I conducted a survey on 20 UW undergraduate students asking how important of an issue overfishing is in today's world. The students were asked to assign a number between 1-10, with 1 being highly unimportant, 5 being average and 10 being extremely important. The results are the following:
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| Figure 5: Survey results showing the amount of students giving each score |
The numbers average out at around 6, indicating a strong portion of UW students believe that overfishing is an issue of slightly above average importance. In order to eliminate bias, the survey was conducted in Red Square on the UW campus, where high diversity in student's academic fields was likely to be.
So what can I do to help?
Don't underestimate the problem! Sometimes it's hard to get a realistic feeling of a problem if it's not impacting your life directly. Fish is still a common commodity, and at times it may be very easy to forget about the overfishing crisis. So my advice to you is to stay informed and continually read up on overfishing and the different effects its having on our oceans and communities globally.
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| Support your local fish markets! |
Eat smart! Next time you're out shopping for seafood, try to support your local fishermen that abide by fishing regulations and maintain healthy, sustainable stocks of fish. If you're out grocery shopping, try to purchase sustainable and locally caught fish. Only buy what you need!
Spread the word! In my opinion, this is the most effective way to fight overfishing. Let your friends know about the issue through various different ways: Facebook it, create a blog, make flyers, slide shows, etc.! Seek out different groups or organizations in your community concentrated on fighting overfishing, or if there isn't one, try to start one yourself! If that seems too much of a hassle, try getting involved online; there are several petitions you can be a part of, here are a few:
- http://www.petitiononline.com/fishing/petition.html
- http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-overfishing.html
- http://www.change.org/petitions/reverse-the-damages-of-overfishing
Remember: Don't be afraid to get involved! The road to success will be long, but it will truly be worth it!
Again, I think if you are going to use data that you generate yourself, full flushing out what you did and how you did it would make a random statistic more important and meaningful at quick glance. However, I really do like the way you went about tracking down this information.
ReplyDeleteI like the layout of your site and the readability of all the information you've presented (just the right blend of casual and formal to get the point straightforwardly across). However, the data you generated could be presented in a graphic manner, which if I remember correctly is a requirement. It's great that you provided your own data, but you could use some more.
ReplyDeleteCute site!
You provided a lot of good evidence to support the severity of this issue. Looking at the results of your survey, it does not appear that the sample size is representative of the majority of the UW students, which makes me question how many students are really aware of this issue. I really like the suggestions you gave about how we can get involved in spreading the word about overfishing. Being intentional about preventing this issue from spreading is the best way to move towards success.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed. You've done a great job with this site so far. There is a lot of unique data here. However, I agree with previous commenters. It would be a good idea to represent your results in graphical form. Doing so would make your results easier to synthesize all at once. Great job, tho!
ReplyDelete