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The EU is the world's largest seafood market, taking in 40 percent of all imported fish, with a large chunk coming from developing countries. Spaniards consume a hundred pounds (45 kilograms) of seafood a year per person, nearly double the European average and exceeded only by Lithuanians and Portuguese.
Thresher sharks in Mexico's Gulf of California will be sold locally for food; their fins will be cut off and likely shipped to Hong Kong, where shark-fin soup is a prized dish. The global fin trade alone claims an estimated 40 million sharks a year, devastating stocks of a fish that is generally slow growing and slow to reproduce. Many countries, including the U.S., Brazil, South Africa, and Australia, have banned shark-finning, but consumers' tastes have yet to change.
Now banned in many countries, deep trawling with nets held open by heavy doors bulldozes the seabed and catches sea life indiscriminately—more than 50 percent of all discarded species.
Everything surrounding a Mexican trawlerman's hands will go to waste; he will sell only the shrimp.
With competition intensifying to supply mostly European markets, fishing grounds off West Africa are going the way of Europe's: toward depletion. These Senegalese, who had hoped to catch desirable export species such as shrimp or sole, will throw away the fish in their nets—wasting valuable protein for Africa.
Hooked without a permit, a dorado—sold as mahi-mahi—was caught on an illegal longline off Mexico. With thousands of baited hooks, longlines extend for miles, often snaring fish unintentionally, notably sharks, as well as hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, marine mammals, and seabirds every year. In longline fishing, eventually discarded bycatch makes up nearly 30 percent of the take.
Guitarfish, rays, and other bycatch are tossed from a shrimp boat in the Gulf of California. During the past decade, efforts to reduce bycatch have begun to pay off with better net and hook designs, pingers on nets to repel marine mammals, and streamers behind boats to frighten away seabirds.
A reef off Indonesia—laid bare to supply restaurants with live fish—now attracts divers searching for lobsters, the last remaining valuable species. Many species of global importance are captured using cyanide, traps, or dynamite.
Northern Spain: whether children of fishing families will choose to make their living through fishing is, for the first time, an open question.
Oceans and Seas The fate of a global commons
Structure of Lecture • Define the resource • Track its distribution in the world • Review the History of the resource • History of use • Conservation History • This section includes policy considerations • Explore its political dimensions • Stakeholders • Property issues
Structure of Lecture • Define the resource • Track its distribution in the world • Review the History of the resource • History of use • Conservation History • This section includes policy considerations • Explore its political dimensions • Stakeholders • Property issues
What is the resource? • Fish for consumption • Biodiversity • Hydropower, esp wave-powered turbines
Fishery An area with an associated fish or aquatic population which isharvested for its value (commercial, recreational, subsistence). It can be saltwater or freshwater, wild or farmed.
Marine vs. Freshwater • Marine means salt water • Marine refers to “the sea”, which includes oceans • From Latin marinus • Fresh water (or “Inland fisheries”) refers to non-salty waters – rivers, lakes, streams.
Fisheries – a global resource • Food fish accounts for about 20% of animal proteins in the global diet. • 99% of all fish come from coastal areas
Structure of Lecture • Define the resource • Track its distribution in the world • Review the History of the resource • History of use • Conservation History • This section includes policy considerations • Explore its political dimensions • Stakeholders • Property issues
But first…a quick law lesson • 17th century to early 20th: “freedom of the sea” • Considered a three-mile belt along national coast lines to be sovereign territory • 1945: US extended control out to the continental shelf. Other nations followed. • Protected natural resources • Protected fisheries • Allowed better pollution control
Law lesson (con’t) • 1945-1973: Many complicated laws hashing out claims to the sea and its resources • 1973-1994: United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea • Established Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), extends 200 miles from nations’ coasts • Established “territorial waters” – 12 miles out, where nations can set laws and regulations • Established the UN as the site for negotiation over competing claims
Image Credit: Global Education Project Data: UN FAO
What is the trend shown in this graph? Why do you think the trend exists? What might this trend mean for the future of fisheries? For global economic relations?
General Trends to Notice • World capture rates have leveled out in the last decade (excluding China), while the growth of aquaculture has made up for population growth • China is the largest producer of captured fish and aquaculture • China produces twice as much fish per capita than the global average • Most productive fisheries are located in coastal areas within Exclusive Economic Zones • Bu there has been a rise in open sea fishing, especially for deep sea species
Spike in deep water fishing • Causes: • Technological improvements • Increasingly restricted fishing zones • Decreasing resources in coastal zones • What possible impact could this have to marine organisms? • What possible solutions might be worked out?
Structure of Lecture • Define the resource • Track its distribution in the world • Review the History of the resource • History of use • Conservation History • This section includes policy considerations • Explore its political dimensions • Stakeholders • Property issues
Global Fishing Zones 99% of fish catches are in upwelling zones or coastal zones. Coastal zones are the most susceptible to transformation from landward activities.
Fish Stocks as Stress Indicators • What are some fishing practices that deplete fish resources? • How do they contribute to the decline of fisheries?
Now banned in many countries, deep trawling with nets held open by heavy doors bulldozes the seabed and catches sea life indiscriminately—more than 50 percent of all discarded species.
A reef off Indonesia—laid bare to supply restaurants with live fish—now attracts divers searching for lobsters, the last remaining valuable species. Many species of global importance are captured using cyanide, traps, or dynamite.
Thresher sharks in Mexico's Gulf of California will be sold locally for food; their fins will be cut off and likely shipped to Hong Kong, where shark-fin soup is a prized dish. The global fin trade alone claims an estimated 40 million sharks a year, devastating stocks of a fish that is generally slow growing and slow to reproduce. Many countries, including the U.S., Brazil, South Africa, and Australia, have banned shark-finning, but consumers' tastes have yet to change.
Hooked without a permit, a dorado—sold as mahi-mahi—was caught on an illegal longline off Mexico. With thousands of baited hooks, longlines extend for miles, often snaring fish unintentionally, notably sharks, as well as hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, marine mammals, and seabirds every year. In longline fishing, eventually discarded bycatch makes up nearly 30 percent of the take.
Everything surrounding a Mexican trawlerman's hands will go to waste; he will sell only the shrimp.
