COMMENT

Bycatch & discards: Treating marine life like trash

19th August 2008

The objective of commercial fishermen is to catch fish that can be sold. The higher the price that these fish fetch at market, the more money the fishermen will make. The fishermen has limited time and space in which to maximise their income, so in order to do so their main objective must be to be as selective as possible. 

However most fisheries are at least partially non-selective and catch fish and other animals that are not targeted. This non-targeted catch is known as bycatch. This bycatch is usually discarded (thrown over the side of the boat either dead or dying).
 
In the North Sea nearly one million tonnes of marine life is discarded in this way every year, and unbelievably, seventy percent is comprised of commercially important fish species. This equates to nearly one-third of the total fish landed by fishermen, and one-tenth of the estimated total biomass of fish in the North Sea. These fish are discarded because they are either undersized, over quota or not of sufficiently high value to the fisherman.
 
In EU Community waters the practice of discarding fish is not illegal and it speaks volumes on EU fisheries policy that when in a time of worldwide food and fuel shortages and rapidly declining fish stocks the practice of discarding is not only tolerated, but is in many cases a legally binding requirement.
 
There is no way of knowing what damage discarding has on the marine ecosystem as amazingly very little scientific research has been carried out to determine its detrimental affects on the marine ecosystem, but it is worth mentioning that no other industry gets close to the practice of discarding in terms of sheer waste and destructiveness.

Norway obviously feels strongly enough about the matter to have banned the discarding of commercial fish in its waters as early as 1990, requiring all boats to land the fish for processing into fishmeal. Measures have also been introduced whereby fisheries can be closed very quickly if an area is found to contain a large number of juvenile fish.

So what are the solutions? Personally I would completely ban the discarding of bycatch full stop, but since I see absolutely no hope of this happening, perhaps a ban could be put in place for a long enough period for there to be a proper scientific audit of the scale of the problem?

Almost half of all discards are caused by the various types of trawling, and it may be time to call and end to this particularly destructive method of fishing. If the Marine Stewardship Council's fishery certification program and seafood eco-label gain widespread acceptance within the EU member countries this may in itself help to end the indiscriminate methods employed by trawling.

Bycatch and discards are an aberration. We are now in the 21st century and yet the wholesale slaughter of our marine life still continues in our oceans. There are no meaningful protected areas from which marine life can recover from this onslaught, and the fishermen, once their catch is dead, can pick and choose which animals are worth keeping and which can dumped back into the ocean. This cannot be right.

Overfishing must now be seen as a threat to human existence

11 July 2008

Virtually every threat to life in the sea is attributable to our use of the 'wait and see principle', which allows overexploitation, ecosystem destruction or pollution so long as someone gains economically and the environmental consequences are uncertain.



In 1988 the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was formed to gain a better understanding of global climate change and provide scientific evidence that climate change was causing significant damage to our environment.

In 2001 it published its Third Assessment Report (TAR). This report was a comprehensive assessment of the scientific, technical, and socio-economic dimensions of climate change and the panel concluded that it was at least ninety percent certain that human emissions of greenhouse gases rather than natural variations are warming the planet's surface. This proclamation galvanised the world into confronting the threat of climate change, if not actually combating it effectively as yet.

The threats to our marine environment (which accounts for seventy percent of the Earth's surface) have had no such large scale, unified effort, and where the scientific data does exist it is often grossly inaccurate or misleading.

Take overfishing for example. The FAO (UN Food & Agriculture Organisation) maintains the only global database of fisheries statistics collected between 1950 and 2004. Numbers used are voluntarily reported by individual countries and are taken from sales of fish, rather than scientific surveys. The system overlooks fish caught and consumed by those who catch them because this leaves no economic trail. Three and fourfold underestimates are not uncommon. This can have profound implications for overfishing as some nations sell rights to foreign fishing boats on the basis of these flawed statistics.

Other scientific fisheries data can be equally misleading. In a study by Dalhousie University, Canada, it was discovered that the true scale of the devastation caused by overfishing has remained hidden because in most of the world's oceans industrial fishing began long before fisheries biologists started making accurate estimates of fish numbers.

