How to Achieve Sustainable Fisheries
Overfishing has devastated the world's fisheries. The global fishing fleet is more than twice the size of what is sustainably supportable. Half the world's fisheries are completely exploited and a quarter more are severely depleted. Nearly 90 percent of large salt water fish are gone. Current predictions are that by 2048, all the world's salt-water fisheries will have collapsed. Giant subsidized trawlers drag the bottoms, pulling up coral, disrupting beds and netting millions of "by-catch," fish that are not commercially useful, which are then thrown back dead. This emergency will only be corrected by taking a series of dramatic measures.
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Instructions
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Employ the precautionary principle. Fishing policy is often determined by the industry itself, which has a pecuniary interest in exploiting the fisheries. The principle has been to fish until there is proof that a practice is destructive. But marine ecosystems are complex and not well-understood. The precautionary principle is to abstain from actions when there is a reasonable belief that the practice is destructive.
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Coordinate policies internationally. Over three billion people rely on fisheries for a significant source of dietary protein. More than 550 million people rely on the fishing economy in some way. Consumers in first world nations are often buying seafood that is produced in underdeveloped countries where practices are opportunistic and unsustainable. Without international agreements and enforcement, fisheries become a patchwork of laws and legal voids.
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Continue research. Until the precautionary principle is adopted with regard to fisheries, scientists need to continue to answer questions about the impacts of commercial fishing on oceans and present their evidence to policymakers and the public.
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Ban bottom trawling. In 2007, bottom trawlers caught 800 million pounds of marine animals. By-catch, or the fish that die as collateral damage, can be as high as 90 percent of total catches. Drag nets destroy ocean floor habitat, often irrevocably.
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Label seafood with information about the catch. Educate the public about the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling Alliance, or ISEAL. ISEAL labels on food mean the producer has met a set of best practices standards established by this international association. Encourage consumers to only buy ISEAL seafood.
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Publicize the United Nations Fishing Code of Conduct, and monitor which nations and enterprises are in compliance. Publicize violations and put political pressure on violators to cease and desist destructive practices.
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Implement the management measures outlined in the U.N. Fishing Code of Conduct. License and monitor all fishing enterprises. Ensure they are permitted only for the catch that can be sustainably taken from each fishery. Establish alternative forms of income for workers in the fishing industry. Ensure appropriate gear and methods for the specific fisheries.
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Protect endangered fisheries and begin their rehabilitation. Indefinitely place endangered and collapsed fisheries off limits to fish harvesting. Attempt to repair and restore those fisheries. Re-open the fisheries only after the ecosystem is re-established, and then only to sustainable practices for a sustainable number of harvesters.
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References
- Marine Stewardship Council: Best Practices
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN: Fishing Code of Conduct
- Science Daily: Sustainable Fisheries Needed for Global Security
- World Wildlife Fund: Sustainable Fishing
- World Wildlife Fund: Overfishing
- Marine Conservation Biology Institute: Destructive Fishing
Resources
- Photo Credit fish image by Earl Robbins from Fotolia.com
