Harvests from seas, lakes and
rivers have been a source of sustenance and livelihood for millennia. Even in
the information age, fishing remains crucial to the food security of millions of
people, as well as a source of employment and a significant factor in the global
economy. Approximately 1 billion people, most of them in developing countries,
rely on fish as their primary source of animal protein. An estimated 35 million
people are directly engaged in fishing and aquaculture, a number that has
doubled in the last 20 years. Fisheries generate over $55 billion worth of
international trade.
Yet the nature of the fishing enterprise and the condition of
the marine and freshwater resources upon which it relies have changed radically
over the past 100 years. Growing populations and the need for economic
development have spurred a rapid expansion of commercial fishing. In the past
half century, a tide of new technology–from driftnets to satellite imagery–has
swept aside the limits that once kept fishing a coastal and local affair, and
launched an overwhelming upsurge in our capacity to exploit fish stocks.
Government subsidies have helped expand the world’s fleets to levels larger than
a sustainable harvest can support; Japan alone provides more than $2 billion
annually.
Over the past 30 years, the demand for seafood products has
doubled and is projected to continue growing at 1.5 percent per year through
2020 as the global population increases. Important stocks have been depleted,
and their marine and freshwater ecosystems have been disrupted, leading to what
many term a "global fisheries crisis."
Since 1992, overfishing–the practice of fishing beyond the
level at which fish stocks can replenish themselves naturally–has become one of
the more pressing natural resource concerns in the industrialized world, and,
increasingly, in developing nations. According to the Food and Agricultural
Organization of the United Nations, 75 percent of commercially important marine
fish stocks are either currently overfished or are being fished at their
biological limit. Those stocks that are fished at their biological limit are on
the brink of decline.
The damage to a population of fish targeted by modern
techniques is only the beginning. The world’s fleets harvest not only vast
quantities of fish, but also animals other than the particular species being
targeted–animals that are generally referred to as "bycatch." Fishermen retain
some of this bycatch for sale, but a very large portion is returned to the sea,
usually dead or dying. In addition to fish that are not retained because they
are too small or of little economic value, bycatch is often comprised of marine
mammals, turtles and seabirds. Estimates of total marine discards run to at
least 10 million metric tons, almost 10 percent of the total annual harvest.
Bottom trawling, a new fishing technique in which a trawling
rig is dragged across the seafloor to scrape up everything in its path, can
damage deep-sea habitats and harm many species of marine life while targeting
just one commercial species. It can take decades for sponges, coral, vegetation
and animals that fish species depend upon for survival to recover.
Net Losses
The economic consequences can also be severe. According to a
World Resources Institute analysis published in 2004, degradation of coral reefs
in the Caribbean could reduce fishing revenues by $95 million to $140 million
per year by 2015. The same damage could inflict $100 million to $300 million in
losses on the tourism industry. The analysis also found that by dissipating wave
and storm energy, Caribbean reefs provide between $700 million and $2.2 billion
in shoreline protection.
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