World Marine Fisheries: A Threatened Resource
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| Los caladeros de pesca argentinos. |
In his keynote address to the 1883 International Fisheries Exhibition in London, T.H. Huxley, a prominent biologist of the day, maintained that the ocean's supply of fish, such as cod, was inexhaustible: Fish were present in the oceans in such large numbers and reproduced prolifically, while only an insignificant fraction of them in proportion to their numbers was captured. Huxley concluded that human fishing efforts could not meaningfully affect the number of fish in the oceans and that it was unnecessary and even wasteful to attempt to regulate their capture.
More than two centuries earlier, Hugo Grotius, the famous Dutch international lawyer and champion of the legal concept of freedom of the seas, had expressed a similar view on the availability of fisheries, writing that, "Everyone admits that if a great many persons hunt on the land or fish in a river, the forest is easily exhausted of wild animals and the river of fish, but such a contingency is impossible in the case of the sea."
Though increasingly questioned, such faith in the unlimited nature of ocean fisheries persisted into the 20th century, until it finally became undeniable that the inexhaustibility of ocean fisheries was but a myth.
Indeed, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, which compiles and analyzes fisheries data on a world-wide basis, has documented the decline in fish stocks and the reduction of fish catch both in absolute terms and in terms of catch per unit of effort. In the post-World War II period, fish catch rapidly increased, more than doubling in the 11-year period beginning in 1950, from a total catch exceeding 14 million metric tons to more than 30 million metric tons. But the rate of growth subsequently slowed. By 1984, the total catch had again doubled from that of 1961 to more than 60 million metric tons, but the time period to achieve that increase was 22 years, or twice as long as the time period for the previous twofold increase. From the 1990s to the present, total catch levels have stagnated or even declined despite increasing catch effort, with total marine fish catch in recent years hovering at around 80 million metric tons.
The focus on the stagnation and decline in fish catch as measured by total catch alone hides a significant fact: The species composition of the catch has also altered over time. The proportion of fish with the highest market value is declining as a percentage of total catch. Those fish from the higher levels of the marine food web are being replaced by lower-level species with less market appeal and value. Increasingly, the world-wide catch is composed of smaller forage fish such as anchovies, herring and menhaden, as opposed to larger predators such as cod, salmon and tuna. Referred to as "fishing down the food web," this phenomenon has received increasing attention from the scientific community, governments and international organizations. It is a development that has practical importance for those who derive their living from fishing, but it is also highly significant from the perspective of change in the ocean's ecological systems.
What has happened to world fisheries? What are the political and socio-economic implications of the now readily apparent limitations of fish stocks? And how might those stocks be managed to assure their continued availability? Such questions are being raised and addressed globally.
Fisheries are renewable resources: Unlike nonrenewable resources, such as oil deposits, they have the characteristic of being able to reproduce. Accordingly, and particularly in the face of ever-growing exploitation, effective management of fisheries is essential to resource sustainability. However, implementation and achievement of effective management of ocean-capture fisheries are not at all simple matters.
Several key factors have served to place enormous pressures on world fisheries. The very substantial increase in world population since the 19th century and most particularly in the 20th century has created rapidly growing demand for the ocean's living resources; with more people, there are simply more mouths to feed. In 1900, world population was in the range of 1.6 billion. It is currently in the range of 7 billion, and by 2100 it will approach a total of 10 billion. The distribution of that population is also significant, as in many parts of the world, population is heavily concentrated in coastal areas and in societies in which marine living resources serve as an important protein source.
Further contributing to the demand pressure on marine living resources is the globalization of the world economy. The ability to store and transport fish has made them but another commodity in international trade. Factors such as the advent of canning technology, refrigeration, factory ships with the ability to process fish onsite, transportation networks with the capacity to move fish from where they are caught to where there is demand -- and where prices are higher -- all combine to explain the fact that approximately 40 percent of the world's fisheries now enter international trade. In particular, for a number of developing states, the sale of fish is an important source of foreign currency. Thus, even in areas such as the South Pacific, where local populations are small or where local demand is limited, fisheries are subject to demand from afar, creating powerful economic incentives to fish and increasing pressure on local resources. Certain types of fish, such as Bluefin tuna, bring very high prices in developed countries such as Japan. Indeed, a single Bluefin tuna weighing just more than 750 pounds sold for almost $400,000 in Tokyo in January. In this context it is not surprising that Bluefin tuna has been subject to extremely intense fishing efforts and has become an endangered species.
