"The world has passed "peak fish" and fishermen's nets will be hauling in ever diminishing loads"
Because we are land-living, our exploitation
of the land has gone a lot further than the exploitation of oceans, but oceans
are now rapidly exploited. Still, we use only eight percent of the biological
production of the oceans, notwithstanding numerous fisheries have collapsed. On
the temperate continental shelves, we use approximately 35 percent of the
production. Our fisheries are targeting a few species, normally in the top of
the food chain (cod, tuna, salmon). Global predatory fish biomass today is only
about 10% of pre-industrial levels. At a first glance one might believe that it
is quite safe to take the fish on the top of the chain, but that can also lead
to major ecological changes. In addition, some fisheries have vast by-catches
of other species, sometimes up to a third of the catch. The fishermen have to
go deeper and deeper to get the fish and the fishing methods themselves destroy
fish habitat, in particular bottom trawling. In the UK, landings per unit of
fishing power reduced by 94%—17-fold—over the past 118 years. This implies an
extraordinary decline in the availability of bottom-living fish and a profound
reorganization of seabed ecosystems since the nineteenth century
industrialization of fishing. (Vitousek and others 1997, Thurstan and others 2010,
Economist 2009b).
Source: MEA 2005
The
combination of increasing population, subsidies for oversized fishing fleets,
too generous fishing quota, profit-seeking and new technologies has lead to
massive overfishing. Most indications points to that we have already passed
“peak-fish”, i.e. that global catches of fish are bound to decline (Zeller and
others 2009). Between 1950 and 2005, commercial fish and shellfish landings in
the United States increased by almost 90%, which could point to that there
should be no worries. But since 1990, Alaskan waters have accounted for the
bulk of U.S. commercial landings and Alaska is the only region where landings
have increased since 1978. Landings have decreased between 1978 and 2005 in the
West Coast and Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, and the North, Mid-, and South
Atlantic (the H. John Heinz III Center 2008). Within the EU 88 percent of the
fish stock is subject to over-fishing and 93 percent of the cod is caught
before it is sexually mature, and will therefore never reproduce (Thurstan and
others 2010, Economist 2009b). The world trade in fish has increased more than
ten times in thirty years from 1976 to 2007 from US$8 billion dollars worth to
over 90 billion (Ababouch 2009). Ironically, the fisheries are also subsidized
to a large extent. In 2005, the total value added by global fisheries was
estimated by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to US$17 billion
while subsidies amounted to US$27 billion (UNEP 2011).
The
industry is ready to commit suicide at any time
The
world has passed "peak fish" and fishermen's nets will be hauling in
ever diminishing loads unless there's political action to stem the global tide
of over fishing”, says Dr. Pauly, Director of the Fisheries Centre at the
University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. "We don't need more
science. This is a message that's different from many of my colleagues. Of
course, we need to learn more about fish. But research is often publicly funded
on the grounds that this is an alternative to other political action. We know
enough to act to prevent the continued decimation of global fisheries."
[…]. Dr. Pauly is adamant that pulling back from a global fisheries collapse –
one on par with the collapse of various regional fisheries, such as the
Atlantic cod fishery off Canada's Newfoundland coast – requires recognizing
what he describes as a deep divide between the fishing industry and those who
eat fish. He argues that fisheries companies' actions show that they're
primarily interested in maximizing short-term profit, with little or no regard
for the long-term sustainability of fish stocks. "The industry is ready to
commit suicide at any time," he says. (NSERC 2006)
