Daniela, Kai and I left school at about 2:30 to head out to Riverdale on the #1 train. The train ride was an hour long, so we had enough time to review all of our questions on that rickety #1 train. When we finally got out of the train, and figured out where we were, we had to walk uphill on a dirt road to reach Manhattan College. We finally arrived in front of a grouping of tall brick buildings surrounded by a green fence with students streaming out of all exits. At first I was a little intimidated by the size of these buildings, but then we stepped in front I had no idea what to expect. To calm my nerves, I began to mentally review the mini lesson Kai gave me and Daniela on how to conduct ourselves in an interview. When we reached our floor we quickly found Dr. Yelda Balkir, introduced ourselves and began the interview.

What I was most struck by is the fragility of our ecosystem. Everything is connected in its own special way, if one link is broken then the web begins to unravel. Humans have done many things that both help and hinder the health of the flora and fauna in our ecosystem. As it pertains to our relationship with our oceans, rivers and other waterways and the incredible diversity of life they support, humans have been nature’s worst enemy and we are just entering an era in which some humans are trying to be nature’s friend and protector.

I am concerned with overfishing and its unintended consequences both for the populations of ocean life that humans are intentionally trying to harvest and the unsuspecting species that end up as “collateral damage” (to use a term I’ve heard used in reporting on war.) The effect on the species that are being commercially overfished is far reaching. First many oceanic populations are depleted to the point where they are on the brink of extinction. Secondly the secondary species that get caught unintentionally (by-catch) are also harmed. When a species is depleted or removed entirely from an ecosystem there is a hole in the web of life and the consequences are devastating.

As more and more people become conscious and concerned about the effects of overfishing, humans try to come up with solutions that protect the environment and the ecosystem but this requires fighting against or working alongside powerful commercial industries that create the problem of overfishing and by-catch in the first place. Dr. Balkir mentioned, that concerned scientists and environmentalists have done many great things such as making the usage of gill nets illegal. Gill nets were notorious for causing species such as turtles and marine mammals that need to breath air at the surface of the water to drown when they got caught in those nets. Dr. Balkir also explained that scientists are raising awareness of the problems of overfishing through websites such as riverkeeper.com and making commercial fishing companies follow certain rules and regulations.

I’d like to think a bit more about why and how humans create harm to the environment. We fish out all of the fish, trying to meet the demand and we end up wiping out entire species. That was the problem with gill nets. Dr. Balkir said that the “Gill nets caught all of the large fish and the small fish could not survive on their own, and the population rapidly declined.” That even the smallest tampering with the ecosystem could not only disrupt the food chain. It could also disrupt the economy. Dr. Balkir also mentioned that not only other marine animals would be affected, but so would the fishermen. These fishermen depend on these fish in order to maintain their lifestyle and contribute economically to their communities. Without these fish, the fishermen would be out of jobs. This would not only hurt the fishermen, but it would hurt the net makers, the people who make the technology for these fishing expeditions and many other jobs would be in jeopardy.

After this interview I feel that I have to take a step back and look at the big picture. I need to look at everyone who would get affected by the results of overfishing. I need to look at all the different products that would be used to go fishing, I need to look at whole communities that rely on commercial fishing. I would like to find a commercial fisherman who I could interview. There is a lot that I didn’t realize was affected by my topic and after this interview I am going to try to zoom out and look at the big picture.