Fishing about and about fishing
THE UNDUE QUARREL
Environmentalists and fishermen rarely agree on anything in spite that for all logical reasons they should stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a common cause for maintaining sustainable utilization of fishery resources. They all seem to agree on the importance of the, so called, ecosystem based management, but not to what it means in practice. Some over-eager Greens, for example, seem to consider fishing people as sort of invaders into nature and enemies of the environment, whose trade is a dangerous nuisance. The other extreme maintains that marine resources are there to be exploited for the sake of hungry markets and let the future generations worry about sustainability, which by itself has different meanings for different people. Another misused and overused term is overfishing – itself a false synonym for impoverishment for which overfishing is only one cause along with inshore and upstream aggregate water and air pollution and longshore and coastal development and their joint effect on fish resources. For their own reasons, some environmentalist NGOs are playing down or even ignoring the most deadly pollution which comes from industrial sources and, in particular, from the petro-chemical and electro-chemical sectors, which poisons coastal habitats including fish nursery and feeding grounds.
Other factor frequently ignored by environmentalists’ advocacy is the well documented through history crucial influence of climatic and oceanic processes and fluctuations on fish populations. Species characterized by narrow temperature range, are affected by thermal anomalies that delay or hasten spawning and hatching, displacing spawning and feeding grounds. Survival of larvae and juveniles depends, apart from hydrographic conditions, also on availability of the right food, at the right place and time, as well as on the predation rate. Changes in river flows raise or reduce salinity in estuaries, and displace fish and aquatic plant species. Climate variability is the key controlling factor in fishing yields for about half of the world's large marine ecosystems, including the East and West Greenland shelves, the Benguela Current off Southwest Africa, the Canary Current off Northwest Africa and the Humboldt Current off the west coast of South America. Abundance of marine species shifts with the ocean climate, for when climatic, biological and oceanographic conditions are just right, fish can respond with an extremely strong year class, or a series of them, and the other way around.
Reportedly, ICES is shifting to ecosystem approach, which includes the effects of climate and oceanography… and… of changes in fish food supply, especially at the sensitive larval stage that are related to the physical environment - the variability in sunlight, winds, and currents… and also other non-fishing factors.
I wish that fishing people get a fraction of the advocacy and lobbying that fish and other marine animals are getting from the various NGOs that seem to ignore the fact that like other predators people have been a part and parcel of marine ecosystem from times immemorial. The sustainability of fishermen's families and their communities is IMO inseparable from that of ocean resources. For what the authors of the Bible, whether human or divine wrote thousands years ago, see: Genesis 1: 22, 26 and 28.
Skipjack bones in Stone Age mounds indicate that Man has fished for tuna since the dawn of history, while metal fishing hooks were used in Japan already in the 8th century AD. Light fishing has started when Man discovered that fires on the beach were attracting fish, which enabled chasing them to crowd at the beach, to be killed or captured by various means. Till today, ages old fishing methods are employed by some isolated tribal communities.
Of course, the impact of fishing on fish resources is now much, much stronger than, say a couple of hundreds of years ago, but so is that of the protected, expanding populations of marine mammals that according to various studies consume nowadays several times more fish than the world's fisheries.
UN speaks up. Recently, the High Level Panel of Experts of the UN (HLPE) has published a report, recognizing the role and importance of small-scale fishermen in supplying foodfish to the people. HLPE's report stresses the negative impacts of such activities as oil drilling, energy installations, coastal development and longshore construction and development of coastal infrastructures, dams and water flow management (especially for inland fisheries), erosion and pollution, etc. on aquatic productivity and resources sustaining habitats and on the livelihoods of fishing communities. Add to those, denial of access to fishing grounds or displacement from coastal settlements, through the establishment of Marine Protected Areas and other conservation activities.
"Small-scale fisheries - says HLPE - as compared to larger scale fisheries, generally make broader direct and indirect contributions to food security: they make affordable fish available and accessible to poor populations and are a key mean to sustain livelihoods of marginalized and vulnerable populations in developing countries. The importance of small-scale fisheries (including inland fisheries) in terms of overall contribution to food security and nutrition is often underestimated or ignored".
Also: …" small-scale fishermen's production capacity is as important as the larger fleets in terms of availability of fish. In addition, a substantial proportion of small-scale fisheries’ landings is directed at developing countries’ consumers in local or regional markets. This is especially true for inland fisheries, for which 94 % of their production is consumed within the country of origin".
Small- and large-scale fleets (e.g. trawlers) compete for resources and fishing grounds leading to conflicts in zones where they jointly operate, which in most cases increases small-scale operators’ vulnerability, threatens their well-being, incomes and food security. Such competition can also negatively impact on coastal habitats. To manage fisheries in a sustainable manner, HLPE recommends assessing the prospective resources, recognizing local rights over fish, water and land resources, monitoring and controlling the system, and determining supportive policies, programmes, and support measures for the various stakeholders. All this needs governance able to contain the complexity of the economic, environmental, and social outcomes, including food security.
Something is moving in the right direction…