How the Rivet Theory relates to Overfishing
The Rivet Theory is the perfect summary of the world's food web, where the rivets are species of animals and the plane is the entire world's ecosystem. Overfishing in the Mediterranean is having a huge impact on over 10,000 species that live within it. Many of these species are or will soon become endangered and eventually extinct.
Take one species out of the sea; unfortunate, but not a huge impact. Begin wiping out 20 different species; the ecosystem will completely fall apart.
Taking these species out of the ecosystem would negatively impact the environment immensely. Once these fish are gone, their predators have no food, leading to a massive drop in their population as well as a sharp increase in the food source of the extinct animals. This off balance would throw off the whole food web and end up affecting many more species than just those of the Mediterranean. In fact, the negative impact is more than likely to be global by 2048.
“So what if a few species end up dying, what does that have to do with humans?”
The impact would will be absolutely massive on the human race. A massive amount of our food comes from the oceans and seas. Less fish means less food for us. Less food combined with our rapidly growing population basically spells out disaster. Not only would your favorite sea foods be out of your diet, but also many other things that you would assume have nothing to do with the sea. As mentioned before, the earth runs off of a massive food web. The extinction of one species leads to the eventual extinction of another. This chain reaction is happening as we speak and it is only a matter of time before it starts to dramatically affect humans lives.
Think that overfishing isn’t your problem? Think again, overfishing affects everyone. Let's take action to prevent the Rivet effect.
Take one species out of the sea; unfortunate, but not a huge impact. Begin wiping out 20 different species; the ecosystem will completely fall apart.
Taking these species out of the ecosystem would negatively impact the environment immensely. Once these fish are gone, their predators have no food, leading to a massive drop in their population as well as a sharp increase in the food source of the extinct animals. This off balance would throw off the whole food web and end up affecting many more species than just those of the Mediterranean. In fact, the negative impact is more than likely to be global by 2048.
“So what if a few species end up dying, what does that have to do with humans?”
The impact would will be absolutely massive on the human race. A massive amount of our food comes from the oceans and seas. Less fish means less food for us. Less food combined with our rapidly growing population basically spells out disaster. Not only would your favorite sea foods be out of your diet, but also many other things that you would assume have nothing to do with the sea. As mentioned before, the earth runs off of a massive food web. The extinction of one species leads to the eventual extinction of another. This chain reaction is happening as we speak and it is only a matter of time before it starts to dramatically affect humans lives.
Think that overfishing isn’t your problem? Think again, overfishing affects everyone. Let's take action to prevent the Rivet effect.