Populations of large commercial fish species tend to level off at about ten percent of their pristine numbers after prolonged industrial exploitation as they no longer become viable to catch at this level. Fisheries managers may be unaware of the initial plenty and come to see this reduced population as normal, sometimes even regarding the fishery as healthy as the population remains relatively stable when it is actually only a shadow of its former self.

On this basis it would be fair to assume that the world's oceans may have once held ten times as many fish as they do today, a sobering thought which makes a mockery of the so-called 'sustainable' industrial scale commercial fisheries.

And this situation is not without precedent. Commercial whaling focused initially on the largest species, the blue whale, but switched to progressively smaller less commercially valuable species - fin, sei, and then minke whales - as each stock of the larger species, in turn, was pushed towards extinction. The blue whale was officially protected in 1966 but has never recovered from this slaughter and has stabilised at around five to ten percent of pristine numbers. In 1982 the IWC (International Whaling Commission) applied a moratorium to all commercial whaling.

International cooperation has effectively produced wide-ranging proposals and solutions to combat climate change and to a lesser degree commercial whaling, and the same is now needed for the worldwide fishing industry.

Two-thirds of the Earth is fast becoming a biological desert and if the destruction of our marine ecosystems is to be halted, and ultimately reversed, bold, systematic, and effective measures are needed now.

An Intergovernmental Panel on Marine Exploitation, if backed up by proper, exhaustive fisheries science, may galvanise world opinion in a similar way that the IPCC has done for climate change.

Oceans in crisis

1 July 2008

One of the long-established ecological principles is that large animals are less abundant than smaller ones. There are fewer elephants than antelope, which are less numerous than rabbits. Because larger animals need more resources, an ecosystem can support fewer of them.

 

The one glaring exception to this principle is us: Homo sapiens. There are 6.7 billion humans on earth. No other large animal gets close to us as a species. For example, our nearest relatives the great apes, gorillas, orang-utans and chimpanzees, number fewer than 350,000.

Part of our success as a species can be attributed to our ability to domesticate animals and plants. Farming as we now call it, has enabled us to feed a population that would be impossible to sustain from wild resources alone. Crops and livestock, genetically modified over millennia for food, have led to a situation where the global population of humans can now double every 40 years or so.

The domestication of land animals may have also inadvertently saved the remaining wild populations from being hunted to extinction, a situation that unfortunately does not apply across the board. The exploitation of wild marine animals continues unabated, mostly without the safety-valve of large scale farming to reduce pressure on the populations.

Perhaps because of the vast and hostile environment in which they inhabit marine animals have, until recently, shown remarkable resilience to over 100 years of industrial scale exploitation. But there are now numerous unmistakeable indicators that this is no longer the case.

Ninety percent of all commercial fish species are in dire trouble. Fished well beyond sustainable limits for decades some experts predict that 'wild seafood', as such, will cease to exist by 2050.

Fish and jellyfish essentially compete for similar nutrient resources and with the fish gone the jellyfish thrive. Jellyfish populations have exploded all across the world, overtaking fish in terms of total biomass in many areas.

There have been an increasing number of reports where whales, porpoises, seals and seabirds have been found starving to death through lack of enough fish to eat and Namibia are culling 86,000 Cape fur seals this year to protect their overexploited and dwindling fish stocks.

In the Mediterranean sharks have been declared 'functionally extinct' and the bluefin tuna is expected to join them any day now. Sharks across the globe are being cruelly slaughtered in their millions to satisfy the fin soup market - hardly an essential ingredient to human survival.

Longlining is decimating the billfish and pelagic bird populations. The iconic marlin, sailfish and swordfish are now in grave danger of disappearing off the face of the earth forever and the accidental bycatch of pelagic seabirds and turtles, such as the albatross and hawksbill, is reducing populations so quickly that there is virtually no hope of their breeding quickly enough to maintain healthy populations.

Not satisfied with taking all the fish, pelagic fishing boats are now converting to krill fishing to satisfy the increasing demand for fish-oil and fish-meal. Venturing deep into Antarctic waters to harvest what has recently been described as 'pink gold'. Krill are a 'keystone' species whose exploitation we may later refer to as 'the straw that broke the camel's back'.

The evidence of destruction is there for all but the blindest to see, and yet the exploitation goes on unabated and largely unregulated. Something is very seriously wrong with our oceans and if these tell tale signs are continually ignored, that damage may well become irreparable.

