There is an old saying: "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime." However, today, this saying may no longer be true. The reason is overfishing.
In the Philippines, fishing with lights is illegal, but the law is often ignored, because it is a better way to catch fish. Fish are becoming very hard to catch in the South China Sea.
The boats take their fish to market twenty minutes away. There, you can buy fresh tuna, along with many other kinds of fish. The market opens at 6:30 each morning. It was open until 10:00 or 11:00 some years ago. Now the fish are sold out before 8:00. Many of the fish are very small. Some are kinds people don't enjoy eating much. One trader has given up fish and sells chicken instead.
The problem of overfishing is spreading. Since anyone can fish, many people do. Around the world, the number of fishermen and fish farmers is growing. The total has more than doubled in the past 25 years.
But overfishing isn't the fault of just the fishermen. Governments pay people to fish. A new study says that these payments are worth $1.6 billion a year.
Open waters and government pay lead to too many fishermen. Some scientists estimate that 53% of the world's boats are not needed.
Finally, there is another cause of overfishing: better technology. Many poor countries do not have large boats for fishing. However, the rich countries bring their boats to those countries. These boats have new engines, satellites, and computers. And, the technology improves all the time. Better technology makes it easier to catch more fish.
Perhaps the days of teaching people to fish are over. There are too many fishermen and too many fish that are caught. We must find new solutions to this problem, before there are no more fish to eat.