Marine animals not intended to be caught get hooked by lines set out to catch target species.

Trawling equipment is dragged along the seafloor, damaging coral reefs and other crucial habitat.

Species not intended to be caught, such as dolphins, get caught in the nets and often die.

Trawling equipment is dragged along the seafloor, kicking up sediment in the process that disturb marine flora and wildlife communities.

Drag nets harvest large numbers of fish on a scale that cannot be done with sustainable pole fishing. This massive rate of harvest is responsible for declining fisheries worldwide.

Overfishing of coastal herring and sardine populations

Illegal whaling ships operating miles offshore

Overharvesting and "finning" of sharks to feed demand in Asia

Overfishing of tuna populations to meet demand for canned tuna

Agricultural activity on the nearby shore that has declined significantly in recent years

Lots of waste is produced

By-catch must be thrown back

Wild populations get a chance to rebound

The ocean is allowed to recover from damage due to fishing gear

Catching farmed fish is easier than catching wild fish

Commercial fishing vessels migrate quickly to areas with large fish populations, harvesting as much as possible before other fishing companies harvest all the fish themselves.

Commercial fishing vessels traveling to areas with large populations of profitable fish and harvesting in abidance with local and state harvest limits.

Subsistence fishermen off the coast of Somalia that fish on a small scale to support their families.

Many subsistence fishermen off the coast of Somalia cannot sustain their livelihood due to competition by larger foreign commercial fishing vessels.

Atlantic Cod populations were decimated in the early 1990s and today there are strict regulations on Atlantic cod fishing, resulting in small-scale recreational fishermen harvesting sustainably.

bycatch

pollution

algal blooms

currents

Overfishing has affected each of the other answer choices.

Shark fishing across the globe

Cod fishing in Newfoundland

King Crab fishing in Alaska

Crab fishing in the Chesapeake region