The growth in demand for fishery products has been paralleled by the development of technology for the capture of fish. In earlier days, finding fish was solely a matter of instinct and experience. Today, modern commercial fishing depends heavily on electronic locating devices with roots in anti-submarine warfare. Hydraulic equipment with substantial lifting power, together with larger, stronger, synthetic, nylon filament nets -- as compared to nets made of natural fiber -- are being towed by vessels with ever greater power, allowing for the capture and boarding of larger catches. The use of synthetic long-lines with thousands of individual hooks and large-scale gill nets has further increased catch capability.
The fact is that wherever there are fish, it is now possible to capture them. Indeed, a fundamental problem in world fisheries is over-investment in catch capability. The ability to catch desired species of fish has presently outrun the supply. The most common formulation of this problem is that there are simply too many ships chasing too few fish. This new reality creates competition at local, national and international levels for limited resources; threats to the viability of marine ecosystems; and a host of economic, social, political and legal problems.
The situation has led to a rethinking of the management of marine living resources. Continuing into the 20th century, the predominant approach of the international law of the sea that governs the use of ocean space was based on the concept of "freedom of the seas." That perspective was championed in the writings of Hugo Grotius in his classic 1609 legal treatise, "Mare Liberum," and was generally supported for centuries by the practice of key maritime states, notably, the United Kingdom and later the United States. Such states held that the ocean areas beyond the limits of narrow territorial seas were a commons, owned by no one and available for use by all. But over time, with increased pressure on the ocean's living resources and enhanced scientific knowledge of the productivity limits of the ocean's natural systems, the commons approach came to be analyzed and called into question, particularly in the context of Garrett Hardin's seminal and frequently cited article, "The Tragedy of the Commons," published in the journal Science in 1968. In this framework, the ocean's fisheries resources, available to all and managed by no one, were subject to the cumulative pressures of everyone following his own self-interest in taking as many fish as possible, with the ultimate and inevitable outcome being the destruction of fish stocks through massive overfishing.
The adoption of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a major global treaty that has been characterized as a constitution for the oceans, marked a fundamental change in the legal situation of ocean space. Addressing the jurisdictional capacity of states over ocean areas and their multiple uses, it codifies a system of state rights and responsibilities in the uses of ocean space and, in regard to fisheries and marine pollution, reflects an effort to prevent this tragedy of the commons from being played out in the world's oceans. It does so by, among other things, establishing the right of coastal states to create exclusive economic zones (EEZs) extending out to 200 nautical miles from the baselines used to measure the territorial sea, whose maximum extent is 12 nautical miles. In its EEZ, the coastal state has exclusive management rights over living and nonliving resources and, for the living resources, the right and the corresponding obligation to establish levels of total allowable catch based on the best available scientific evidence, so as to ensure the continuing sustainability of living resources.
The area encompassed by EEZs constitutes a bit more than one-third of ocean space, but includes the portion of the oceans most heavily populated by fish. Within this new zone, the coastal states have the legal capacity to determine who is allowed to fish, how the fish are allocated and the precise conditions under which fishing is allowed to proceed. These conditions, for example, could include the use of gear restrictions, designation of fishing seasons and physical inspections of fishing vessels as well as catch. Thus, that area no longer constituted a commons, as the coastal state was given the clear and exclusive authority and responsibility to control access to and manage EEZ fisheries. Considering that some 90-95 percent of fish are taken from the oceans within 200 nautical miles of the coast, the creation of EEZs would appear to have set the stage for a greatly improved framework for fisheries management.
