Peru's vanishing fish stocks 'devastated' by corruption and growing fishmeal demand

Soaring global demand for fishmeal primarily for animal feed or fish farms, including salmon, is wrecking havoc on the once abundant fish stocks of the southern Pacific

The fish stocks of the southern Pacific and in particular Peru are being plundered by widespread cheating and overfishing, according to a new investigation.

Peru is the world’s second largest fishing nation after China, with the majority of its catch converted into fishmeal, a feed for farmed fish and pigs. More than a million tons a year exported mostly to Asia, in a trade worth $1.6 billion.

Read more:  http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1218644/perus_vanishing_fish_stocks_devastated_by_corruption_and_growing_fishmeal_demand.html

Prince of Wales launches fight to save overexploited oceans from overfishing

A report to be published this week by one of the Prince's charities, theInternational Sustainability Unit (ISU), will say that fisheries around the world could be pulled back from the brink of collapse by tackling wasteful fishing practices.

In a speech at the report's launch, the Prince will warn of "dire" long-term consequences unless action is taken to manage fish stocks more effectively.

He will use the opportunity to encourage governments, retailers and the fishing industry to adopt more sustainable practices, pointing to evidence that it could allow more fish to be taken from the seas rather than fewer.

The move comes on the back of the Prince's campaign save the rainforests, which has been credited with having played a significant role in getting the international community to sign up to initiatives to tackle deforestation.

Campaigners fighting to stop overfishing and end destructive policies such as discards, where fishermen throw dead fish back into the sea to avoid exceeding quotas, have backed the Prince's move.

While the Prince will not mention the European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in his speech, environmentalists who blame the policy for encouraging discards have welcomed his decision to speak out on the wider issues.

A Clarence House spokesman said: "The Prince of Wales has been concerned about the marine environment for many years.

"He wants to focus on the fishing industry and how to promote a more sustainable approach to managing the marine environment.

"The work of the Prince's Charities' ISU's Marine Programme is about promoting sustainable approaches towards fisheries to preserve a long-term livelihood for the communities and industries that rely on them, to preserve the fish stocks, and to protect biodiversity and ecosystems in the sea."

Twenty five per cent of the world's fish stocks are now believed to be overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion. Half of the world's fish stocks are already suffering catches at or close to the limit that allows them to be sustainable.

The report by the ISU will be launched at an event hosted by the Prince at Fishmongers' Hall in London on Friday, attended by 250 industry representatives and officials.

It will argue that the solution lies in readdressing the economics of fishing so governments and the industry recognise the benefits of preserving stocks.

It will highlight research that shows the oceans are capable of providing $50 billion (£31 billion) per year more value than they currently do if managed in an optimal manner.

Tony Juniper, special adviser to the ISU, said: "The automatic preconception that most people have is that sustainability is about taking less.

"What we have found, in fact, is that if fisheries were managed optimally then we could be taking more. The key to it is how you get the economics lined up.

"Then you can deliver value for the consumer, value for conservation and value for the fishing communities themselves to ensure they are rewarded for a hard job under tough conditions."

The report will analyse ways to keep fish stocks healthy while also providing more fish for consumers. It will argue that reducing supply for certain species would raise market prices, allowing fish stocks to recover while giving fishermen the ability to continue making a living.

Fishing a more diverse range of species could also help to reduce pressure, while new technology could be used to reduce by-catch – unwanted fish that are caught up in nets – and return them to the ocean alive.

It will also suggest removing subsidies for building new fishing vessels and fuel, which could help to control the number of fishing vessels operating. Currently the EU provides £2 billion a year in subsidies.

The Prince, who has a long record of environmental campaigning, has previously backed attempts to reform the CFP and has described the issue of by-catch and discards as "immoral".

Campaigners now hope that his international influence will persaude governments, regulating bodies, fishermen, seafood processors and retailers to adopt more sustainable fishing practices.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the chef who led a campaign to change the CFP and is set to begin filming a third instalment of his Hugh's Fish Fight programmes for Channel 4, welcomed the Prince's involvement.

He said: "This is absolutely the right approach. If the world's fish stocks were sustainably fished they could be more productive, not less.

"The Prince's involvement in environmental issues has the ability to rouse political will and business commitment. It is extremely welcome that he is to continue to turn the spotlight on the problems and the solutions."

A spokesman for the Marine Conservation Society said: "We welcome this approach of tackling the economics to incentivise sustainable fishing. It is something that will work and should appeal to governments no matter what their political persuasion."

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/9046430/Prince-of-Wales-launches-fight-to-save-overexploited-oceans-from-overfishing.html

Official report confirms massive misuse of EU fisheries funds

EU fisheries fund encourages overfishing - Courtesy of Birdlife

December 2012. On Monday 12 December, the EU Court of Auditors published a report damning costly failures to eliminate overfishing in Europe.

