I grew up in a family which cooked and served the most mouth-watering seafood delicacies every so often. But I haven’t had a bite of seafood in over 15 years now. For someone who would drool on hearing the names of fish preparations, what changed?
The #StopFundingOverfishing campaign urges the leaders of the WTO member countries to end harmful fisheries subsidies which are leading to overfishing, by the end of this year.
Working in conservation, it was a matter of time, before I found out about the perilous state of our marine fishes and the oceans. Fish populations have declined by 50 per cent in the last 40 years; 61 per cent of fish stocks are fully fished and 29% are overfished. Not to mention large numbers of other threatened groups of animals such as marine turtles, sharks, and several marine mammals that fall victims as fishing bycatch. The Scientific American reported that “the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species considers 12 per cent of grouper, 11 per cent of tuna and billfish and 24 per cent of shark and ray species to be threatened with extinction.” Another study published in 2005 noted that “[r]ecent estimates indicate that exploitation has depleted large predatory fish communities worldwide by at least 90 per cent over the past 50-100 years.” How does one even begin to fathom the sheer volume of fish taken out from our seas and the inevitability of empty oceans and lost livelihoods?
Fishing is not new to humans. Fishing harpoons and other tools found in the territory of Congo dates back 90,000 years. It is believed that in India too, fishing may have emerged around the same time. With over 8,000 km. of coastline, 2,000,000 sq. km. of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and 5,00,000 sq. km. of continental shelf, the fishing industry always had a scope to make great progress in India. The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) report for 2019, estimates marine fish landings at 3.56 million tonnes with mechanised fisheries contributing 83 per cent, motorised 16 per cent and non-motorised 1 per cent. The fisheries department is taking multiple steps to increase the size of catches. However, now all of it is in peril.
India is the second largest exporter of seafood after China, which means lot of what we catch is not for local consumption. Makes me wonder, in a bid to increase our “production” have we ever given any thought to the implications of gluttonous harvesting – a cardinal error of killing the goose that gives the golden eggs.
Purse seiner fishing in the Indian Ocean. Humans moved from artisanal fishing to motorised to mechanised trawling, practically setting up industries on huge ships. Photo credit: Jiri Rezac/Public Domain
How have we managed to fish so much? Is it technology, rise in fish-eating population, or is there more to it? For one, we moved from artisanal fishing to motorised to mechanised trawling, practically setting up industries on huge ships; created cold chains to transport the products globally. The mechanised trawlers, and other technological inputs made fishing possible even in the most unlikely regions. However, the big, deceptive reason is the fishing subsidies. They are the perfect examples of unintended disastrous consequences.
A research paper by U. R. Sumaila and others in 2016 noted that the total estimated amount of fisheries subsidies given to Indian fishing fleets is approximately USD 400 million annually. Subsidies are both direct (fishing vessels, fuel, equipment, etc.) and indirect (welfare schemes, construction of ports, fishing harbours, tax exemptions, etc.). This is not just limited to India. Globally, countries are still expanding their fisheries, and providing harmful subsidies that contribute to overfishing and illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing.
Why are subsidies a problem? There are several reasons. The prominent one being that subsidies are allowing fishing beyond the natural replacement limits (oceans not being able to replenish marine stocks at the rate at which they are extracted). This is evidenced by declining catches, fishes getting physically smaller, and more often than not, less desirable species being caught as collateral damage. Second, it covers up the actual cost-to-benefit ratios. Subsidies hide the true cost of fishing, making it a bad economic decision. There is far more effort and resource inputs compared to the catch. Three, it puts local and artisanal fishers at a serious disadvantage. They cannot compete with the large subsidised fleets, thus, endangering their livelihood and protein source. Four, bad management and economic practices get institutionalised and heavily anchor themselves in the policy, making it difficult to remedy its ill effects. Five, default subsidies cannot differentiate between legal and well-governed fishing from IUU fishing. The IUU fishing agencies not only harvest unsustainably but also indulge in gross human rights violations. Six, subsidies are used by large scale fisheries for extremely harmful fishing practices such as bottom trawling.
Harmful fishing practices such as bottom trawling and purse seine fishing prove devastating for the fish populations as well as the marine ecosystems. Overfishing has caused world’s fish stocks to plummet. Photo credit: Asc1733/Public Domain
It is probably our last chance to save fisheries and marine ecosystems. An urgent, multi-pronged initiative is imperative. Some of the things that need to be done are rebuild fish stocks, protect and enhance livelihood of artisanal fisheries, and limit bycatch of sensitive species. But the most important one is to address the issues related to fishing subsidies. These have far more negative impacts than benefits.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001 launched negotiations on fisheries subsidies at the Doha Ministerial Conference. The mandate is to “clarify and improve” existing WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies. That mandate has evolved since and in 2005 at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, it included call for prohibiting certain forms of subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing. Further, at the 2017 Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference, ministers decided on a work programme to conclude the negotiations by aiming to adopt, at the next Ministerial Conference, an agreement on fisheries subsidies which delivers on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.6.
Currently, the WTO negotiations are on and need wholehearted support from us to stop the forms of subsidies that are devastating fisheries and marine ecosystems. There is urgent need to tell the WTO that it needs to disallow subsidies that drive overfishing. It’s time for all hands on deck to ensure that an agreement is reached before the SDG deadline of 2020 end. If this is achieved, India will be able to safeguard marine fishes that constitute over 75 per cent of its fish diversity.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
About the Author: Rushikesh Chavan is a Conservationist, works with the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) and has started the department of Conservation Behaviour at WCT.
Disclaimer: The author is associated with Wildlife Conservation Trust. The views and opinions expressed in the article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Wildlife Conservation Trust.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Your donations support our on-ground operations, helping us meet our conservation goals.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Related Links
- World Wildlife Day 2019 – Life Below Water
- A Thousand Voices from the Field
- LetsTalkTigers Campaign
- Conservation Herbs
- China’s Lawmakers Called On To End Commercial Exploitation Of Threatened Wild Animal Species
- Many from Vid on state wildlife board