While almost all coastal states have proceeded to establish EEZs and have adopted national management regimes for fisheries in these zones, significant problems have remained. Using the United States as an example, the national legislation that governs the management of fisheries within its EEZ is the Magnuson-Stevens Act, initially adopted in 1976 as the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act. In its implementation, the law has been subject to considerable political pressures, including the maintenance of fishing opportunities to meet short-term income and employment objectives, at the expense of scientific recommendations supporting lower catch limits to achieve longer-term benefits associated with stock protection. This situation has been replicated in the European Union, where discussions of a revised common fisheries policy have focused on overfishing and the fact that total allowable catches were heavily influenced by political considerations. Additionally, for political and economic reasons, many states have provided fishing subsidies, thus effectively contributing to continuing overcapitalization and overfishing.
In developing states, where small-scale, subsistence or local market fishing provided employment and food to large numbers of people, pressure on fisheries grew as population increased. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, employment in the fisheries sector, estimated at some 45 million people, has grown at a faster rate than have population and employment in agriculture, and the majority of those working in the fishing sector worldwide are in developing states, particularly in Asia. At the same time, with the creation of EEZs, developing states with limited capability to undertake commercial fishing, as in Africa and the South Pacific, have seized the opportunity to earn substantial amounts of foreign exchange by selling access rights to more developed states such as those of the European Union and Japan, which could then heavily exploit those waters for their own markets.
Moreover, as noted above, EEZs encompass areas out to 200 nautical miles from the baselines used to measure the territorial sea, and serve as examples of what may be termed "politically defined space" as opposed to "ecologically defined space." While the 200-nm limit captured the diplomatic support needed for incorporation into UNCLOS, it held no magical significance for the fish, which do not migrate on the basis of mileage, but rather in response to natural factors such as water temperatures, habitat and food availability. Accordingly, many fish migrate from the politically defined EEZs of one state into those of neighboring states or from the EEZ into the adjacent high seas. In the former case, known as transboundary stocks, control of fisheries is in the hands of a coastal state only as long as the fish are in that state's EEZ. In areas of West Africa stocks may move through the EEZs of five or more states in their normal migrations. Yet effective fisheries management suggests the need for consistent and coherent management of stocks throughout their migratory range. When transboundary stocks move into the EEZ of a neighboring state, that state becomes responsible for their management. Lack of consistency or differences in priorities in relation to short-term and long-term needs can severely threaten the health of the migrating fish stocks.
Likewise, the movement of fish from a state's EEZ into the high seas, known as straddling stocks, subjects the fish to different legal regimes. In that case, when the fish leave the EEZ and enter the high seas, they are beyond the management jurisdiction of the coastal state. Absent any international agreement to the contrary, they become subject to the rules of the high seas that once again approximate the situation of the commons and the rule of open access. Fish that remain within the EEZ for 90 percent of the year and during that period are subject to the coastal state's management system become available for capture by anyone during the 10 percent of the year they move into the high seas beyond the EEZ. Such a scenario may severely undermine a coastal state's efforts to effectively manage its living resources and, on occasion, may lead to sharp conflict, as between Canada and Spain in the Northwest Atlantic during the 1990s.
Thus, despite the establishment of EEZs, the need for international cooperation to advance effective fishery management is readily apparent and is reflected in the existence of more than 30 multilateral regional fisheries management organizations that seek to address management issues relating to transboundary and straddling stocks as well as to high seas fisheries. Those international organizations include, for example, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. A 1995 multilateral convention known as the U.N. Fish Stocks Agreement further develops the international law of fisheries outlined by UNCLOS and emphatically emphasizes the key role of such regional fisheries bodies, calling upon all states fishing on the high seas to join such bodies or, at a minimum, to adhere to the rules those bodies adopt.
