed boats materialize around the islands and shine high-powered green lights into the water to attract plankton and the squid that follow in their wake

Do you think these solutions would solve the problem of the depleted fish stocks in the Bay of Bengal? Explain

Explanation / Answer

These solutions would solve the problem only for a temporary time period. These are not sustainable for long periods as there are other environmental pressures being faced by the bay. High level of waste pollution could lead to massive plankton blooms, further reducing the water’s oxygen content. The main problems Rae economic over exploitation, sustainable forms of waste management, and climate change impacts that are intensifying in unpredictable ways. So here government needs to step up to conserve these resources through informed management in consultation with the communities that are dependent on it. There is a need of carefully designed solutions for such.

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