Fishing is a historical practice, humans have been harvesting food from the oceans since they realised it was there. It is the hunting of aquatic wildlife, similar to that of hunting rabbits, bison or deer on land, which has occurred since the invention of tools. However since the end of the Second World War, the scale of fishing has increased dramatically. We are harvesting aquatic wildlife on an industrial scale. This practice has become unsustainable. Unfortunately, as fishing is a historical practice the general view from the public is that the sea will always provide enough to support us. Hence the phrase: ‘there are plenty more fish in the sea’. This article looks at how long the industrial scale fishing can continue, the effects global fisheries are having on our oceans and potential solutions to this upcoming crisis.
The international Food and Agricultural Organisation [FAO] began analysing global fishing catches in the 1950s. Fishing catches increased throughout the decades to follow, and according to all the scientific models were expected to plateau in the 1990s. However this did not happen, catches kept on increasing. Upon further investigation, it was reported by Watson and Pauley (2001) that every country, bar China, all reported declines in their fishing catches. China’s catches, however, were increasing. None of the reported catches for China matched the scientific models, yet the catches for the rest for the rest of the world did. It turned out that the people in China responsible for reporting the catch figures were altering the figures to increase the market output, as this was the task they were given by the government of China. The discrepancies of their catches were so large that the continuing increase in global fisheries changed to a global decrease in fishing catches. We are now looking at a decline of around 0.66 million tonnes of fish per year (Watson and Pauley, 2001).
The decline in global fisheries has been likened to the decline in whaling (Schneider and Pearce, 2004). A cyclical pattern has been observed, where the most financially attractive species falls first, this is then replaced by a substitute species. The substitute species is then exploited. The collapse of the cod fishery in Newfoundland is a very good example of this. In 1992 cod stocks in Newfoundland collapsed, a moratorium was placed on cod fishing, as the fish had been completely exploited until there was no fish left (The End of the Line, 2009). However there was a subsequent boom in lobster numbers and it was quickly picked up on by the fishermen in the area. They stopped catching cod, to catch lobster instead. This activity is known as fishing down the trophic level. It is a non-sustainable practice, as the exploited species is not given the chance to recover. The scary part of this is, is that if this type of fishing was to occur throughout the world’s oceans, and then we could very well end up with a sea full of non-edible creatures, such as plankton and jellyfish. Leading to the a very low biodiversity with our seas.
Yet it is very difficult to monitor fish numbers, fish constantly move and live in hard to track locations. Heavily depleted species of fish could see extinctions in even closely monitored areas of the oceans. Myers and Worm (2003) suggest that there is a possibility that 90% of oceanic predators have already been lost through over fishing. Low levels of fish can only support low fishing catches and therefore low economical yields for the fishermen. Industrial fishing reduces the total amount of biomass within a fish community by 80% within just 15 years.
Currently 1 billion people in the world depend of seafood as a major source of their protein (MSC, 2012) and 200 million livelihoods directly and indirectly depend on fisheries. Seafood has also become increasingly fashionable in rich countries, meaning more people want to eat it. With the ever increasing global population and increasing affluence, which in turn increases the demand placed on seafood, current fisheries are predicted to collapse in around 2050, if no action is taken.
This issue is slowly reaching the public and there is a growing public awareness of over fishing and its consequences. The Marine Stewardship Council [MSC] awards sustainably sourced fish, by labelling them as sustainable on the packaging. This provides knowledge to the public that they are buying sustainable fish. Celebrity chef Hugh Furnley-Whittingsall is a particular help towards this cause, with his television program, fish fight, and support of local sustainable produce. Supermarkets including Marks and Spencers and Waitrose now only stock sustainably caught fish. So progress is being made to promote only sustainable fisheries.
Yet more can still be done. More Marine Protected Areas [MPA] should be set up around the world to protect important habitats including spawning and reproductive areas or areas with high biodiversity. MPAs have been known to be beneficial to fisheries as it provides fish with both time and places to recover from the continuing fishing efforts. These MPAs will need to strictly enforced for them to work as protected areas. We also need to reduce the size of the global fishing fleet. As one of the main problems is that we are just too efficient catching fish, we are not giving the fish any chance to recover. Quotas or time limits could be used to reduce the amount of fishermen catch so they do not fish above the sustainable yield, and again strictly enforced.
Global fisheries are in decline and scientists have predicted that if there is no change in our fishing behaviour, global fisheries will collapse by 2050. We also run the risk of leaving only non-edible species with low biodiversity within our oceans, for our future generations. However we are taking measures to counteract this pending crisis, by eating only sustainably caught fish, both home cooked and out in restaurants, we can make sure the fish is sustainable. We can encourage politicians to create more Marine Protected Areas, currently there are 37 potential sites being set up in English and Welsh Waters. More are needed to ensure the fish have enough space to recover. We can also put pressure on the government to reduce the fishing fleet, either by reducing the number of boats , the amount they can catch or the time frame given to the to catch it. All of these solutions combined, give us the power to potentially save on of the world’s greatest natural resources – fish.
Whilst declining fish stocks are a concern for the world’s ecosystems and environment, you may feel there is not much you can directly do about this issue, except buying from more sustainable sources. If you are looking for more ways to help the environment take a look at the range of products and services Energy Saving Warehouse offer.
References
Marine Stewardship council (2012) Changing Seas. Available: www.msc.org [Accessed 11.05.2012]
Myers and Worm (2003) Rapid worldwide depletion of predatory fish communities. Nature. 423: 280-283
Schneider and Pearce (2004) What saved the wales? And economic analysis of 20th century whaling. Biodiversity and Conservation. 13: 543-562.
The End of the Line (2009) The End of the Line: Film Documentary. Based up the book: Charles Clover (2005) The End of the Line: How overfishing is changing the world and what we eat.
Watson and Pauley (2001) Systematic distortions in world fisheries catch trends. Nature. 414: 534-536
