Biotic Resources Prep
In today’s lesson you learnt about the pressures of overfishing and what alternatives there could be.
Another pressure on biotic resources is illegal fishing.
TOK:
The Tragedy of the Commons is an idea which states that a commonly held resource is over-exploited.
Nobody owns the high seas, which are therefore vulnerable to a perfectly legal free-for-all. Much of the
overfishing occurs in territorial waters that stretch 12nm from a country’s coastline, as well as so-called
exclusive economic zones that stretch to 200nm beyond coastlines, over which a more limited
sovereignty exists.
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Read the attached case study on Indonesia and visit
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/the-coral-triangle/2015/jan/14/indonesias-newmarine-laws-threaten-sustainable-fisheries
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Answer the following question: How can we manage illegal fishing? Use the example of
Indonesia but also discuss other methods (see pg.97-98 for help).