While regional fisheries management bodies have been established, they have proven to be problematic in controlling fishing effort and conserving fish stocks. Their rules are binding only on those states that agree to join. Nonmember states are "free riders," not legally bound to the rules adopted by the regional organizations and therefore able to take advantage of the sacrifices made by member states. Further, in these organizations, the adopted rules are the result of complex negotiations that often advance national political interests in higher catches rather than those favored by scientific advisers. And even those catch levels are typically subject to the "opt-out" provisions in the organization's constitution: If a member state believes that established total allowable catches or national allocations are too low, it may formally object and also become free to catch at will. This latter dynamic encourages the adoption of total allowable catches at levels of questionable sustainability so as to discourage states from opting out.
Generally, the role of regional fisheries bodies has been further compromised by the phenomenon of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Illegal fishing refers to the taking of fish in contravention of national or international rules -- for example, the taking of fish from a state's EEZ without its consent. Unreported fishing denotes the capture of fish without reporting the catch, a matter of concern because the catch is not reflected in analyses that determine the sustainable total allowable catches. Unregulated fisheries concern high seas fisheries that continue to operate in the context of the commons because of the absence of international arrangements for their management. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing occurs because of factors such as overcapitalization, as noted above, but also due to lack of effective monitoring, surveillance and control over fishing activities around the world.
As if direct pressure on fisheries from catch effort were not enough, fisheries are significantly but indirectly impacted by other factors such as pollution, climate change, ocean acidification, invasive species and habitat destruction, all of which are consequent to or enhanced by human activities. It is clear that large and dramatic oil spills damage fisheries, as in the Gulf of Mexico. Attention, however, must also be given to the impact of land-based pollutants such as agricultural fertilizers. When carried to the sea by rivers and streams, run-off fertilizers cause plankton blooms that, as they decay, remove oxygen from the sea water, creating "dead zones" in which fish cannot survive. This phenomenon, observed in the Gulf of Mexico, is now a worldwide occurrence.
Climate change has also led to melting of polar ice, drawing increased attention to resource exploitation and navigation in the Arctic. There is evidence of migration of fish toward polar areas as ice retreats and water temperatures warm, creating new venues for fishing activity and fishery management. Ocean acidity has grown some 30 percent since the dawn of the industrial revolution, and the resulting greater oceanic deposits of carbon dioxide have created carbonic acid that damages corals and the shells and skeletons of a variety of marine organisms, with the potential to cascade through marine food webs. Invasive, non-native species deposited through ballast water from ships, for instance, can do enormous damage to marine ecosystems. And habitat destruction through activities that are not directly concerned with fisheries -- such as dredging, wetlands removal and coastal construction -- can be extremely harmful to fisheries, damaging spawning grounds, nurseries and feeding areas.
Marine capture fisheries that are important as a source of food, employment and national well-being are under serious attack both directly through over-exploitation and indirectly through human impacts on the environment that is essential to their existence and renewability. Attempts are being made to better govern fish stocks at both national and international levels, but there are serious political, legal, economic and social impediments that stand in the way of better management. Though it was previously thought that marine fisheries were an inexhaustible resource, it is now widely understood that they have limited productivity and must be managed effectively -- something easier said than done, but hopefully not impossible.
While efforts at direct fisheries management through measures such as catch limits and gear restrictions are necessary, they are not sufficient. Ultimately, marine fisheries are part of a much larger global web of ecological relationships that must be better taken into account. It is possible to severely damage or perhaps even destroy world fisheries indirectly through human impacts on climate, water chemistry and marine habitat. This understanding has led to worldwide efforts to organize the uses of ocean and coastal space in accordance with what is termed ecosystem-based management, an approach that considers the interplay of a wide variety of factors beyond the direct taking of fish, and does so in the context of ecologically, as opposed to politically, defined space.
It is a complicated undertaking that reflects growing knowledge of ecosystem science and the reality of how natural systems work. Its consideration is a manifest recognition that the traditional efforts at fisheries and ocean use management are inadequate. New approaches consistent with the workings and limitations of natural systems must be put into place to ensure the sustainability of the goods and services that ocean ecosystems provide -- and on which human life depends.
Lawrence Juda is a professor in the Department of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island, where he teaches graduate courses in international ocean law, the role of international organizations in ocean management, and U.S. ocean policy.
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