Every minute history is changed by what is taking place at that moment; events that seemed tragic end up changing people and the world for better and perception of that "historical" time has a new perspective. As we lurch closer to an ocean crisis from collapsed fisheries due to industrial fishing, pollution, shark finning and whale hunting it is obvious fish consumers from major industrialized nations must be alerted and convinced to change their eating habits.
With government banning of industrial fishing an unlikely development, it is incumbent on consumers to force change by not purchasing seafood products obtained thru industrial fishing. Danny Quintana, founder of The Global High Seas Marine Preserve, expresses this concept as the GHMSP is in the midst of launching the 50 Sustainable Seafood Cities Campaign in an effort to create municipal mandates barring the sale of seafood caught by industrial fishing.
There is no great mystery on why half of the wildlife in the oceans is gone and 90 percent of the predator fish have been slaughtered. The rich world, the developed countries in Europe, Asia and North America are responsible for the slaughter. Seafood is a "food choice" in the developed world. This "food choice" is what is destroying the oceans. Giant trawlers subsidized by their governments go out into the oceans and using the latest technology, hunt the wildlife to extinction. Since there is no world government or effective international law, these killing machines are fishing out the oceans. It is not only not sustainable, it is an environmental and conservation nightmare that will very soon become a immigration tragedy.
With one percent of the fisherman, the developed world consumes 70 percent of the catch. But the waste that is associated with the "food choice" is outrageous. At least 40 percent of the catch is killed off as "by-catch", unwanted species that are not marketable. Shrimp nets routinely catch sea turtles and other creatures as well as destroy sensitive coral reefs that have taken thousands of years to develop. Shark fining is a complete conservation and moral disaster. Some cultures continue to kill dolphins and other highly intelligent creatures- all as a food choice.
We can stop this slaughter. We need to give the oceans a break. I am asking all of you out there in the developed world to forego eating seafood altogether or just eat less of these wild creatures. Ideally it would be best if we just stopped commercial fishing for ten years to allow time for the fish stocks to recover. That would be the best immediate solution. Some species take a long time to reproduce and most fisheries worldwide are collapsing. This can all change with the consumer. If people eat less or no seafood, the fish stocks will in time recover. Future generations will be able to enjoy the bounty of the oceans. If we continue on our present path of eat what we want regardless of the consequences for the planet, yes the oceans will close off to industrial commercial fishing. The fish stocks will be fished to extinction and our great Earth Mother will close off the oceans for us as the fish will be gone.
We clearly can kill every last fish. It won't be the end of fish as food. There will be fish farms with disease infected salmon, and other species. Aquaculture is a big part of fish consumption especially in China with their massive population of 1.3 billion people. As more nations become wealthier, they will convert to sea food as a "food choice". The result will be the fisheries will continue their collapse. At present rates, the scientific estimates are that the fisheries will be slaughtered to extinction by 2048. I think that is overly optimistic. As more countries pull out of poverty, they will consume more wild fish and very soon the oceans will be fished out.
We in the developed world can stop the certain slaughter that is taking place in the oceans. By working together with other countries and banning industrial commercial fishing, long lining, shark fining and drift nets, by eating less sea food, the fish stocks will recover. Ten years seems like a long time but it is not. Ten years will go by very fast as time disappears when we are doing the right thing. Whaling was banned and many whale species, while still endangered, are no longer near extinction. We can do this. Buffalo almost became extinct. Careful work by the Phillips family save the buffalo from extinction. Saving the wild life in the oceans from extinction merely requires consumers in the developed world to choose something else besides seafood as a food choice. There are plenty of other food choices that don't destroy the wildlife life in the oceans. We can eat lamb, be vegetarian, eat Mexican food, do more salads, go gluten free and consume food that does not do environmental damage on land or at sea.
The consumer is the key to saving the wildlife on land or below the waves. Eat less seafood or no seafood is the answer. A ten-year ban on industrial commercial fishing is the ideal solution. Consumers in the developed world not killing the fish in the oceans is the best solution to insuring that these magnificent wild creatures will continue to exist. Our food choice can be an alternative to the destruction of the wildlife in the oceans. Encourage all of your family members and friends to forego sea food as a food choice.
