Troubled Oceans

General failures of fisheries management

Inadequate regulations and management
Oversized fleets fishing above sustainable capacities
Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported catch (IUU)
Wasteful fishing practices
Habitat damage prevents population recovery
Aquaculture

Inadequate regulations and management Fisheries management has been characterized by a chronic lack of action on problem fisheries, a tendency to work under the assumption of best-case scenarios and a strong reluctance to enforce sustainable catch quotas. In the early 1990s, for example, Canada’s Atlantic cod fishery collapsed. This catastrophic collapse followed years of mismanagement, where the advice of government scientists was largely ignored. In 1992, the government placed a total moratorium on cod fishing. As a result, 35,000 to 40,000 people in Atlantic Canada lost their jobs. After 15 years these stocks still show no sign of recovery.

Oversized fleets fishing above sustainable capacities In many countries, including Canada, governments have played an important role in expanding excessive fishing capacity by using tax dollars to subsidize fishing that occurs at an economic loss. On a global scale, subsidies reach nearly $50 billion a year and are estimated to represent 20 to 25 per cent of the total value of all landed catches. The World Trade Organization requires that countries provide detailed disclosure of subsidies. However, the World Wildlife Fund (1999) reported that more than 90 per cent of fisheries violated these rules.

Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported catch (IUU) IUU is one of the main threats to the world’s fisheries. Unfortunately, this problem is largely ignored around the globe. Illegal fishing occurs particularly in areas with poor enforcement. Few countries are able to thoroughly patrol their waters and the high seas are essentially unregulated. The Patagonian toothfish (or Chilean sea bass) fishery is infamous for piracy, where it is estimated that at least 50 per cent of the Chilean sea bass sold on the world market is obtained illegally.

Wasteful fishing practices Many fisheries produce a high proportion of bycatch or discard (fish that are captured, but subsequently thrown overboard before the boat returns to port). For example, when trawling for shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico, 4.5 times the weight of marine organisms retained is thrown back (Harrington et al. 2005).

Discarding occurs for two main reasons:

1. Boats want to continue fishing for target species. Regulations often require a boat to stop fishing when it reaches a set amount, or quota, for bycatch species. This gives a strong incentive to discard bycatch.
2. For business reasons, boats prioritize hold-space. Boats will also discard non-marketable and low value species that they are licensed to keep. This occurs because most boats have limited hold space and aim to generate profits that are reduced by the high fuel costs incurred traveling to and from fishing grounds. To do this, boats try to retain the greatest proportion of high value species on each trip. Non-marketable species include those that are often captured in bottom trawls which scrape up organisms such as sponges and corals.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s annual average bycatch was estimated at 27 million tonnes, or 35 per cent of global landings. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that bycatch rates have now been reduced to approximately 7.3 million tonnes per year globally. While it is good news that discards have decreased, diminished bycatch (and greater retention) in the face of ongoing global fish declines indicates that fish populations have likely been failing even faster than initially thought (Zeller & Pauly 2005).

Habitat damage prevents population recovery Many fishing gears damage habitat on the sea floor. These areas are often used by juvenile fish and are essential to the life cycle of many species. One of the most damaging practices is bottom trawling or dragging, where large steel frames with attached nets are pulled along the ocean bottom, scraping up fish and all other marine life in their path. The United Nations is presently being asked to consider a global moratorium on bottom trawling on the high seas, which include those areas of the oceans outside any country’s national waters (exclusive economic zones), that extend 200 miles offshore. The high seas make up 64% of the world’s total ocean areas.

Habitat damage is not limited to bottom trawling; other fishing methods that damage the environment include blast-fishing, cyanide fishing, clam dredging and open-net cage aquaculture. It is worth noting that while blast and cyanide fishing are illegal—although still practiced widely—trawling and net-cage aquaculture remain legal in most countries of the world.

Aquaculture Seafood is increasingly produced by aquaculture, or fish farming. In cases where carnivorous fish are grown, fish farming is depleting rather than supplementing wild capture fisheries. While raising fish on a plant-based diet can significantly increase the amount of protein available, the practice of feeding edible wild fish to farmed species leads to a net loss of fish protein. For example, depending on the region, it takes 2-8 kg of wild-caught fish to produce one kilogram of farmed salmon. This practice accelerates the depletion of wild fish stocks and strains the global food supply, particularly in poorer nations where fish is an important source of protein. Closed containment systems that separate farmed and wild fish alleviate many of the impacts aquaculture has on marine environments and is preferable. However, farming fish naturally adapted to eating a plant-based diet, such as catfish and tilapia, that contribute positively to global supply of protein are the best choice for sustainable aquaculture.

For more information on aquaculture visit FarmedAndDangerous