Environmental Diplomacy - Something Fishy?

Initially, my first instinct was to blog on trade diplomacy in general and then I stumbled upon an article about overfishing in Maine, USA.

I can't say I'm particularly keen on eating fish or seafood myself, however after some research it is evident that global fishing is a huge environmental issue. It is estimated by the UN SOFIA (State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture) report that over 50% of the world's fish population has been fully exploited and another 20% has been moderately exploited. If these extreme levels of exploitation continue then the world fishing population is in danger of collapse. There are several impacts to this overfishing crisis:

-not only are we at risk of eliminating entire species and ecosystems but the overall ecology of our oceans will be at risk

-as more and more of the most commercial fish are fished to the brink of extinction, fishermen are having to increase their efforts for a successful haul, this means catching (and killing) species like sharks and sea birds as a 'byproduct'. Therefore destroying species that they dont even want to catch in the first place.

The WWF explain that the global fishing fleet as it stands at the moment is 2.5 time larger than our oceans can sustainably support. Other factors causing overfishing are a distinct lack of efficient fisheries conservation and management, unfair fishery Partnership Agreements, pirate fisheries who blatantly disregard fishing regulations and in light of globalizationand increase in large commercial fleets whose haul's are huge and large amount of fish is disgarded. To add to this, coastal ond open water fisheries have been irreparably damaged meaning that the global fishing effort has had to shift to deep sea areas, hence endangering previously unexploited species.

What is perhaps more shocking however, is that despite all this research and claims by experts such as Dr Daniel Pauly (Director and Professor of University of British Columbia's Fisheries Centre) that the damage we have already caused is TOTALLY reversible if we act now, there has been no real push to address the overfishing issue in the global political agenda. Granted, some states have enforced local protectionist policies such as in Sri Lanka for example, but nothing much has been done to steadily decrease the amount of fish being caught. Sustainable fishing is instead being pushed by non-governmental actors such as the WWF and The Nature Conservancy.

The WWF aim to tackle the overfishing issue by working towards healthy and well-managed (and hence regualted,) fisheries through something called EBM - Ecosystem Based Management.

EBM aims to balance the social and economic needs of human communities with the maintenance of healthy ecosystems (http://wwf.panda.org/). One aspect for which the WWF deserve credit is that they acknowledge the human need for fish both in terms of a food source and for the economy 'EBM...recognizes the economic, social, and cultural interests of all stakeholders in a fishery and how these interests affect resource management. By managing human issues and imapcts, the EBM approach...is more likely to succeed where other initiatives have failed'. The EBM framework has also been praised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation alongside their own fishery programmes.

The Nature Conservancy of Maine also has their own approach to the overfishing issue. They are developing a fishing net that has larger holes in it to catch less fish. This would mean that smaller species that are not commercial would be able to slip through the nets, but those that do meet commercial requirement will remain in the nets. As acknowledged by fisherman on the project, promoting a net that catches fewer fish to commercial fishers is no easy task, but as fisherman Gary Libby argues, its about promoting a net which affers the fisherman quality (fish) over quantity and he believes this can be done (http://www.nature.org/).

It is incredible that issues such as this are not particularly high on state agenda, particularly if we consider the long term effects. If overfishing continues, it is argued that in approximately 50 years the whole ocean ecology system may collapse and this will inevitably cause the complete collapse of the global fishing industry impacting on trade and economy as well as the social and environmental implications. The promotion of sustainable fishing programmes by non-governamental actors help to force the issues into the political arena and provide much needed publicity of the dangers of overfishing.

If the EBM programme, established by the WWF is effective, there is no reason for each state not to adopt their own similar systems and help protect our global fish population.

Full articles:

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/maine/news/news3627.html

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/conservation/marine/sustainable_fishing/

http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/problems_fishing/

Picture:

http://see-the-sea.org/topics/commerce/overfishing.htm