Meeting on Friday, November 16th

We discussed solutions to the questions of

• Taxes and Quotas
• Education
• International Body

see the progress we made at https://wikis-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/confluence/display/12DOT000/11.16.07 to prepare for saturday's meeting

11/17/07: I have moved all of the proposals to children pages for each team. Post your solutions there and put a note here that you updated your page. I also put up the proposal that Team 1 emailed out in response to our (Team 4) questions about aquaculture.

Team 5: October 29th

We propose creating an international body under the UN- possibly affiliated with the FAO (but which could also be autonomous) that would regulate/manage/enforce the following treaty that is designed to meet our goals. This treaty only includes the requests of Team 2 and our team, so please post/email what regulations you would like included (i.e. does Team 3 want something on pollution or environmental considerations?):

1. How do we enforce international fishing regulations, including what technology could be used and where technology could be used?
    a. We need to achieve near full compliance from most countries and create incentives to deter flag hopping.
         i. China, US, EU, Japan, Russia, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and other countries with large fishing demand*
         ii. Offer economic incentives from our regulatory body: trade restrictions on fish/fishing technology placed upon non-compliant countries; similar or more stringent                 rules apply to countries who sign but flag hop
    b. How do we achieve near-full compliance?
         i. Treaty/mandate/charter
                1. Countries are responsible for all ships that are registered under their flag
                2. Cannot register with a noncompliant country
                3. Limit what technology can be used where
                    a. Info from Team 2      
                4. Fishing quotas for international waters/polar regions
                    a. Info from other teams on quota success
                5. Each countries regulates compliance of ships under its flag by use of
                    a. Tracking devices
                    b. Regulatory officers
                6. Each country responsible for regulating/measuring/tracking the biodiversity and biomass within coastal regions
                7. Funds from dues to research biodiversity/biomass in international and the polar regions
                    a. How do we track this? Team 10
         ii. Financial officers provided to each signatory by the regulatory body to help them balance the demands of the treaty without damaging the economy
                1. Committee of experts that deals with case by case
    c. Create a body: International Regulatory Commission for Sustainable Fishing (IRCSF)
         i. Either autonomous, like NATO
         ii. Or a part of the UN, like WHO or UNICEF (suggested)
                1. Maybe under or affiliated with the FAO

Team 6: October 29th

Establishing a law that requires all fishing vessels to have a GPS tracking device on board will make the regulation of fishermen and fishing companies much simpler and more effective. It will allow regulating bodies to know which fleets are in the water and whether or not they are within legal boundaries. For fishermen, it is an simple way to determine which closed areas are in effect. For all fishing vessels currently in operation, the cost of the tracking devices can be subsidized.

Establishing a fish tax will put the cost of depleting fisheries on the consumer. Similar to gasoline tax and cigarette taxes, a fish tax will increase the cost of any fish products sold on the market. Currently there is a very high demand for fish, and if we are to keep a sustainable global fish population, we cannot catch the number of fish needed to meet this demand. An increase in fish prices will not only discourage consumers from buying more fish, thus lowering the demand, but it will make them aware of the crisis in our oceans today.

Issues: poor people now cannot afford fish (but in America there are substitutes)

Other ideas:
*Subsidizing fishing is NOT a solution.
*Fish tax vs. tariffs?
*what if countries aren't allowed to fish in each others waters at all? (make distant water fleets illegal) then the only way to get fish would be through imports and exports, which is easier to regulate than flaghopping
*set international standards for nitrates/phosphates (<-- algae)

Todd: October 28th

Let's start expanding the outline by adding questions and topics that need to be addressed under each section of the outline. If you make changes please sign them with your name and date. Substantial restructing of the outline is probably best left in the hands of the executive committee. Possibly we could also use this page to keep track of work assignments, but I would like to discuss that in class first. The page will look better if it is edited in Wiki Markup language. It's not hard to do. If you would like to alter, object, or otherwise comment on any of these suggestions, please contact me.
Todd Mooring 10/28