The North Sea sandeel fishery: An industry of destruction
 
18 June 2008

Most people accept that the North Sea has been subjected to the most appalling overfishing. Whitefish stocks, such as cod and haddock, have collapsed and the mackerel and herring fisheries are all but commercially extinct.

 
Under normal circumstances the removal of whole rafts of large predatory fish would allow room for species such as sandeel, the favoured prey species of these fish, to increase their numbers dramatically, but this is not the case.
 
And why is this? Well, the sandeel fishery has now become by far the biggest single-species fishery in the North Sea, with landings accounting for one-third of all fish landed. The vast majority of this catch is landed and processed in Denmark. Such fundamental changes in the fabric of the marine ecosystem are what ecologists refer to as 'fishing down the food web'.
 
Since 1977, total yearly North Sea sandeel catches have fluctuated around 600,000-800,000 tonnes, but since 2003 catches have crashed dramatically to between 200,000-300,000 tonnes. The collapse of the fishery was particularly severe in the Norwegian economical zone with a 95% reduction in landings in 2005. 
 
You will not have eaten a sandeel knowingly (unwittingly perhaps as a fish-oil supplement), so what exactly are sandeels used for? The sandeel is an exceptionally oily fish and is harvested for the rapidly expanding fish-oil and fish-meal industries and used in everything from food for farmed salmon to animal feed and health supplements. At one stage sandeels were even used to fuel Danish power stations. And demand is set to increase.
 
Recent forecasts by the FAO (UN Food & Agriculture Organisation) indicate that aquaculture and its insatiable appetite for fish-oil, will dominate world fish supplies by 2030, fuelling pressure for a high level of industrial sandeel fishing in the North Sea. It takes, for example, 4kg of wild caught sandeel to produce 1kg of farmed salmon.
 
This does not bode well for the marine species in the North Sea that depend on sandeels for food. Many scientists and ecologists believe that the recent disastrous breeding seasons for many of Europe's seabird colonies can be directly linked to the industrial fishing of sandeels in the North Sea.
 
As early as 1997, two respected Danish fisheries scientists - Henrik Gislason and Eskild Kirkegaard - were highly critical of the North Sea sandeel fishery, and they concluded that "it cannot be ruled out that (sandeel) fishing could adversely effect (sic) the breeding success of the birds. It would therefore be precautionary to close areas to fishing until more is known about sandeel stock structure and interactions between sandeels and seabirds".

And a report published by the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES) suggests that "the amount of industrial fish species taken by fishermen in the North Sea appears to leave little for seabirds and marine mammals".

It would not be unreasonable then to suggest that the overfishing of sandeel stocks may represent the single greatest threat to seabirds in the North Sea, especially in the breeding season when seabirds forage close to their colonies.

And it is not only the seabirds that are suffering. Studies into the diet of common dolphins, grey seals and harbour porpoises in Scottish waters have shown that they feed mainly on sandeels in the spring and early summer. The affects on these species if they cannot find sandeels to eat at this time of year can be disastrous. For example, spring is a critical time for dolphins and porpoises in terms of energy requirements. Some of the lowest sea temperatures occur in the North Sea in March, putting a great strain on dolphins and porpoises as they require the thickest blubber layer to limit heat loss at this time. In addition, young animals are weaned and become independent foragers in spring, placing them at the mercy of changes in sandeel availability.

Ironically the long-term overfishing of sandeels in the North Sea may also inhibit a return to the former healthy status of predatory fish stocks such as cod and haddock, as these stocks can only recover if there are sufficient prey fish for them to feed upon. This is what ecologists refer to as a 'negative feedback loop', a vicious circle of exploitation that renders an ecosystem incapable of a recovery to anywhere near its former productivity.

It may not yet be too late however, but our attitudes and tolerance to an industry that has got perilously close to destroying the very fabric of the North Sea must change dramatically. No longer can we view the commercial fishing industry with the romantic notion of hard working fishermen risking everything to put fish on our plates. It must now be seen for what it is, a ruthless, efficient, hi-tech industry of destruction, that is prepared to wipe out whole species for profit with almost no long-term consideration for the health of the marine environment.

