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The Ripple Effects (Marine Ecosystem Conservation)

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The Ripple Effects (Marine Ecosystem Conservation)

Latest Oceanic News

Donate

Urgent: Endangered

Our Impact

Ocean Diaries

Conservation Heroes

A Minor Perspective

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Video powerpoint about the 2008 Kingston Powerplant, Coal ash spill, TVA, the biggest coal ash spill in America

As of February 2026, TVA stated on the local channel 8 news (WVLT), due to an increase in demand, they will not be converting or changing the power plants.

October 2025, PowerPoint project, excuse my voice it was 5 days after major oral surgery. Hope you enjoy, thanks for watching.

Water it always starts with or leads back to water.

making a diagram of The Carbon Cycle for elementary school kids and explain The Carbon Cycle

This project was from November 2025, to make a diagram of The Carbon Cycle and explain it to elementary school kids. Not my best work.

Amanda Suddath January 2026 Course Project selection 01/14/2026

My selected topic is the relationship between shark population decline and commercial fishing activity. I’m interested in this issue because sharks are essential to healthy ocean ecosystems, yet many species are rapidly disappearing due to overfishing and bycatching. This topic connects directly to my advocacy work and my goal of educating the public about marine conservation. Exploring this data in more detail will help me understand how fishing pressure impacts shark populations and support the storytelling and awareness efforts behind my platform, my personal website www.the-ripple-effects.org

The Impact of Commercial Fishing Activity on Shark Population Decline. My research question is: How does the number of commercial fishing vessels operating in a region affect the local shark population count? The independent variable is the number of commercial fishing vessels (discrete). The dependent variable is the shark population count (discrete). Both variables are countable and suitable for algebraic analysis. This question matters because it explores how human fishing activity may be contributing to shark population decline.

I will use publicly available data from NOAA and Global Fishing Watch, which track shark populations and commercial fishing vessel activity. These sources collect data through satellite monitoring, onboard observers, and regional surveys. The sampling methodology includes stratified sampling across ocean regions and time periods, ensuring consistent tracking of both shark counts and vessel density. This allows for reliable comparison and algebraic analysis of trends over time.

I will analyze the relationship between the number of commercial fishing vessels and shark population counts using a scatter plot and linear regression. The fishing vessel count will be plotted on the x-axis (independent variable), and shark population on the y-axis (dependent variable). This will help determine if there is a negative correlation, indicating that increased fishing activity corresponds with declining shark populations. The slope and correlation coefficient will quantify the strength and direction of this relationship.

I expect to find a negative linear relationship between the number of commercial fishing vessels and shark population counts. As the number of vessels increases, shark populations are likely to decrease due to bycatch, habitat disruption, and targeted fishing pressure. This pattern should appear as a downward-sloping trend on a scatter plot, indicating that higher fishing activity corresponds with lower shark abundance.

Literature Review: The Relationship Between Shark Population Decline and Commercial Fishing. By: Amanda Suddath 01/21/2026

Understanding the relationship between commercial fishing activity and shark population decline is essential for analyzing long term ecological trends and predicting future outcomes. Sharks play a critical role in maintaining healthy marine ecosystems, yet global populations have been decreasing for decades. This literature review examines three scholarly sources that explore how fishing pressure, bycatch, and industrial expansion contribute to shark mortality. Together, these studies provide a strong foundation for analyzing the correlation between the number of commercial fishing vessels and shark population levels in the NOAA Global Shark Trends dataset.

The first article, The Impact of Overfishing on Shark Populations and Marine Ecosystems, provides a comprehensive overview of how targeted fishing, bycatch, and the shark meat trade have accelerated population declines. The author explains that sharks are particularly vulnerable due to slow reproduction rates, long lifespans, and late maturity. As fishing pressure increases, mortality rates outpace natural recovery, leading to long-term declines across multiple species. The article also highlights ecosystem-level consequences, such as imbalances in prey populations and disruptions to coral reef health. These findings directly support the premise of this project: increased commercial fishing activity is strongly associated with reduced shark abundance. The article’s emphasis on ecological ripple effects also reinforces the importance of studying this relationship for conservation and public awareness.

The second article, Sharks Are Dying at Alarming Rates, Mostly Due to Fishing, presents a large-scale analysis of shark mortality across global fisheries. Drawing from more than 150 data sources, the researchers found that nearly one-third of shark species are threatened with extinction, with fishing identified as the primary driver. Even when sharks are not the target species, bycatch mortality remains extremely high. The study also notes that post-release survival rates are low for many species, meaning that catch-and-release policies alone are insufficient to reverse population declines. This article strengthens the rationale for using the number of commercial fishing vessels as the independent variable in the

project. It demonstrates that fishing activity, whether international or incidental, has a measurable and often severe impact on shark survival. The findings also suggest that increases in vessel density are likely to correlate with higher mortality rates, supporting the predicted negative relationship between the variables.

The third article, Half a Century of Global Decline in Oceanic Sharks and Rays, provides long-term historical context for the relationship between fishing pressure and shark abundance. Using data from 1970 to 2014, the researchers documented a 71% decline in oceanic shark and ray populations, driven primarily by increased fishing effort. The study introduces the concept of “relative fishing pressure,” which combines catch rates, vessel activity, and gear types to quantify the intensity of fishing over time. This article is especially relevant to the project because it aligns closely with the NOAA Global Shark Trends dataset used for analysis. It confirms that fishing pressure is a reliable predictor of population decline and validates the use of vessel counts as a meaningful measure of human impact. The long-term perspective also supports the project’s prediction that shark populations decrease as commercial fishing activity increases.

Together, these three articles provide strong evidence that commercial fishing is a major contributor to shark population decline. Each source highlights different aspects of the issue - biological vulnerability, bycatch mortality, and long-term fishing pressure - but all point to the same conclusion: increased fishing activity leads to reduced shark abundance. These findings directly support the structure of the course project, which examines the relationship between vessel numbers and shark population levels over time. By grounding the analysis in current research, the project gains credibility and context, allowing for more accurate predictions and a deeper understanding of the ecological implications. The literature clearly indicates that the expected relationship between the variables is negative, reinforcing the importance of monitoring fishing activity and advocating for conservation measures.

APA References:

Douglas, V. (2025). The impact of overfishing on shark populations and marine ecosystems (Honors thesis, California State University, Chico). ScholarWorks.

Bradley, D., & Caughman, A. (2025). Sharks are dying at alarming rates, mostly due to fishing. Fish & Fisheries. University of California, Santa Barbara.

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (2024). Half a century of global decline in oceanic sharks and rays. NOAA Institutional Repository.

A data driven presentation analyzing how increases in fishing vessels correlate with declines in shark populations using scatter plots, trendlines, and mathematical modeling.

Powerpoint presentation on the ecosystem of Seaweed for sixth graders for my Biology 2 class

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