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22 March 2007 Nat Geo warns of Global Overfishing [Keyword: overfishing ]
As National Geographic devotes its April issue to the global fisheries crisis, destructive fishing practices and ineffective fisheries management, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS) implements new rules to stop overfishing and rebuild depleted fish populations in U.S. waters.
The April 2007 cover story focuses on the killing and emotional impact of global overfishing while also piecing together several recent scientific studies.
It also argues that the overfishing of the world’s oceans will continue until the public and fisheries managers begin to treat fish with the same sense of conservation now applied to wild terrestrial animals.
The article likens the majesty of one species, the giant bluefin tuna, to that of Africa’s lions and notes that the bluefin is now being recklessly overfished in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
When compared to pre-industrial fishing levels, stocks of giant bluefin are a fraction of what they once were.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), the group responsible for managing bluefin tuna stocks, reported late last year that the spawning stock biomass of bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic is about 15-20% of what it was in 1970, and is only slightly higher in the Mediterranean.
With giant bluefin tuna now selling for tens of thousands of dollars on the Japanese sushi market, a host of companies are now involved in the giant bluefin fishery in the Mediterranean.
Enforcement of the overly-generous quotas by European and North African governments is almost non-existent. Consequently, giant bluefin are being netted at four times the sustainable rate.
In its April special issue, National Geographic quotes William T. Hogarth, administrator of NMFS and recently-appointed chairman of ICCAT, as saying that bluefin tuna stocks in the Mediterranean “are approaching collapse.”
In the Pacific, where 50 million tons of tuna and other top predators have been caught since 1950, the southern bluefin tuna has almost disappeared.
“We simply can’t afford to let bluefin tuna and other majestic fish like them reach the point of no return,” said Fen Montaigne, author of the lead National Geographic article in this month’s fisheries issue.
“We need to implement strong conservation measures to stop this uncontrolled overfishing. There are too many boats chasing too few fish.”
Unfortunately bluefin tuna are not the only fish populations facing serious threats. In waters off of California the population of bocaccio, a tasty rockfish that dwells on the reefs of the eastern Pacific and is also known as Pacific Red Snapper, has dropped to 11% of its original abundance due to overfishing.
“I personally think that the overfishing, the abandonment of scientific management, along the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington had a lot to do with the decline of rockfish species in that area,” said Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK).
“The impact of overfishing along the Pacific coast is what destroyed the fisheries there”
This has resulted in increased fishing restrictions and reduced commercial and recreational fishing opportunities.
“Fisheries management must shift from reacting to overfishing to proactively enhancing sustainability,” said Mark Hixon, professor of marine conservation biology at Oregon State University.
“We must shift from liquidating our natural capital to living off nature’s interest by ensuring first and foremost that ocean ecosystems are healthy.”
NMFS is taking concrete steps to end overfishing and rebuild depleted domestic fish populations. Currently, the agency is working on implementing National Standard 1 (NS1).
This conservation measure is the cornerstone of the nation’s primary fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act. NS1 and its guidelines are designed to stop domestic overfishing.
“Twenty-four percent of the world’s fish populations are either depleted, over-exploited or are recovering from depletion,” said Matt Rand, director, marine fisheries campaign, National Environmental Trust.
“The need for the precautionary approach to fishery management is long overdue.”
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20 February 2007: Overfishing Imperils Deep Water Fish
With declining catches close to shore, commercial fishing is turning to deeper waters, threatening species that live in the cold and gloom of the deep oceans, according to researchers. |
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16 October 2006: Japan caught overfishing Bluefin tuna
While Federal Cabinet ponders the conservation of resources and productivity on the land, Japan has been caught out cheating on the world's ocean resources. It's been dragged into line by other fishing nations after it was found to have plundered the world's stocks of southern bluefin tuna. |
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02 April 2006: Overfishing still threatens fish populations
Overfishing is still a problem along the southern Atlantic coast, according to a new report from an environmental coalition. Almost a hundred species of fish could be caught along the southern Atlantic coast, but only 7 percent of those species are known to be at healthy levels |
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15 January 2006: Overfishing more damaging than tsunami
Overfishing and destructive methods, such as cyanide and blast fishing, continue to threaten the health of coral reefs in Aceh, the epicentre of the fourth largest earthquake in history, according to a comprehensive report released today by Reef Check, the global coral reef conservation organization. |
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27 August 2004: Taiwan overfishing blamed for low tuna catches
Tuna catches in Japan's coastal waters have sharply decreased apparently due to overfishing in the Pacific Ocean by Taiwanese fishing companies that are using large fishing vessels in violation of a regional conservation agreement, according to the Fisheries Agency and other sources. |
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09 May 2004: Canada vows to combat overfishing near its waters.
OTTAWA - The Canadian government said Thursday it was cracking down on foreign trawlers, which it accused of illegally catching endangered and undersized fish just outside Canada's 200-mile limit in the Atlantic Ocean. |
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