fisheries

Over-fishing, often supported by government subsidies for the fishing industry, and illegal fishing are to blame for the current state of fish stocks. The associated problems of bycatch (where non-targeted marine life is caught in the fishing nets), ghost gear (where discarded or lost fishing gear continues to catch marine life and pollute the ocean) and ecosystem destruction are further challenges presented by the fishing industry, together with the inhumane conditions and treatment of crews on board. Climate change is also impacting fish stocks: as the ocean temperature rises stocks are moving polewards - with a movement of up to 45 km per decade since the 1950s.

About 110 million tonnes of fish are caught each year, most within national waters and about 5% on the High Seas, beyond the 200 nautical mile limit of national jurisdiction. Technical advances in recent years have allowed fishing vessels to travel further and to stay out at sea for longer, putting enormous pressure on fish stocks around the world so that approximately 90% of fish stocks are currently either fully exploited or overexploited.

Fishing methods vary all over the world, depending on the stock to be fished. Pelagic species like mackerel, sardinellas, herring, anchovies, sea bass, swordfish and tuna live in the water column and are caught using gillnets, purse sein or long-line methods. Demersal fish stocks, which live on or near the sea floor, are caught by dragging nets along the floor, known as bottom trawling.

Long-line fishing, bottom trawling or dynamite fishing are examples of unsustainable fishing methods, some of these methods are restricted or have been banned but without regular controls and checks the practices persist. Longliners for example drag fishing lines over 100 km in length behind them, attracting not only fish but also turtles, dolphins, sharks and whales to the bait set on thousands of hooks along the lines. Bottom trawling meanwhile is responsible for the destruction of just under 4 billion acres of ocean floor every year. The use of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) to attract fish to an area is also a common and unsustainable practice. FADs usually consist of a floating wooden structure with nets to attract fish and can be free floating (drifting FADs) or anchored (anchored FADs). With GPS installations and satellite support, FADs provide an extremely efficient way of targeting fish populations as well as non-target species like whales, sharks or turtles. As with all discarded or lost fishing gear, they are a major cause of marine plastic pollution.

Such fishing practices occur not just on the High Seas but also in areas within national jurisdiction and even in MPAs. Not only do they deplete fish populations, they destroy marine ecosystems and threaten the livelihoods of those coastal communities whose economies rely heavily on fishing.

It is important to recognise the difference between local, small-scale fisheries and industrial fishing. Small-scale or artisanal fisheries make up about 96% of fishers around the world but they account for just 35% of the fish caught worldwide. The rest come from distant-water fishing fleets, made up of super-trawlers over 100 metres in length, capable of travelling huge distances, fishing up to 250 tonnes of fish a day, processing and storing up to 550,000 tonnes of fish on board each year, with no need to return to port for months at a time. Transshipment, where smaller reefer or carrier vessels bring fuel, food and other necessities to the trawler and off-load its catch, allows these trawlers to operate indefinitely and makes it difficult to track the true origins of the catch when it reaches a port. These fleets tend to target fish-rich areas with low governance capabilities, primarily in the Pacific and off the coasts of East and West Africa - these are the vessels which are largely responsible for the over-exploitation of fish stocks.

The movement to champion small-scale artisanal fisheries has been supported by the United Nations General Assembly setting 2022 as the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022), with the FAO as the lead UN agency. The objectives of the year were to “enhance global awareness about, understanding of, and action to support the contribution of small-scale artisanal fisheries and aquaculture to sustainable development, and more specifically in relation to food security and nutrition, poverty eradication and the use of natural resources” and to “promote dialogue and collaboration between and among small-scale artisanal fishers, fish farmers, fishworkers, governments and other key partners along the value chain, as well as to further strengthen their capacity to enhance sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture and to enhance their social development and well-being.”

Local, traditional and sustainable methods of fishing should be supported and large-scale industrial fishing prevented. One group of researchers working to do so is the network Too Big To Ignore, which conducts “transdisciplinary research, aiming to improve understanding of various aspects of small-scale fisheries around the world”. On the ground, the International Pole and Line Foundation (IPLF) with its vision ‘one hook, one line, one fish at a time’ promotes one-by-one tuna fisheries around the world, supporting fishers and contributing to a just, equitable and sustainable seafood supply chain. Focussing in particular on protection of the ocean floor, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition is working to stop bottom trawling, calling on the United Nations and Member States to honour their commitments to protect deep-sea species and ecosystems on the High Seas from the harmful impacts of bottom fishing.