Demand for Endangered Fish is Killing Thousands of Seabirds – Tell Amazon to Stop Toothfish!

When you think of online shopping, more than likely Amazon will be the first site that pops into your head. The retail giant offers just about anything you could imagine – books, DVDs, electronics, shoes, you name it. Sadly, Amazon also allows vendors to endanger Anaratic wildlife and we must stop this.

According to a Care2 petition, Amazon is allowing its vendors to sell  Patagonian toothfish, often known as the Chilean sea bass, which could not only push this fish species into extinction … but thousands of birds are also killed in the crosshairs of the fishing industry every year.

Many Conservation organizations believe the fish is at risk of disappearing but vendors claim that the fish is certified “sustainable” … despite what little is known about the toothfish’s population. But what is clear? The toothfish are being overfished. The species grows very slowly, taking over a decade to reach sexual maturity and they don’t have many offspring, so the population of toothfish cannot be replenished rapidly.

Fishermen have dubbed the toothfish “white gold” and sadly, their need to catch these fish from the depths of the Antarctic seas is also hurting seabirds. Seabirds such as albatross mistake the bait on the hooks as food and get stuck. According to the Care2 petition, within minutes the seabirds drown.

More than 300,000 seabirds, including 100,000 albatrosses die this way each year. Already 17 albatross species are considered endangered and longline fishing is one of the principal reasons, the petition states. 

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In the past 200,000 years humans have been on the planet, 1,000 species have gone extinction, with one of the driving factors behind species extinction is habitat loss and degradation. Unsurprisingly, both of these things are caused by human interests.

Globally, approximately 2,211 species of fish or 17 percent of fish species are at risk of extinction, according to the IUCN’s Red List. Of these, 233 are located in the U.S. The reality is that fish populations cannot repopulate if we don’t allow them the time to recover, and overfishing will only bring about extinction that much sooner. Overfishing harms other marine life by disrupting the food chain, placing animals that rely on that species as a food source in danger of starvation. And when populations of predatory species are diminished, other species will overpopulate, destroying biodiversity, and causing the entire ecosystem to suffer.

Please urge Amazon to stop selling species that we know are at risk and be sure to share this post within your network and urge your friends to sign the petition as well!

When we know how our everyday actions and choices impact others, we are given the power to make better choices. To learn more about how to start using your food choices to help heal the planet, check out One Green Planet’s #EatForThePlanet campaign.

Lead image source: Ed Dunens/Facebook