You could be the reason fish are vanishing from the oceans! The shocking reality and consequences of harvesting fish into extinction

Fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids; health experts and doctors consistently urge large consumptions of fish every day. However, the populations of fish are rapidly dropping due to massive amounts of human harvesting.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The oceans can be virtually emptied of fish by 2050, says Jillian Fry, John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future's project director to NBC News.

Although the nutrients found in fish oil can help prevent heart disease, aid brain development and improve adult cognition, "I'm not sure we should be even advising people to eat 8 oz. of fish per week," explains Fry. "But we should at least include advice that people eat lower on the food chain: sardines, anchovies, herring. Those fish reproduce much faster and are a very healthy choice."

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The harvesting of fish, along with failure to clean up the environment, can bring about massive marine extinctions. Ocean-going fish have declined by nearly 40 percent in the past 40 years.

Even though the United States has "some of the strictest regulations when it comes to fishing," "most of the fish Americans currently consume" come from other countries, according to NBC News.

"We are mostly eating other people's fish," stated David Die, a research associate professor in the department of marine ecosystems and society at the University of Miami. "About 80 to 90 percent of the fish we consume are produced overseas, while 60 percent of what we produce goes overseas."

Alternative choices for fish harvesting involve fish farming. However, it's a flawed system. Fish farmers are feeding their fish stock other fish.

"It doesn't have to be done that way," Dr. Walter Willitt, a professor and chair of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to NBC News. "We don't need to be feeding small fish to create big fish."

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Strongly suggesting the consumption of lower-food-chain fish and only eating fish caught locally are two othe ways to save the oceans fish from extinction.

"There are countries that are severely overfished with fisheries that are poorly managed," Author of "Four Fish" and "American Catch," Paul Greenberg says. "Consider that 30 percent of the fish we import is from illegal fisheries. The rest of the world is running themselves into deficits. It's hard to imagine that problem being solved without some serious science and some 'come to Jesus' thinking."

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