Commercial fishing in the United States, as worldwide, has been affected by environmental degradation. The main source of this degradation since the 1970s has been over-fishing by fleets of vessels competing in a very lucrative market. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, American fishing vessels caught 9.5 billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 1991, worth about $3.3 billion. This was double the amount of fish caught in 1970. Generally American fishermen have caught Alaskan pollock, menhaden, salmon, crab and cod, with Alaska dominating the industry followed by the Texas/Gulf and Chesapeake regions. American consumers’ constant demand for shrimp, however, has led to a large fisheries trade deficit.

The reduced harvests that have resulted from the depletion of numerous fish species have only exacerbated the problem in the short term as increased prices for fish have made competition more intense. In the long term, livelihoods are threatened and whole fishing towns have been hit by widespread unemployment. In addition, the need both to reduce costs (sometimes in the area of safety procedures) and to locate harvests at a greater distance from the shore has made work—for those who are able to find it—more dangerous. In many instances, the vulnerability of old fishing populations has enabled new immigrants to establish their own fishing vessels, though the continued deterioration of the harvests makes this only a short-term replacement.

Attempts to control the amount harvested have had significant consequences in international relations and in relations among social groups within the United States. The Japanese have often resisted American attempts to limit the amount of their catches, leading to friction between the two nations. Within the United States, American Indian fishing rights have been established by treaties and so cannot be challenged or altered according to environmental exigencies. For example, whaling remains legal for American Indian tribes on the west coast, while for other fishermen there are strict prohibitions in place. However, the traditional whaling methods used by American Indians limit the number of whales that they can catch.

Meanwhile, angling is the second most popular recreation in the United States behind swimming. An estimated 50 million Americans participate in the sport, 69 percent of them men. The sport is controlled by the states, which set the rules and regulations and give licenses to anglers to fish. Thirty-four million such licenses were given in 1994. But, before assuming that widespread eradication of fishing populations is occurring in the streams and ponds of the United States, it should be remembered that it is estimated that 90 percent of the fish are caught by only 10 percent of the anglers. This suggests that most anglers have little clue about what they are doing, are quite possibly motivated by other things about the recreation besides the catch alone (a suntan and a snooze) and perhaps would not enjoy it much if they caught fish too frequently.

Environmental issues also affect fishing significantly. During much of the twentieth century rivers around the country were so polluted as a result of untreated industrial waste flowing into them that they were almost completely bereft of fish. With the intervention of the Environmental Protection Agency and the growing concern over the environment as a political issue, many states have taken initiatives to clean up rivers and other waterways. Many such bodies of water are now seeing the reappearance of fish populations that have not been seen for decades.

In addition to pollution, global warming and long hot summers in many parts of the US have altered the conditions for anglers. In many ponds, streams and rivers dead fish have been found in the middle of each summer floating on top of algae. Dry weather and heat contribute to the growth of such algae, which then consume the oxygen in the water and cause the fish to suffocate. Where this is not the case, the warm water leads fish like carp and striped bass to head for cooler, fast-moving streams that are more difficult for the angler to master, or for deeper spots in lakes and streams where they are beyond the reach of the anglers’ lures. In other words, the fish can adapt to the changing weather better than the anglers, who are increasingly left with little more than a cancerous sunburn on the embankment.