All the Fish Are Gone
I would never be affected by the constant changes that used to see around the world. I would always hear about hurricanes, tornadoes, and many natural and not so natural disasters that used to happen around the world and I would always think about how lucky I was by not being present in any of these sites. Today I will talk about the time when this changed; the time when I faced the reality of how our actions are deteriorating the environment.
My name is Erick Aparicio, I am from the Mexican state of Veracruz. this state is known for its ecosystems that are the habitats for a extensive amount of plants and animals. I was raised in a livestock ranch that was mainly focused in the production of pineapples. When I was a kid, the ways of production of pineapple, from planting them until the were harvested used to be in a mechanical traditional way. Every plant of pineapple was planted individually and the care of them were also on an individual basis. Shovels were used to remove weeds that would take the nutrients from the pineapples, there was use of fertilizers, and carbide was applied prior to the harvesting time. It was hard work, but we had a happy life; every summer we used to go to the river that would run across the ranch in order to have a good time. we used to arrive around noon and my father used to go fishing together with his cousins while my mom would start cooking with all the wives. In the meantime my siblings and I would not waist a single minute to start diving, swimming, playing, near-drowning ( because this happened to me many times while playing around with my older cousins) , and fights and many other things that happen to jungle kids. Well my dad and my uncles would come back nearly two hours after they left with plenty of fish to make in soup, and deep fried. Food would be done 30 minutes after they came back and we would start eating, our desert was cold pineapple that my father used to bury by the edged of the river in the sand. We used to walk back to the house, I remember it was hard to get out of the water because it would start to get warm and it would start to get windy. these days were wonderful. The ranch were I used to live had all kinds of fruit trees such as mango, sapodilla, nanzas, grapefruit, guanabana, orange, mandarin, and many more, I know that some of these might not be familiar to you because they are native from these place.
When I turned 11 years old, my parents decided to emigrate to the United States searching for a better quality of life and we left everything behind. A new country,a new life, and new ways of living were adopted my family. When we came here was when we started to appreciate the quality of life that we really had,our food did not have any chemicals, everything tasted simply different. When I turned 18 years old I went to visit the ranch and I found many surprises. The river was a lot smaller, the trees that were in the ranch were taken down to sell the wood, and the one thing that shocked me the most was that there was not enough fish in the river. My uncle who currently lives in the ranch decided to farm fish in order to sell this fish to the local restaurants, before what people used to do was to pay fisherman for any fresh fish that they had. I went with my cousin Franky, well his name is pancho and we started fishing throughout the river with a metal type of tool and goggles. We were able to fish about 20 fish that were about 3 inches long. I was surprised, that never happened before when I was younger.
Another thing I noticed while walking along the river is that there are swamps that were not there. While fishing we were supposed to walk inside the river in order to avoid snakes which are along the bank of the river. I simply thought that people in the towns around were really hungry and ate all the fish.
Not until I returned to Arizona and got enrolled in my biology class, in one of the classes closed to the end of the semester, my instructor talked about a point that captured my attention, the dead zones. He mentioned about how the excessive use of fertilizers, through the process of erosion move from the agricultural zones to the water zones and contaminate all the living matters in it. This helped me to conclude that that is what is really happening in my hometown. There were so many swamps or places that were about to turn into swamps because there were no living fish in that area that would eat the excessive overgrowth of plants underwater, and retaining the water and creating these swamps. In the places where the water is running the most there are a few fish that are taken by the villagers.
By looking at the geographical area, the places where people harvest pineapples at the highest places of the region, this allows the fertilizers and chemicals to erode to the river and cause this dead zones to happen. This is the time when I found out that somehow I was the victim of the deterioration of the environment caused by the human beings. It only took approximately 10 years for all these changes to happen. Together with all these changes I experienced more poverty, most of the richest people bought most of the land and since thy are the only producers, instead of hiring people for labor reasons they use equipment that is replacing the work force of all the villagers. Consequently these people have to emigrate to the capital cities or to the United States. I am thankful that I have not being the victim of a natural disaster, but I have been the victim of something worst; The human beings.
