Sustainable Fisheries
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Fish currently supply the greatest percentage of the world's protein consumed by humans. This fact may soon change, however, given that most of the world's major fisheries are being fished at levels above their maximum sustainable yield and many regions are severely overfished. More than 70% of the world's fisheries are overexploited, which threatens the health, economy, and livelihoods of communities all over the world. The global fishing fleet is estimated to be 250% larger than needed to catch what the ocean can sustainably produce.

There are a number of issues that need to be addressed quickly in order to preserve fish stocks as a natural resource. These include among others:

1. Overfishing

Overfishing, formally defined as "situations where one or more fish stocks are reduced below predefined levels of acceptance by fishing activities", means that fish stocks are depleted to the point where they may not be able to recover. Areas such as the eastern coast of Canada and the northeastern coast of the U.S. have fished certain species to collapse, which consequently caused the fishing communities that relied on those stocks to collapse.

In some cases, depleted fish stocks have been restored; however, this is only possible when the species' ecosystem remains intact. If the species depletion causes an imbalance in the ecosystem, not only is it difficult for the depleted stocks to return to sustainable levels, other species dependent on the depleted stocks may become imbalanced, causing further problems.

Solutions:

Access agreements through government deals are helping fisheries in developing nations negotiate better agreements with rich countries that will help protect the marine environment and livelihoods of fishing communities. These local people rely on fish to sustain their health and their livelihoods.

Foreign fishing fleets of enormous size and power from rich countries can overwhelm local people and deplete the fish stocks, causing further harm to the marine environment by disrupting the food chain. The more fish stocks become overexploited, the more fisheries must search for productive waters which are then quickly depleted.

The seafood industry, like all industries, is largely market driven. Seafood consumers are increasingly aware of the threats to global fish stocks, yet greater awareness is needed so that the market demands sustainable products from well-managed fisheries. A potentially powerful intervention is being implemented by organizations such as Blue Ocean Institute and the Monterey Bay Aquarium by publishing seafood guides to help consumers make informed choices when buying seafood. Furthermore, recent legislation requires fish sellers to identify the source of seafood. Some retail outlets such as Whole Foods Market are committed to preserving the ocean's resources by raising awareness and selling only products of well-managed fisheries. Organizations such as the WWF have worked with corporations such as Unilever, one of the world's largest consumer food companies, to form the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which provides a mechanism for identifying and certifying sustainable fisheries.

An independent, global charity, the MSC is headquartered in London and works to promote sustainable marine fisheries, and responsible, environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable fishing practices. This is accomplished by the development of a set of standards, the MSC Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing, to assess and certify fisheries. These standards are based on scientific data and were developed with relevant stakeholders. Third-party certifiers are used to assess MSC certified products. The MSC "seal of approval" allows consumers to purchase fish and other seafood from well-managed sources.

2. Inadequate conservation and management practices

The ocean seems invulnerable because it is vast and under-explored; however, it is increasingly important to know that its resources are finite, and depletion of these resources beyond sustainable levels is irreversible. Overfishing not only causes depletion in individual fish stocks, but also disruption to entire ecosystems and food webs in the ocean. Management of these ecosystems as a whole is needed to ensure the sustainability of commercial fish stocks. The management of ecosystems as opposed to managing only target species entails:

• Maintaining populations of target species to enable their natural role in ecosystems and to enable sustainable reproduction rates.
• Eliminating the use of fishing gear that creates a high level of bycatch, or the incidental catch of nontarget species.
• Closing feeding, breeding and spawning grounds to protect marine ecosystems.

Solutions:

The European Union has established a European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) that seeks to prevent overfishing by better management of fisheries and by communicating with other national governments and markets to ensure sustainability.

Another solution is the establishment of no-take zones and marine reserves, areas where fishing is prohibited, to help replenish commercial fish stocks to secure long-term sustainability.

Two hundred mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) were established in the 1970's to protect fishing resources in developing countries. Foreign vessels negotiate to obtain access to waters within the EEZs. Unfortunately, while this aids developing countries and their fishing communities, the alternative for foreign fleets is to fish the high sea, depleting those resources, or to fish illegally. Access Agreements to the EEZs have alleviated this problem by negotiating a lump sum to allow foreign boats fish their waters. Nevertheless, access agreements continue to contribute to overfishing and to threatening the food security of developing countries. More equitable and sustainable negotiations are needed.

Sustainable fishing has been addressed in the U.S. by the Sustainable Fisheries Act. In 1996, the National Marine Fisheries Service updated and amended the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

3. Habitat loss as a result of harmful fishing practices, which have decreased some fish populations

Reducing or eliminating destructive fishing practices is essential to sustainable fishing. Bottom trawling destroys habitats, indiscriminate fishing practices such as drift nets, long-lining, and cyanide fishing are destructive to habitats and non-targeted species, lost or discarded fishing gear is also destructive to underwater habitats.

Deep-sea trawling is particularly harmful to ecosystems because it strips the entire environment of all living things including deep ocean corals. Continued stripping of deep-sea areas may cause species to become extinct before they have a chance to be identified by science.

Illegal Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing is also often destructive to the marine environment and the species that rely on it.

The use of cyanide is a popular method of capturing live reef fish for the seafood and aquarium markets. Cyanide fishers squirt cyanide into coral reefs where fish seek refuge, which stuns them, making them easy to catch. Cyanide poisons reefs and kills other reef organisms. Less than half the fish caught with cyanide survive long enough to be sold to aquariums or restaurants. It is widely used in Southeast Asia and is spreading to other parts of the world where market demand for live reef fish has created incentives for local fishers. Live fish are much more profitable and are sold to the aquarium trade and to luxury fish markets in Asia.

Solutions:

A moratorium on deep-sea trawling is needed to stop this destructive practice. The damage done to deep sea corals and undiscovered species is immeasurable.

National governments and the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization have developed an International Plan of Action on IUU Fishing, but better monitoring and enforcement is needed.

Viable alternatives are needed and/or laws enacted to stop the destructive practice of cyanide fishing. Consumers can help greatly by choosing to only purchase aquarium fish from retailers that do not purchase fish caught by cyanide. This benefits the consumer as well, given that the vast majority of reef fish caught using this method die within a few weeks.

4. Government subsidies

Governments provide subsidies to fisheries to enable them to increase the catching capacity of their fleets in the form of new vessels and improvements to existing boats, fuel subsidies, tax benefits, and job support. Japan is the largest subsidizer of its fishing industry, providing the equivalent of US$2-3 billion annually. These subsidies are intended to support the fishing industry in these countries; however they do more harm than good with the increased capacity causing the overexploiting of commercial fish stocks and increasing the amount of waste due to bycatch.

Solutions:

Redirecting these funds to be used for improving fishery management would greatly help reduce fishing pressure on already depleted stocks, and would support the industry by preserving the resource for the future. In the European Union, subsidies to support new or to improve existing boats are decreasing and changes in social measures such as retraining fishermen for alternative employment are increasing.

Organizations such as WWF are working with the World Trade Organization to end subsidies by governments that support poor fishing practices.

Additonal Resources
» Overfishing Scorecard - The Ocean Conservancy
» United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
» Office of Sustainable Fisheries: NOAA
» WWF: Sustainable Fisheries
» Wikipedia: Sustainable fisheries
» The Starving Ocean
» Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood - The Blue Ocean Institute
» Oceans Alive - Eat Smart
» Seafood Watch List - Monterey Bay Aquarium
» The Empty Ocean: Plundering the World's Marine Life
» More study needed of ocean toxins: scientists agree

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