high number of people encroaching into wild areas that has extensively lead to poaching and mass hunting.

Targeted fishing of top predators (such as billfish, sharks and tuna) eventually disrupts marine communities, causing increased abundance of smaller marine animals at the bottom of the food chain. This in turn has impacts on the rest of the marine ecosystem, such as the increased growth of algae and threats to coral reef health. Overfishing is also closely tied to bycatch, another serious marine threat that causes the needless loss of billions of fish, along with marine turtles and cetaceans.

WWF works with stakeholders to reform fisheries management globally, focusing on sustainable practices that conserve ecosystems, but also sustain livelihoods and ensure food security.

More than 30 percent of the world's fisheries have been pushed beyond their biological limits and are in need of strict management plans to restore them

The results not only affect the balance of life in the oceans, but also the social and economic well-being of the coastal communities who depend on fish for their way of life.

Overfishing occurs when more fish are caught than the population can replace through natural reproduction

Species become endangered for two main reasons: loss of habitat and loss of genetic variation.

An endangered species is a type of organism that is threatened by extinction. Species become endangered for two main reasons: loss of habitat and loss of genetic variation.

The Sixth Event

The World Conservation Union has estimated that as many as 40 percent of all organisms are under some degree of threat due to habitat destruction, disease, pollution, overhunting and overfishing, or other reasons

It is difficult to be precise because most of the endangered species which are becoming disappearing species have never been identified by scientists.

There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN Red List, and 16,306 of them are endangered species threatened with extinction

IUCN relies on valuable research from around the world to provide new and better information for species

Species assessed as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (EN), or Vulnerable (VU) are referred to as "threatened" species

Conservation literally means the act of preserving something

So to sum up, conservation science is a discipline that studies both people and the natural world and produces strategies to maximise benefits for both.

Although conservation initially focussed mainly on the biological sciences, trying to understand more about species and the environment to protect wildlife, somewhere along the line we realised that, with nearly 7.5 billion people in the world completely changing natural landscapes, it's probably a good idea to look at human dynamics and our interactions with the natural world too.

Males with the best genes (e.g. biggest tusks, darkest manes etc.) father a high proportion offspring, meaning their traits can spread rapidly. Consequently, the population can adapt quickly to new environments (like the ones we're creating for them). Trophy hunting targets these high quality males, leaving the population very vulnerable to change.

Restrictions on the age of animals killed aren't always followed, meaning animals are killed too young and don't get a chance to reproduce.

The money generated from trophy hunts doesn't always go back to the right people, i.e. the community suffering as a result of living alongside these animals, or the conservationists and rangers trying to protect the people and wildlife.

Ethically speaking, shooting an animal and taking it's head as a 'trophy' doesn't sit well with the majority of people.​

Trophy hunting has a smaller footprint than ecotourism; fewer people provide a higher revenue, meaning less flights, and hunters require less infrastructure, meaning habitat degradation is minimal. Additionally, hunters don't mind hunting in less attractive areas meaning more areas can facilitate hunting.

Trophy hunting can benefit local people (via employment, money, and meat) and wildlife if done correctly.

People managing hunting build and maintain waterholes and try to maximise wildlife populations to make it sustainable, whereas in ecotourism there's less need for large populations as a few individuals of a species are enough to make people happy and maximise profits.

Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Switzerland, the World Conservation Union, or International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is an international group dedicated to the protection of natural resources and plant and animal species. Every year since 1963 the IUCN has compiled and released its Red List of Threatened Species, widely considered to be the world's most comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. The Red List groups species according to nine different classifications: Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild, Extinct, Data Deficient, and Not Evaluated.

The Sixth Event: A term used to describe a possible mass worldwide extinction of species due to humanity's impact through population growth; overhunting and overfishing; and habitat loss due to agriculture, pollution, and climate change. Five previous mass extinction events occurred during the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic, and Cretaceous Periods.

The World Conservation Union

40 percent of all organisms are under some degree of threat due to habitat destruction, disease, pollution, overhunting and overfishing, or other reasons

A species is described as endangered when the entire population faces a serious risk of extinction. In the early twenty-first century, as human population growth, large-scale agriculture, and increasing economic development impact the planet in ways never before seen, extinctions are occurring at an unprecedented rate