Fishing problems: Poor fisheries management

Coast guard fisheries inspection vessel, United Kingdom.
© WWF-Canon / Edward PARKER

It's only relatively recently that government regulations, quotas, and stricter management oversight have begun to be consistently implemented for fisheries. But while some countries are now making a huge effort to stem overfishing, much more needs to be done.

• Many fisheries bodies continue to not heed scientific advice on fish quotas. Cod example...
  

• Few international regulations govern fishing on the High Seas.

• Many countries have still not ratified, implemented, or enforced existing national and international regulations (such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the UN Fish Stocks Agreement).

• Countries are either failing to restrict fishing companies from owning and operating Flag of Convenience vessels or are not rigorously inspecting FoC vessels landing at their ports - including countries with some of the biggest fishing fleets such as the EU, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. This allows illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing fishing to continue.

• Customs agencies and retailers are not ensuring that the fish entering their country and shops is demonstrably legally caught.

• At present there are too few no-go areas for fishing. Protected areas and no-take zones, where fishing is banned or strictly regulated, can provide essential safe havens where young fish can grow to maturity and reproduce before they are caught. But just 0.6% of the world's oceans have been declared as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and 90% of existing MPAs are open to fishing. The current lack of protection is especially worrying for fish spawning grounds and the deep sea, both of which are particularly vulnerable to overfishing. Orange roughy example...
  

• Consumers are unwittingly supporting poor management by purchasing fish from unsustainable fisheries.

Cod: going, going, gone?

In 1992, after years of overfishing, northern cod populations in Canada’s Grand Banks fishing grounds collapsed. Overnight, 40,000 people lost their jobs. Ten years on, the populations have still not recovered despite a moratorium on fishing.

You might think that this example would serve as a warning. But EU fisheries ministers have consistently ignored scientific advice on recommended cod catches in European waters.

From 1999 to 2004, the EU Fisheries Council has set higher quotas for cod catches than recommended by ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea). This includes ignoring ICES advice to close the North Sea cod fishery in 2003 and to set a zero quota for cod in the North Sea for in 2004 and 2005 -  despite a scientific report in 2002 that the number of adult spawning cod in the North Sea was the lowest ever. The estimated total volume of cod remaining in the North Sea now equates to the volume of a single North Sea car ferry

The EU Fisheries Council has similarly ignored advice on other European cod stocks, as well as many other fisheries including deep sea fisheries.

Overall, global cod catches have declined by 70% over the last 30 years, from 3.1 million tonnes in 1970 to 950,000 tonnes in 2000. If this trend continues, the world’s cod stocks will disappear in 15 years.

Safe havens needed for orange roughy

Fishing for orange roughy (also known as deep-sea perch) is a relatively new phenomenon - but one that has already led to severe decline of this long-lived deep-sea species. Some populations have been fished to commercial extinction in as little as four years.

Orange roughy congregate around seamounts - underwater mountains often found on the High Seas. WWF and many others are calling for urgent and strong measures, including fishing bans, to be adopted and enforced at the United Nations level in order to protect these areas from fishing activities.