According to a recent study, as many as four in ten species of fish inhabiting lakes and rivers in North America are in danger of becoming endangered. Through this study, it was also concluded that he number of subspecies of fish in danger in theses water bodies have doubled since 1989.
In the article “Freshwater fish in N. America in peril, study says” the author of the news article summarizes the methods and results in the study, which claims that “people are the chief cause of the problem” (CBC, 2008) for the decline in fish species in North America. Not included in the report however is how these species of fish are being affected so greatly by these “people”. In one sentence stated in the report “people are the chief cause of the problem by polluting and damming freshwater habitats” (CBC, 2008), however nowhere else in the article is this re-touched. This statement requires conceptual analysis due to the fact that the article lacks to describe or go into any detail at all how the human population is damming these freshwater habitats, or how damming these habitats is related to the decline in fish species numbers. After the statement, denoting people as the main problem in this issue, the author then begins to discuss the study to the reader, stating “In the first massive study of freshwater fish on the continent in 19 years, an international team of dozens of scientists looked not just at species, but also at subspecies…” (CBC, 2008) and the previous statement of the main cause is ignored.
In my opinion, I believe the author was trying to explain that by humans damming bodies of water they are negatively affecting the habitats of these fish species, which in turn affects their breeding and feeding grounds, which then forces the certain species to decline in numbers. In order to reiterate this point, the author could have allowed more room for discussion of why people were deemed the main cause of the problem, instead of stating random facts from the study. The statement “people are the chief cause of the problem” (CBC, 2008) could be misinterpreted by the reader due to the fact that the statement appears to be stating that the only reason that so many species of fish are becoming endangered or extinct is do the fact that people are damming freshwater habitats. However this is incorrect due to the fact that other components are affecting the decline of fish population such as environmental (change of temperature in climate) and ecological factors (predators of fish species becoming great in numbers).
Therefore, in order to be more concise with the wording of this particular statement, the author could have added more clarity by further discussing the accusation of people being the sole factor causing the decline in fish populations in North America.
Resources:
CBC, 2009, Freshwater fish in N. America in peril, study says
September 11th 2008, Accessed October 27th 2009
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2008/09/11/fish-endangered.html
Emily Hartwig
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ReplyDeleteAlthough there are other possible causes of the decline in fish populations (ex: climate change, as you said), humans might be the main one. Having made this seem like such an important statement, the authors should have elaborated more on the reasons instead of moving on to other points. I guess the purpose of the article was more to show the effects of what humans do rather than explain why these effects occur, but more background information would really have been helpful in showing the reader what can be done to stop these problems from happening.
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