Solution Document Outline

• Introduction
  • Survey of global fisheries and their significance
    • How much fish is caught? Where and what kinds? How important are nonfood uses of fish? How important are nonfish ocean products? Todd Mooring 10/28
    • What is the monetary value of these fish/other ocean creatures? How big economically is the fishing industry? How many people work in it? Todd Mooring 10/28
    • Attempt to classify world fisheries. Discuss similarities and differences between large high technology fisheries that provide fish to the developed world and the small fisheries of developing countries. Todd Mooring 10/28
• Threats to fisheries
  • Fishing activities
    • Overexploitation Todd Mooring 10/28
    • Bycatch Todd Mooring 10/28
    • Other aspects of fishing (trawl damage, ghost fishing) Todd Mooring 10/28
  • Pollution
  • Climate
    • Could non-temperature aspects of climate change impact fish? If so, how? Todd Mooring 10/28
  • Assess relative importance of these factors Todd Mooring 10/28
• Implications for Humans
  • Food security
    • Needs to be assessed by region of the world Todd Mooring 10/28
  • Economic impact
    • Would it be possible to put a dollar value on the loss of global fisheries? Todd Mooring 10/28
    • How hurtful have fishery collapses been in the past? Todd Mooring 10/28
• Goals and Justification
  • (Maybe we should insert the goals here) Todd Mooring 10/28
  • What we want and why
• Non-biological considerations when formulating solution
  • Economic/social/political issues
• Regional/fishery management solutions---How goals are to be achieved
  • The global problem is a collection of local problems
  • Regional solutions
    • Discuss fishery problems and solutions in various regions of the world
  • Solutions by fishery type---solution templates
    • Discuss problems and solutions in various kinds of fisheries---large commercial, subsistence, etc.
  • Discuss effectiveness of various types of fishery management systems. Some methods are better than others, according to one source. Todd Mooring 10/28
  • This section could probably be reorganized Todd Mooring 10/28
• Global and technical aspects of solution
  • Climate
  • International waters
  • Change global fish demand
  • Aquaculture
• Specific recommendations/issues not addressed elsewhere
  • Need for additional fisheries research
• Conclusion

Team 4: October 26th

As part of Mission 2011's overall solution, we think that to be able to know and track population size, normal age distribution, and predator/prey levels, electronic tags must be used. If the need arises to know biomass of a fishery, but does not need to be specific to a species, then SONAR can be used to find that information.  We are working to develop an implementation of the tagging and surveying techniques that we have researched.

Our group will also be able to use GIS data and biomass estimates from ICES \[http://www.ices.dk\] and FAO \[http://www.fao.org/fi/\] to identify crashed stocks.  We are working on analyzing our data to summarize which stocks are at dangerously low levels

 NOTE: We know that this needs to be fleshed out better, but we wanted to get something posted for now.

Todd: October ?

Here is an outline/template for our solution.

Using the Outline

We could create the solution by listing and then answering relevant questions under each of these headings.  The topics are listed in what I think would be a rational order for a presentation or paper.  The outline could also be a site map for the Web site we will create.  Please feel free to send comments to me and/or post them on the wiki. 
-Todd Mooring

Solution Document Outline

Introduction

                Survey of global fisheries and their significance

Threats to fisheries

                Fishing activities

                Pollution

    Climate

Implications for Humans

                Food security

                Economic impact

Goals and Justification

                What we want and why

Non-biological considerations when formulating solution

                Economic/social/political issues

Regional/fishery management solutions---How goals are to be achieved

The global problem is a collection of local problems

                Regional solutions

                                Discuss fishery problems and solutions in various regions of the world

                Solutions by fishery type---solution templates

Discuss problems and solutions in various kinds of fisheries---large commercial, subsistence, etc.

Global and technical aspects of solution

                Climate

                International waters

                Change global fish demand

                Aquaculture

Specific recommendations/issues not addressed elsewhere

                Need for additional fisheries research

Conclusion