Overfishing: a threat to marine biodiversity
 Despite its crucial importance for the survival of
humanity, marine biodiversity is in ever-greater danger, with the depletion
of fisheries among biggest concerns.
Fishing is central to the livelihood and food security of 200 million
people, especially in the developing world, while one of five people on this
planet depends on fish as the primary source of protein. According to UN
agencies, aquaculture - the farming and stocking of aquatic organisms
including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants - is growing more
rapidly than all other animal food producing sectors. But amid facts and
figures about aquaculture's soaring worldwide production rates, other, more
sobering, statistics reveal that global main marine fish stocks are in
jeopardy, increasingly pressured by overfishing and environmental
degradation.
“Overfishing cannot continue,” warned Nitin Desai, Secretary General of
the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, which took place in
Johannesburg. “The depletion of fisheries poses a major threat to the food
supply of millions of people.” The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation calls
for the establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), which many experts
believe may hold the key to conserving and boosting fish stocks. Yet,
according to the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) World Conservation
Monitoring Centre, in Cambridge, UK, less than one per cent of the world’s
oceans and seas are currently in MPAs.
The magnitude of the problem of overfishing is often overlooked, given the
competing claims of deforestation, desertification, energy resource
exploitation and other biodiversity depletion dilemmas. The rapid growth in demand for fish and fish products
is leading to fish prices increasing
faster than prices of meat. As a result, fisheries investments have become
more attractive to both entrepreneurs and governments, much to the detriment
of small-scale fishing and fishing communities all over the world. In the
last decade, in the north Atlantic region, commercial fish populations of
cod, hake, haddock and flounder have fallen by as much as 95%, prompting
calls for urgent measures. Some are even recommending zero catches to allow
for regeneration of stocks, much to the ire of the fishing industry.
According to a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate, over 70%
of the world’s fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. The
dramatic increase of destructive fishing techniques worldwide destroys marine
mammals and entire ecosystems. FAO reports that illegal, unreported and
unregulated fishing worldwide appears to be increasing as fishermen seek to
avoid stricter rules in many places in response to shrinking catches and
declining fish stocks. Few, if any, developing countries and only a limited
number of developed ones are on track to put into effect by this year the
International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Unreported and
Unregulated Fishing. Despite that fact that each region has its Regional Sea
Conventions, and some 108 governments and the European Commission have adopted
the UNEP Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine
Environment from Land based Activities, oceans are cleared at twice the rate
of forests.
The Johannesburg forum stressed the importance of restoring depleted
fisheries and acknowledged that sustainable fishing requires partnerships by
and between governments, fishermen, communities and industry. It urged
countries to ratify the Convention on the Law of the Sea and other
instruments that promote maritime safety and protect the environment from
marine pollution and environmental damage by ships. Only a multilateral
approach can counterbalance the rate of depletion of the world’s fisheries
which has increased more than four times in the past 40 years.
For further information:
Mr. Nick Nuttall, Head of Media Services, United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), Nairobi, Kenya.
Tel: 254 20 623084,
Mobile 254 (0) 733 632755,
Fax 254 2 623692,
E-mail
nick.nuttall@unep.org
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