Canada’s role in solving global fisheries crisis goes beyond banning bottom-trawling

Last week some of our colleagues in the environmental movement brought much needed attention to the problem of overfishing by calling for a moratorium on high seas bottom-trawling.

This may seem to some a radical idea. However, given the current state of Atlantic fish stocks in particular, and global fish stocks generally, we clearly are in desperate times that call for desperate measures, including measures in Canadian waters, as well as the high seas.

According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates, 52 per cent of the world's marine fishery resources are already fully exploited and another 24 per cent are either overexploited, depleted, or recovering. We have seen all too clearly the cost of overfishing on Newfoundland people and communities. When you consider that over 1 billion people in the world rely on the ocean for food, it is hard to imagine a more important global issue that must be addressed.

Last May, Canada hosted an international conference on the Governance of High Seas Fisheries and the United Nations Fish Agreement – Moving from Words to Action in St John's, Newfoundland where 48 countries convened to tackle the problem of declining fish stocks. If nothing changes in the way we conduct the global fishery as a result of this meeting, a global ban on high seas bottom-trawling may be the only choice.

In particular, almost everyone agrees that the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), an international body consisting of many countries which manages the stocks on the Grand Banks off Canada's Atlantic coast, has failed to adequately control fishing and has overseen the decline of most of the stocks under its purview. Canada can take a lead role in reforming this flawed institution. However, we must get our own house in order if we are to be successful in getting others to change.

At WWF-Canada, we suggest that there are a number of solutions that will protect fish stocks, restore the awesome productivity of Canada's oceans, and secure a sustainable economic future for coastal communities. It isn't easy, and it will involve cooperation and tough choices.

So, starting with the Grand Banks and NAFO, here are five steps we feel that must be addressed in the short term if we are to have any hope of halting the slide and eventually rebuilding our fisheries.

First, we need to base decisions on science – which includes ecosystem based and precautionary approaches. Too often quota setting is based on economic, not scientific grounds. Furthermore, if countries don't like the quotas set in NAFO, they can ignore the quota by "opting-out" and set their own – as high as they like, and without penalty.

Second, we must prohibit bottom-trawling and other harmful forms of fishing in sensitive areas. Important habitats, such as cold-water corals, spawning grounds and areas of high productivity, must be mapped and protected in order to sustain and replenish our oceans.

Third, we must reduce bycatch. Globally, 25 per cent – some 30 million tonnes – of everything caught in nets every year is thrown back overboard, dead. This includes 300,000 whales and dolphins, tens of thousands of seabirds, thousands of endangered sea turtles, and millions of tonnes of juvenile fish that are the foundation of the next generation. In NAFO, boats are still catching hundreds of tonnes of cod as bycatch. In 2003, 1600 tonnes of cod was caught as bycatch – including 800 tonnes by Canadian boats – despite the moratorium.

Fourth, we need to invest in better technology. By designing more selective "smart" fishing gear, fewer non-targeted fish will be needlessly killed, with less damage to habitat.

Fifth, we need to stop illegal fishing, especially by foreign fleets on the high seas. We need tougher enforcement both at sea and in ports. When ships are caught violating the law on the high seas, their home country is responsible for punishment, which rarely happens. We cannot allow this to continue.

Overfishing and declining fish stocks is a complex issue that involves both science and politics. If we don't have the will to implement the solutions outlined above in both Canadian waters and the high seas, then a moratorium on high seas bottom-trawling – as radical as that sounds – may not even be enough. One way or another, the ugly truth is if we don't find solutions soon, stocks will continue to collapse and the more than one billion people globally who rely on the oceans bounty to sustain them may go hungry. Now that's a radical thought.

* Dr Robert Rangeley is WWF-Canada's Marine Programme Director for the Atlantic Region. Josh Laughren is WWF-Canada's Marine Conservation Programme Director.

Source: www.panda.org