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Findings released more than a year ago in Science Magazine provide overwhelming evidence that loss in marine biodiversity, which is "directly caused by exploitation, pollution, and habitat destruction, or indirectly through climate change and related perturbations of ocean biochemistry" (Worm et al., 2006, p. 787), lead to significant overall decrease in productivity. This decrease in biodiversity and subsequent decrease in productivity, as well as the disruption of ocean currents from global pollution (Pew), directly impacts all of humanity, from those who eat and catch fish to the land-locked nations without any immediate connection to the fishing industry. Boris Worm, the scientist who introduced the idea of "no fish by 2050," quoted in an article as saying, "we're going to run out of viable fisheries, out of all seafood species by the year 2050" (ScienCentral, 2006), in conjunction with several other authors, issued the report in Science Magazine relating the devastating effect of the loss of biodiversity:
"Human-dominated marine ecosystems are experiencing accelerating loss of populations and species, with largely unknown consequences. We analyzed local experiments, long-term regional time series, and global fisheries data to test how biodiversity loss affects marine ecosystems services across temporal and spatial scales. Overall, rates of resource collapse increased and recovery potential, stability, and water quality decreased exponentially with declining diversity. Restoring of biodiversity, in contrast, increased productivity fourfold and decreased variability by 21%, on average. We conclude that marine biodiversity loss in increasingly impairing the ocean's capacity to provide food, maintain water quality, and recover from perturbations. Yet available data suggest that at this point, these trends are still reversible" (Worm et al., 2006, p. 787).

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The World Fisheries

"In 2000, the FAO stated that 72% of the world's marine fish resources are either fully exploited or in decline. This state of overexploitation has led to practices in cascade fishing, where smaller, immature individuals or different stocks of lesser value and quality replace the former stocks that existed in higher trophic levels. Thus, leading to the current declining trend in fish harvest from high-value demersal fish to lower-value pelagic fish" (Duke). According to Annual Commercial Landing Statistics from NOAA, the tonnage of fish caught in US fisheries from 1950 to 2006 has nearly doubled to more than 4.3 million tons per annum, with a peak in 1997 at nearly 4.8 million tons (NOAA, 2007), yet because of this increase in production, the fish stocks have decreased by 90% since 1950 (Big-Fish, 2003). "Only 10 percent of all large fish - both open ocean species including tuna, swordfish, marlin and the large groundfish such as cod, halibut, skates and flounder - are left in the sea, according to research published in today's issue of the scientific journal Nature" (Big-Fish, 2003). The fisheries are as susceptible to collapse as the ecosystems upon which they depend.

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A major problem facing the enforcement of international fishing regulations is the issue of flag hopping and fishing under flags of convenience.  The phenomenon is a direct result of many countries opening their fishing registries to fishing companies of other nationalities. By allowing this, countries can increase the revenue that they gain from fishing, and this has made the idea of open registry very popular in poorer countries such as Panama and Bolivia.  All of this sounds fine, when the country allowing open registry follows international protocol.  However, the reason flag hopping is so detrimental to international fishing regulations is that many countries where open registry is popular, do not abide by international fishing laws nor do they sign on to international treaties.  This means that fishing companies that register under the flag of these countries no longer have to abide by these laws either.  They can go into marine reserves and fish, they can fish as much as they want to and with no fear of repercussion, and if they country decides that they wish to comply with international regulations then the fishing company can simply switch flags in order to continue fishing outside of regulations, hence the term flag hopping.  Boats can switch flags without ever docking in the port of the country that they wish to switch to.  This phenomenon creates a tremendous loophole in the enforcement of international fishing regulations and negatively curbs the effects of fishing regulations (Desombre, 2005).

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World Fish Production

Figure-1

Figure-2

Figure-3

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China is a major fish producer but is also a major consumer. Over the last few years, China has been putting more stock into aquaculture which has caused the amount of fish they produce to increase overall and the amount of wild catch to level off.

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International Cooperation

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The use of RFBs to promote regional cooperation and implementation of international fishery agreements is still a promising idea. In order for their potential to be met, they must be made much more powerful and gain the ability to utilize the instruments given to them by international agreements (Role of Regional Fishing Bodies, 1999).