The report found that the multi-billion euro European Fisheries Fund designed to balance fishing activities at sustainable levels is actually doing the reverse. Loopholes mean that fleet owners are receiving subsidies to increase the capacity and fishing power of their vessels, adding to fleet overcapacity. A small fraction of the money available for scrapping is being used as intended, with most being spent on vessels that are old or no longer active.

Fundamental flaws
The court did not stop at criticising the misspending of taxpayers' money, but highlighted fundamental flaws in the existing fleet adjustment rules.


75% of European fish stocks are overfished
The report warns that fleet overcapacity is driving the depletion of fish stocks, threatening marine life and the viability of fishing sector and coastal communities. The result is that three out of four European fish stocks are overfished.

Birdlife Europe, Greenpeace, OCEAN2012, Seas At Risk and WWF are urging the European Parliament and Council of Ministers to follow the court's recommendations. The report shows that the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform will be meaningless unless measures are based on a full assessment of the fishing capacity coupled with deadlines for fleet reductions, the groups argue.

Reforms not fit for purpose
The European Commission's reform proposals are not up to the task: European Maritime & Fisheries Fund (replacing the European Fisheries Fund) - Unless safeguards are put in place, there is little evidence that subsidies will stop fuelling overcapacity let alone reverse it. For instance, the recent Commission proposal does not require member states to assess the balance between fishing capacity and stocks before receiving modernisation funds.

CFP reform - Clear timelines and targets for fleet reductions should be introduced in the revised proposals. Moreover, the text should be amended to create a wider range of options for allocating fishing rights, introducing preferential access for those that fish in the most sustainable and responsible way.

Fisheries ministers will meet on 16 December to set fishing quotas for 2012. These should be set in line with the scientific advice, and consistent with the goal to recover fish stocks to above levels that can produce maximum sustainable yields by 2015, the groups say.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/eu-overfishing.html

Canada plans massive seal cull

Grey seal cull: Canada plans to cull 140,000 seals to protect fisheries September 2011: The Canadian fisheries ministry are promoting a vast cull of grey seals to protect Canadian fisheries that crashed due to huge overfishing but have not recovered. The ministeries report, despite admitting 'scientific uncertainties' recommends a massive cull of seals to protect valuable fish stocks. Wildlife Extra questions this, purely on the logical basis that if the seals rely on the fish to survive, why are the seals thriving despite the fact that fish stocks are so low?

INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR ANIMAL WELFARE (IFAW) AND GROUP OF SCIENTISTS SPEAK OUT

The International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Science Advisor, Dr David Lavigne, and five other marine scientists have sent an open letter to Canada’s Minister of Fisheries and Oceans condemning a report by the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (FRCC) which calls for a massive cull of grey seals in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The open letter was sent to the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, the Honourable Keith Ashfield, on September 26, 2011. In the letter, the scientists describe the Department of Fisheries and Oceans workshop, which informed the FRCC report, as biased and also state that there is no scientific evidence to support a grey seal cull. The scientists recommend that the Minister reject the FRCC recommendation to cull grey seals, and also suggest that a review be done by independent scientists.

Quotes from the Report

Scientific uncertainties

"Scientific uncertainties and societal sensitivities surround the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council killing and discarding of animals solely to reduce their competition with humans for shared natural resources. Seal control programs elsewhere, such as in the Barents Sea, are relatively small. In eastern Canada, we have seal populations at the peak of the exponential phase, so the reductions calculated to be necessary to produce a positive effect on groundfish recovery are very large. In addition, we are subject to intense international scrutiny that has the potential to put established markets for Canadian seafood products at serious risk."

Hypotheis - Seals eat all the fish
"It has been hypothesized since the mid-1990s that predation by seals is the dominant cause of the high rate of natural mortality that has impeded the recovery of many groundfish stocks".

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/canada-seal-cull.html

Coral reef collapse: eight warning signs

Research gives clues to predict problems
September 2011: Coral reefs that have lots of corals and appear healthy may, in fact, be heading toward collapse, according to a study published by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Using data from coral reef systems across the western Indian Ocean, an international team of researchers identified how overfishing creates a series of at least eight big changes on reefs that precipitate a final collapse. This information can help managers gauge the health of a reef and tell them when to restrict fishing in order to avoid a collapse of the ecosystem and fishery.

The authors say these changes are like a series of light switches, each of which make the reef more degraded and dims the chances of sustained fishery production and recovery.

When the ecological lights go off‘The study identifies eight changes before all of the ecological lights go off and the reef and fishery are gone,' said Dr McClanahan, the lead author on the study and the head of WCS's coral reef research and conservation programme.

The study shows that in well-protected areas, there are typically 1,000 to 1,500kg of reef fish of various species per hectare of coral reef. As the volume is fished down below 1,000kg, the early warning signs - such as increased seaweed growth and urchin activity - begin to appear. The researchers found that between 300-600 kg per hectare, there appeared to be a ‘window' of what is known as maximum sustainable yield, but when the fish stock drops below 300kg per hectare, the reef is in real trouble, they said.

