Hunting and fishing have been a part of the past and present of America and all around the world for as far back as the world dates. As far back as we can date, people have always hunted and fished. Back then they needed to because people need food to survive. Now hunting and fishing are starting to become sports. You may think that hunting and fishing can harm the environment, but there are many positive things about them. Hunting and fishing can have some positive effects and negative effects on the environment and economy, so if you don’t really agree with hunting and fishing maybe these facts will change your mind.
Hunting nowadays is becoming more popular around the world. There are many different types of animals that you can hunt. In Minnesota most people hunt for white-tailed deer, moose, grouse, pheasants, turkeys, ducks, and geese. It is more of a sport now than a necessity. Hunting can have some negative effects and also many positive effects on the environment. Here are a few of the positive effects of hunting. Hunting provides large economic benefit to wild life conservation through hunting equipment taxes, hunting license sales, and usage fees not to mention all the money spent yearly by hunters on equipment, hunting trips, and guide services.
Hunters also contribute to making the environment better by contributing large amounts of time and money to hunter run conservation groups that work to increase wildlife habitat and population. Hunting also helps balance the wildlife numbers so they are at their peak populations without starvation or overpopulation. Now let’s have a look at some of the negatives of hunting. Hunting can also have some downsides to it. First off, hunting can affect the forests by pollution. Campfires, recreational vehicles, trash, and other hunting side effects hurt the forest.
Noise pollution is another factor that disturbs the environment. Hunting can also cause deforestation. This is when roads are built in wild land to facilitate access to hunters. To build roads, forests need to be cleared by logging or by burning. The same activities are carried out in order to increase the food available for game species, and in turn increase their numbers for hunters. Hunting can disrupt natural food chains as well. It disrupts the natural prey-predator cycles that are so important for the sustenance of the forest. Long term effects of hunting take a toll on forests and they are slowly lost to us.
Now let’s learn a little about fishing and how it effects the environment. Fishing can have some positive effects on the environment and the economy. First fishing helps provide food for restaurants to sell to their customers. Fish are also sold at fish markets so people have food to survive. Many places in the world rely on fishing to sustain their way of living. Without fishing, they would not be able to make a living or survive. In some countries certain fish and fish eggs are a very important delicacy to them. Fishing helps the world go round and provides jobs for many people who fish on commercial fishing boats.
Fishing helps many people in the world, but still some people have their negative views on it. There are also some negative effects that fishing has on the environment. Destructive fishing practices devastate the marine environment and include bottom trawling, bycatch, the use of poison and explosives, and ghost fishing. The larger and better equipped boats mean the more devastating the impact of illegal fishing techniques. Bottom trawling is an industrial method which uses enormous nets weighed down with heavy ballast which are dragged along the sea floor, raking up or crushing everything in their way, from fish to ancient coral.
Many species, including those at risk of extinction, are accidentally caught and then thrown back into the sea, often already dead. Bycatch refers to all the forms of marine life caught unintentionally while catching other fish. The great proportion of bycatch, millions of tons each year, is thrown back into the sea dead or wounded. All of these forms of fishing have a horrendous negative effect on fishing. Even though there are negative effects, there are also positive effects to balance it out.
There are many advantages of hunting and fishing and also many disadvantages; however, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Hunting and fishing are a way of life for many people and they need them to survive and to provide jobs. They have been around forever, so why do people have to be so negative towards them? People enjoy to hunt and fish as a sport but it also provides food for families. If this essay has changed your opinion on either hunting or fishing and you are looking for something new and exciting to try, get out of your house, get your buddy, and plan a trip to do some hunting and fishing.
