oceans aware: inform, inspire, involve
the more you know about the ocean the more you can do to protect and restore it
fisheries - how much are we fishing?
UNCLOS may call on States to fish in a sustainable way but it is up to each State to decide upon its fisheries policy and the levels of catch permitted in its waters. Implementing a smart fisheries management policy, including strong restrictions and limits to catch based on the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), allows stocks to maintain a healthy level of reproduction. If a stock crashes through over-exploitation it is near impossible for it to recover - as with the crash of Canadian cod stock in the 1990s which, more than 30 years later, has yet to recover. Fisheries management needs to step in before this occurs: by establishing a ban on fishing a particular stock, depleted stocks can usually recover within 10 years.
An assessment of global fish stocks is carried out by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The 2022 edition of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture reports that approximately 90% of fish stocks are either fully exploited or overexploited. The accuracy of this data is however limited to that collected and provided by States. The Sea Around Us provides fisheries catch data in a more reliable and timely way.
Graph: Ocean Atlas 2017, Petra Böckmann/Heinrich Böll Foundation
Despite overfishing and overcapacity (according to The PEW Charitable Trusts, the total capability of the world’s fishing fleet is estimated at 250% of sustainable levels of catch) States provide subsidies for the fishing industries in the amount of about $35 billion a year, with about two-thirds of those considered harmful subsidies as they allow vessels to travel farther, stay at sea longer, and catch more fish than they could normally afford to, resulting in a depletion of fish populations beyond sustainable levels. Although the subsidies are designed to help small fishing entities by boosting their income or covering periods of shortages they are being used by larger industrial fishers to offset the costs of fuel, gear and vessel construction. The World Bank calculates that mismanagement of fisheries costs the world economy about EUR 42 billion per year, PEW adds that without government subsidies, as much as 54% of High Seas fishing grounds would be unprofitable at current fishing rates. SDG Target 14.6, calling for the prohibition of subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and the elimination of subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, led to years of tense negotiations at the World Trade Organization with WTO members finally agreeing on a text in 2022. Further information thereto can be found here. The 2022 PEW article When too many boats chase too many fish provides an interesting review of the historical development of the fishing industry and subsidies.
