Fisheries Management in Dire Shape
Brendan Maher
Thursday, 29 January 2009 15:16 UTC
Adherence to the voluntary Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, developed by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is dismal according to a Nature commentary published today by Tony Pitcher, Daniela Kalikoski, Ganapathiraju Pramod and Katherine Short.
In cooperation with the WWF international a group including the commentary authors had surveyed 53 countries responsible for 96% of the marine catch worldwide. On a scale of one to ten no country did better much better than a six. And the leaders in code adherence are kind of surprising.
See their full report here and tell us what you think.
Updated 04 February 2009 20:21 UTC
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Replies
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I see this commentary got some pickup in Newsday. Time picked it up but got the journal’s name wrong in the version I saw. The National Post in Canada took their time discussing the results. What strikes me, but possibly shouldn’t, is that no one seems all that surprised that compliance is so low.
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During WW2 when rationing was in force, many of the UK’s coastal waters were overfished (knowingly illegaly) by local fishermen and others, to supplement food, to the extent that many species vanished forever, well, have not returned to this day. I have family in the fishing business – one-man-boats type of thing – and to hear the old-timers (sadly, few of them left now) talk about what it was like pre- and post-war in terms of species richness, sounds sad.
Having read and edited several articles in Nature over the years on this topic, I’m afraid to say I am not surprised about the poor compliance. -
1. The opening paragraph in the Commentary article is incorrect: The Code of Conduct has already been adopted on 31 October 1995 by the FAO Conference.
2. As most fishing is a national, rather than an international activity, perhaps the word ‘international’ in the last sentence may be misplaced – should perhaps be:
The time has come for a new integrated international (not here) legal instrument covering all aspects of (but here) international fisheries management.
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