Oceans and fisheries — IGCSE Environmental Management (0680) questions by topic
Estimating a fish's real length from a scale bar, describing how El Nino reduces Pacific-coast fish catch, defining bycatch, and evaluating strategies against marine mucilage pollution are the kind of tasks set here, spanning 18 real questions from 2023 to 2025 papers and marks between 6 and 26.
State, suggest, explain, describe and complete are the top command words, and suggest expects a plausible, scenario-specific point rather than a generic statement about the ocean. Because scale-reading and data-interpretation questions here reward showing working even when the final figure is off, checking a drafted answer against instant marking helps confirm whether partial credit for method, not just the final number, has been captured.
What examiners look for
- A recurring criticism is measuring a bar to match the width of others already drawn instead of applying the given scale correctly.
- Examiners note answers on declining fish stocks that omit overfishing, a main reason for the decline.
- Reports flag responses that suggest cleaning affected fish to remove pollution, not recognising that washing does not remove plastics or heavy metals.
- A common error was omitting to name the specific industry involved, which was essential to make the reasoning valid.
- Strong answers correctly identified the direction of warm and cold currents, gained credit for showing working even when the final answer was wrong, and reached a conclusion covering both pollution and overfishing.
May–June 2025, Paper 12
The oceans are a source of food. Describe what is meant by bycatch.
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 11
The diagram shows oil spilling from an oil well into the ocean: surface oil floating on top, rising oil droplets, and the oil well on the seabed. Detergent is being sprayed onto…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 13
The diagram shows oil spilling from an oil well into the ocean: surface oil floating on top, rising oil droplets, and the oil well on the seabed. Detergent is being sprayed onto…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 21
The diagram shows a yellow eye mullet fish with a scale bar of 20 mm. This fish lives in the ocean around New Zealand. Use the scale to estimate the actual length of the fish…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2024, Paper 23
The diagram shows a yellow eye mullet fish with a scale bar of 20 mm. This fish lives in the ocean around New Zealand. Use the scale to estimate the actual length of the fish…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 12
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a part of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California. This is the largest zone of plastic waste in the world's oceans and contains…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 13
The map shows the locations of some major marine fisheries and some cold and warm ocean currents (key: major marine fisheries, cold ocean current, warm ocean current; with Tropic…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2024, Paper 21
Marine mucilage is a very thick and sticky organic material that floats on the surface of sea water. It has similar properties to oil. Strategies for dealing with oil spills are…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 11
The map shows the distribution of some of the major ocean currents, with the Equator marked and arrows representing warm and cold currents. Complete the key to identify cold…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 12
The map shows some features of a coastal area of a country: villages, a city, agricultural land, sandy beaches, a fishing area, an ocean current, and a scale bar (0–2 km). An oil…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 13
The map shows the distribution of some of the major ocean currents, with the Equator marked and arrows representing warm and cold currents. Complete the key to identify cold…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 21
Haddock are caught for human consumption using gill nets. The diagram shows an adult haddock with a scale bar (0–10 cm). Estimate the length of the haddock.
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 22
The table shows the annual fish consumption per person for some countries: country annual fish consumption per person / kg --- --- Brazil 9 Iceland 91 India 7 Laos 25 South Africa…
Answer this question and get it marked →May–June 2023, Paper 23
Haddock are caught for human consumption using gill nets. The diagram shows an adult haddock with a scale bar (0–10 cm). Estimate the length of the haddock.
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 11
Dolphins can be caught in the nets of fishing boats. Some nets are fitted with a dolphin exclusion device (DED) to allow dolphins to escape. The diagram shows a DED: a fishing net…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 12
The bar chart shows the number of oil spills at sea between 1970 and 2020, split by size (up to 700 tonnes; greater than 700 tonnes). State the year with the highest number of oil…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 13
The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) reduces fish catch along the Pacific coast of South America. Describe how the effects of El Niño reduce the fish catch along the Pacific…
Answer this question and get it marked →October–November 2023, Paper 22
Illegal fishing of the Patagonian toothfish occurs. This fishing is unsustainable. Explain what is meant by unsustainable fishing.
Answer this question and get it marked →