Overfished reefs can appear healthy‘Below 300kg per hectare we see a series of dramatic changes on reefs. This is where you get on a real slippery slope,' McClanahan noted. ‘Strangely, the metric used by most managers to gauge the health of reef system - coral cover - is the last threshold before ecosystem failure. Overfished reefs can appear healthy and then shift to algae dominated seascapes.'

The authors recommend measuring the biomass of fish instead of coral cover to identify the early warning rather than the final sign of reef collapse.

‘The good news is that a reef can likely provide sustainable fisheries even after the first three warning switches are turned off, but it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain a healthy fishery and restore reefs when the final five switches have been turned off,' said Dr McClanahan. ‘This study provides managers and policy makers with a tangible target of where to maintain their fishery.'

People depend on reefs for their livelihoodsReef fisheries with no regulations tended to perform poorly, with some passing all the switches and completely collapsing. No-take marine reserves, where fishing was prohibited, were the best performers and tended to maintain key ecosystem processes such as predation.

‘People depend on reefs for their livelihoods, so we can't prohibit fishing everywhere,' noted Dr Joshua Cinner from James Cook University in Australia. ‘A key finding from our study was that even easily enforceable regulations that restrict gear or the types of species that can be caught helped maintain biomass. These regulations are often more agreeable to fishermen than no-take closures and consequently receive higher levels of support and compliance.'

‘There is no one size fits all solution to save the world's coral reef ecosystems. To be politically and socially sustainable, tangible and objective management targets are critical to help managers make difficult near-term decisions of restricting or altering fishing practices for long-term social and ecological gain,' said Dr Caleb McClennen, director of WCS's marine programme. http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/coral-collapse.html

Bycatch slows recovery of Grand Banks Cod

Halifax, Nova Scotia: After decades of little hope in what was once one of the world’s major fisheries, Atlantic Cod is showing signs of recovery on the Grand Banks off the coast of Canada. But WWF is warning that fisheries managers must not rush to reopen the cod fishery that has been under moratorium since 1994.

The Atlantic cod population on the Grand Banks, southeast of Newfoundland, is showing the early signs of improvement, according to a report by the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization’s (NAFO) scientific council in 2010.

But although the current course for recovery of southern Grand Banks cod is positive, it is still just 21 per cent of what is considered to be a sustainable level for the stock.

Ahead of the annual meeting of NAFO on September 19th in Halifax, Nova Scotia, WWF is warning that fisheries managers must first finalize the promising interim cod conservation plan developed by NAFO over the past year.

“It’s an encouraging sign after decades of seeing little-to-no recovery of a cod population that was once a central part of the region’s fishing industry”, says Dr. Bettina Saier, Director of Oceans Program at WWF-Canada. “But this ongoing ecosystem recovery is at risk if NAFO doesn’t reduce the amount of allowable cod bycatch.”

Small window of opportunity
This small window of opportunity for the cod rebuilding strategy to make a difference could easily be lost to the high amount of cod caught as bycatch in other fisheries.

The bycatch of Grand Banks cod increased from 600 tonnes in 2006 to 1100 tonnes in 2009. Reducing bycatch by 50 percent is the key to cod recovery, combined with protection of habitats and other ecological important areas such as spawning and nursery grounds.

NAFO has demonstrated leadership by protecting coral and sponge habitats and seamounts, but they have fallen behind on their 2006 international commitments to protect other vulnerable marine ecosystems, such as spawning grounds, as called for by United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions.

A scientific study published in July 2011 showed that Atlantic cod off Nova Scotia are recovering from their dramatic collapse two decades ago — and that the ecosystem is recovering with them. This is a good indicator for the future of fisheries on the Grand Banks.

Collapse of the Grand Banks cod fishery
The Newfoundland Grand Banks, off the east coast of Canada, used to be famous as supporting some of the world’s most productive fisheries. Small boats caught sustainable amounts of cod for hundreds of years.

But as fishing methods advanced in the 1950s with the introduction of larger, new factory trawlers and warnings from scientists of the dangers of over-fishing went unheeded, eventually the amount of cod in the area reached record lows.

A total fishing moratorium was enforced, throwing about 40,000 people out of work and shattering the livelihoods of local fishing communities.

Smart Fishing Initiative
Since 2005, WWF has been involved with NAFO with the goal of recovering the Grand Banks ecosystem. WWF’s Smart Fishing Initiative works with every level of the fishing industry to reform commercial marine fisheries towards long-term sustainability - where seafood is harvested in a way that sustains and protects the marine environment, the species within it, and the people who depend on them.

http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?201689/Bycatch-slows-recovery-of-Grand-Banks-Cod