My name is Erick Aparicio, I am from the Mexican state of Veracruz. this state is known for its ecosystems that are the habitats for a extensive amount of plants and animals. I was raised in a livestock ranch that was mainly focused in the production of pineapples. When I was a kid, the ways of production of pineapple, from planting them until the were harvested used to be in a mechanical traditional way. Every plant of pineapple was planted individually and the care of them were also on an individual basis. Shovels were used to remove weeds that would take the nutrients from the pineapples, there was use of fertilizers, and carbide was applied prior to the harvesting time. It was hard work, but we had a happy life; every summer we used to go to the river that would run across the ranch in order to have a good time. we used to arrive around noon and my father used to go fishing together with his cousins while my mom would start cooking with all the wives. In the meantime my siblings and I would not waist a single minute to start diving, swimming, playing, near-drowning ( because this happened to me many times while playing around with my older cousins) , and fights and many other things that happen to jungle kids. Well my dad and my uncles would come back nearly two hours after they left with plenty of fish to make in soup, and deep fried. Food would be done 30 minutes after they came back and we would start eating, our desert was cold pineapple that my father used to bury by the edged of the river in the sand. We used to walk back to the house, I remember it was hard to get out of the water because it would start to get warm and it would start to get windy. these days were wonderful. The ranch were I used to live had all kinds of fruit trees such as mango, sapodilla, nanzas, grapefruit, guanabana, orange, mandarin, and many more, I know that some of these might not be familiar to you because they are native from these place.
When I turned 11 years old, my parents decided to emigrate to the United States searching for a better quality of life and we left everything behind. A new country,a new life, and new ways of living were adopted my family. When we came here was when we started to appreciate the quality of life that we really had,our food did not have any chemicals, everything tasted simply different. When I turned 18 years old I went to visit the ranch and I found many surprises. The river was a lot smaller, the trees that were in the ranch were taken down to sell the wood, and the one thing that shocked me the most was that there was not enough fish in the river. My uncle who currently lives in the ranch decided to farm fish in order to sell this fish to the local restaurants, before what people used to do was to pay fisherman for any fresh fish that they had. I went with my cousin Franky, well his name is pancho and we started fishing throughout the river with a metal type of tool and goggles. We were able to fish about 20 fish that were about 3 inches long. I was surprised, that never happened before when I was younger.
Another thing I noticed while walking along the river is that there are swamps that were not there. While fishing we were supposed to walk inside the river in order to avoid snakes which are along the bank of the river. I simply thought that people in the towns around were really hungry and ate all the fish.
Not until I returned to Arizona and got enrolled in my biology class, in one of the classes closed to the end of the semester, my instructor talked about a point that captured my attention, the dead zones. He mentioned about how the excessive use of fertilizers, through the process of erosion move from the agricultural zones to the water zones and contaminate all the living matters in it. This helped me to conclude that that is what is really happening in my hometown. There were so many swamps or places that were about to turn into swamps because there were no living fish in that area that would eat the excessive overgrowth of plants underwater, and retaining the water and creating these swamps. In the places where the water is running the most there are a few fish that are taken by the villagers.
By looking at the geographical area, the places where people harvest pineapples at the highest places of the region, this allows the fertilizers and chemicals to erode to the river and cause this dead zones to happen. This is the time when I found out that somehow I was the victim of the deterioration of the environment caused by the human beings. It only took approximately 10 years for all these changes to happen. Together with all these changes I experienced more poverty, most of the richest people bought most of the land and since thy are the only producers, instead of hiring people for labor reasons they use equipment that is replacing the work force of all the villagers. Consequently these people have to emigrate to the capital cities or to the United States. I am thankful that I have not being the victim of a natural disaster, but I have been the victim of something worst; The human beings.