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Subsidies

Many countries subsidize their fishing industries because of the important role it plays in their job economy and food supply. Annual subsidies for fishing amount to about $26 billion world wide, only $7 billion of which goes towards fisheries management and the support of conservation. On the other hand, $16 billion--more than 25 percent of the annual $56 billion trade in fish--is going towards the sponsorship of fishing fleets, thus encouraging the global fishing effort and increasing fishing capacity. This has lead to a 250% increase in the global fishing fleet (Sumaila & Pauly, 2006).

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In view of the harmful nature of some subsidies, WTO agreed on restricting subsidies designed to promote exports and establish controls over other form of subsidies. Canada, Japan, and other countries with a large fishery industry, however, endorse the "no-need approach" in which no restriction of subsidies should be imposed as they dispute the casual link between subsidies and overexploitation of fish resources. They propose fisheries management regimes deal with catch controls (quotas), effort controls (restrictions on boat size, engine power and days at sea, etc.) and right-based structures (permits, individual transferable quotas, etc.). Therefore, in Japan's view, it would be unfair if these varying situations are ignored and certain fisheries subsidies automatically prohibited . (Benitah, 2004).

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International Council for the Exploration of the Seas

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+Footnotes+
\[1\] Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America are members of ICES. Australia, Chile, Greece, New Zealand, Peru, and South Africa are affiliate countries.
\\

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Fishing Technology

Modern fishing technology was built to catch as many fish as possible as efficiently as possible, and it is very effective at doing its job. Unfortunately, it achieves this effectiveness at the expense of the health of the oceanic ecosystem. The three overarching problems of current fishing technology are: the destruction of the ocean floor and environs, ghost fishing, and bycatch.

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Photograph from NOAA.
Bycatch includes everything from sand dollars to sea turtles.

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Fish Tracking

Basics of Population Tracking

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all of the works cite are on the More Research page

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Whaling

Photo © Greenpeace / Jeff Pantukhoff.
School children in Baja, Mexico send a powerful message before an IWC meeting.

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Several aboriginal communities that depend on whale meat for nutrition have been allowed to hunt whales, with catch limits set by the IWC (IWC, 2007a). An Aboriginal Whaling Scheme will be established and will comprise the scientific and logistical aspects of the management of all aboriginal fisheries.

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Cruise Ship Pollution

Mission 2011 is about saving the oceans and the fisheries, and an integral part of solving the current problem is taking action against all forces of nature which are destroying marine life and the marine environment. One such force which the public is not aware of are the 'Floating Cities' known to the general public as cruise ships. California Represenative Sam Farr, whose district includes the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, writes, "The pristine ocean cruisers we see in TV commercials are also massive ocean polluters, often generating and dumping wastes equivalent to those of a small city into our coastal waters." (This a from a quote inside a source, the CQ researcher - I'm not exactly sure how to cite it.) Even more devastating are the effects of cruise ships near delicate environments such Caribbean coral reefs, where the effects of pollution are magnified.

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Works Cited

Sources:

• Safina, C. (n.d.). Scorched-Earth Fishing. Retrieved September 27, 2007, from http://issues.org/14.3/safina.htm
• Verrengia, J. (DATE) Nearly 1,000 whales drowning in fishing nets: study. Retrieved September 13, 2007, from http://www.eurocbc.org/bycatch_death_toll_may_exceed_1000_cetaceans_daily_15june2003page1156.html
• ICES
• Brown, J. and Macfadyen, G. (2007). Ghost Fishing in European Waters: Impacts and Management Responses. Marine Policy, 31(4), 488-504.
• Laist, D.W. (1996). Marine Debris Entanglement and Ghost Fishing: A Cryptic and Significant type of Bycatch?. Alaska Sea Grant College Program, Fairbanks, AK. p.33-40.
• Matsuoka, T., Nakashima, T., & Nagasawa, N. (2005). A Review of Ghost Fishing: Scientific Approaches to Evaluation and Solutions. Fisheries Science, 71(4), 691-702.
• Jones, J. B. (1992). Environmental impact of trawling on the seabed: a review . New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 26, 59-67.
• Gabriel, O., ed. (2005). Fish catching methods of the world. Oxford, UK; Ames, IA: Blackwell Publishing.
• Fishing Methods (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2007, from http://www.starfish.govt.nz/science/facts/fact-methods.htm
• Fishing methods (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2007, from http://www.fishonline.org/site/www/caught_at_sea/methods

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