Industrial Fishing Threatens Chile's Fishermen
Meager Catch
Small-scale fisherman Marcelo Aravena pulls a nearly-empty gillnet into his boat with the help of a colleague off the shore of Tumbes Peninsula, Chile in February, 2011. Since the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization issued a 2006 report declaring several major fishing grounds around the globe are nearly 80 percent depleted — classified as fully exploited, over-exploited, depleted or collapsed of top fishing stocks — overfishing has remained a perennial environmental issue. A more recent report by the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace in 2011 estimated stocks of cod, sharks, and tuna have dropped by as much as 90 percent globally. The overfishing by large-scale industrialized vessels has threatened the livelihood of small-scale fishing communities along the Chilean coast. Photographer Mark J. Davis has traveled to Chile over the past few years, documenting the plight of local fisherman.