Bushmeat of the ocean

12 May 2008

Most of us have seen the pictures, some of the world's most endangered animals being sold in markets across Africa as bushmeat. Gorillas, chimps, monkeys and wild cats, no animal is safe from this destructive trade. Logging in areas of pristine tropical forest has created a network of new roads which give the hunters easy access to their prey in parts of Africa that may previously have taken weeks to reach.

Suprisingly perhaps, a similar situation can be found in markets across the US, Europe and Asia but instead of gorilla, chimp and serval you will find grouper, tuna and cod. Instead of logging companies you have equally ruthless fishing concerns, whoes hunters are the bluewater trawlers and longliners.

How can you compare a grouper with a gorilla? I hear you say. Well according to the highly respected IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) there are three species of grouper that are critically endangered (calico, goliath and black) one level higher than the endangered mountain gorilla.

It seems that we are quite happy to tuck into an endangered marine animal whilst we reel in horror at what we perceive to be the barbarity of the African bushmeat trade, well here's a warning, that monkfish you had for supper last night is the bushmeat of the ocean, once plentiful, but now a rare and endangered wild animal.

Junk science and vested interest

21 April 2008

As the breeding season for UK seabirds rapidly approaches the fishing industry has got its minions busily diverting the truth away from their destructive practices.

Dr Ian Napier, of the NAFC (North Atlantic Fisheries College), said today: "The immediate cause of the seabird breeding failures is generally believed to be a shortage of food. They have trouble finding sand eels to feed their chicks. Probably what is happening is that there is some change in the ocean which is reducing the availability of food and also increasing warm water, but we don't really know the details of what the cause is."

The inference in this quote is that global warming is to blame for the recent terrible times our seabirds have had breeding. But may I put it to Dr Ian Napier that 'the change' that is happening in the ocean is that commercial fishermen are removing too many food fish from the ocean that these birds need to feed their young.

It is, of course, no coincidence that the NAFC just happen to release this report at the beginning of the seabird breeding season, so when the headlines start reporting, for yet another year, that our seabird chicks are starving to death, the finger of blame will point towards climate change and not the real culprit, which is overfishing, and the greed and stupidity of our fishing industries.

The Marine Bill: A century too late?

30 January 2008

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century the world saw the need to protect the dwindling flora and fauna found on land. Famous parks like Kruger National Park, Yellowstone Park and Etosha were formed.

In the UK famous poets like Byron and Wordsworth inspired people to take an interest in the hitherto exploited and under appreciated countryside leading to the freedom to roam bill in 1884. The bill failed and eventually mass trespass (direct action) was seen as the only alternative and five men were imprisoned for this action.

100 years later we are in a similar, but worse, positon with our oceans, seas and coastlines. It has taken longer for the outrage of ordinary people to be felt because the damage done has not been visible.

Official Government statistics which show that two-thirds of all commercially caught fish in the UK are disgarded dead surely is the tipping point where we all should now say 'enough is enough' and finally start the sort of mass public outcry that this deserves.

This Government has promised us a Marine Bill which would start the process of protecting our seas and coastlines, but do not actually deem it important enough to pass this bill through Parliament.

So much for progressive politics, continuing to drag their heels on a priority that should probably have been looked at by the UK Government 100 years ago.

Krilling fields

29 January 2008

As populations of once plentiful pelagic fish become exhausted many of the boats equipped to fish for these species are unfortunately starting to turn their attention to krill. Krill are a shrimp like animal that are said to represent the largest biomass on Earth and are key to the health of the marine environment.

Krill fishing briefly peaked in the 1980s when the Soviet Union caught 500,000 tonnes per year but declined significantly with the fall of Communism. However with severely over-exploited fish stocks and an increasing demand for fish oils and food for the Aquaculture industry the krill fishery is expected to boom in the next few years. Companies like Aker BioMarine are developing new technology that can deliver a stream of live krill onto a vessel and is converting a second vessel for krill catches, alongside its existing Saga Sea. The company says it will be able to catch 200,000 tonnes of krill a year in the near future.

It is reckoned that catches could rise to 1 percent of the total biomass of krill, or 5 million tonnes a year if the total was 500 million tonnes. Scientists say little is known about krill stocks and as a keystone marine species - they are the favoured food of whales, penguins, fish and seabirds - large scale exploitation could have dire consequences for the marine ecosystem.