Solutions

Management changes

There are no simple solutions for achieving sustainable fisheries, but solutions can be realized if individuals and key groups commit to changing our current course. Due to the complexities of marine ecosystems and inconsistent regulations for fisheries around the globe, solutions will necessarily be made fishery by fishery. That’s where your consumer choices can be a powerful force for change.

There are some broad fisheries management principles that will need to be implemented, for example:

Reducing fishing capacity

This could take many different forms, including mandating a decrease in the total allowable catch of a fishery, restricting the amount of time fisheries are open (temporal closures), reducing the area available for fishing (spatial closure), reducing the size of fishing fleets, adjusting the number or type of licenses available and increasing the allowable size of kept fish.

Reducing or rearranging the distribution of quota, if managed fairly and equitably, can also allow communities to obtain better prices for their catch. These types of changes can stabilize supply and improve processing – reducing waste and optimizing returns on ocean resources.

Abolishing government subsidies that keep unprofitable fleets afloat

If fisheries had to maintain financial and ecological sustainability over the long-term, this would force more responsible resource management. Instead, many fisheries operate at a loss, supported by tax dollars.

Changing fishing gears

Reduce or eliminate fishing gears associated with high levels of bycatch or that destroy habitat.

Enforcing existing legislation

In many cases, countries have legislation that theoretically protects fisheries, but agencies have not been allocated the appropriate finances or directives for adequate enforcement.

Creating no-take marine reserves

Marine reserves, or protected areas, are legitimate management tools that should be used to compliment other forms of management that control fishing effort and catch quotas. Marine reserves can ensure that particularly important areas or ocean features are conserved, or they can help restore fish and marine species whose populations have been significantly reduced because of fishing and other activities outside reserves. Reserves can be zoned in many ways, ranging from those that allow extraction to complete no-take zones. There is strong evidence that marine reserves effectively increase the size and breeding potential of organisms within their borders.