For media interviews contact E.B. GO Vision Media at c@ebgoinc.com.
The Problem:
The Fisheries Are Collapsing
The industrialization of commercial fishing, long lining, by-catch, shark finning and waste of the actual catch as well as pollution is destroying the wildlife in the oceans. Large predator populations have declined nearly 90 percent.1 Although some studies predict we will run out of wild fish as food by 20482, it is happening much faster as the world's population is increasing at 80-100 million people per year.3 As the economies in the developing world grow, this increased economic activity will accelerate the decline of the fisheries.
Every year the commercial fishing industry discards 40 to 60 billion pounds of fish as by-catch because it was not the species that was being targeted.4 This is obviously not sustainable. It is also immoral. The entire planet is being adversely impacted by over fishing. When the catch is finally brought to shore, much of it is wasted. If a grocery store does not sell their seafood within days of the catch they dump it in the garbage. This waste leads to a cycle of further decimating the fisheries.
Since 1970 half of the world's wildlife and approximately 40 percent of the ocean life have been slaughtered. In this short 45 years the world's population has increased from 4 billion to over 7.4 billion. By 2050 the world's population is projected to increase to over 9 billion.7 Given the reality of population growth, increased economic activity in the developing world as well as the effects of wasteful by-catch if we do not stop this decimation, it is estimated that the oceans will be fished out of wild catch by 2048. However, we believe the collapse will occur much earlier. We have passed the tipping point. The fish stocks are collapsing. The public in the developed world does not understand the seriousness of this impending conservation and humanitarian disaster.
All of us in the environmental movement are aware of what shark finning, long lining, drift nets, by-catch as well as industrial commercial fishing is doing to the oceans. The real question is, what are environmental organizations, foundations and conservation groups going to do about it NOW? In spite of their vastness, the oceans are not limitless.
We at the Global High Seas Marine Preserve have started a global media campaign to create awareness among young people in the developed world about the collapse of the fisheries. Young people must be informed about this problem to ensure that they understand the tragedy and seriousness of the issue. It is their future that is at stake. They, like all of us, can't allow the fish stocks to be destroyed.
Despite the emergence of a Global Ocean Commission and the passage of numerous international agreements, and some close to shore marine preserves, these individual piece meal efforts are not working - the fish stocks continue to collapse at an ever increasing rate. Less than three percent of the ocean is off limits to industrial commercial fishing.9 To fight this impending disaster we are proposing the creation of a Global High Seas Marine Preserve to place 70 percent of the oceans off limits to industrial commercial fishing. This restriction is absolutely necessary to put nature and humans back in balance.
Approximately half of the population of the planet lives within 100 miles from the oceans. Over 1 billion people in the developing world depend on seafood for protein. This major food source cannot be destroyed without serious political repercussions. The protein will have to be replaced. If or when the fisheries collapse, there will inevitably be mass starvation, violence and political turmoil in all of the affected areas. Many large indigenous communities in Africa, Central and South America and Asia depend on the seas not only for food but for their livelihood.
Commercial Industrial Fishing
The global commercial production for human use of fish and other aquatic organisms occurs in two ways: they are either captured wild by commercial fishing or they are cultivated and harvested using aquacultural and farming techniques.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the world production in 2005 consisted of 93.2 million tons captured by commercial fishing in wild fisheries, plus 48.1 million tons produced by fish farms. In addition, 1.3 million tons of aquatic plants (seaweed etc.) were captured in wild fisheries and 14.8 million tons were produced by aquaculture. The number of individual fish caught in the wild has been estimated at 0.97-2.7 trillion per year (not counting fish farms or marine invertebrates).
The major changes that have brought about the decline of the fisheries are population growth and the advent of massive industrial trawlers that can catch 200 to 500 tons of fish per day – fishing 24 hours a day for weeks at time.13 These trawlers have nets that are large enough to fit two 747 airliners. They kill everything in their path. They are the equivalent of hunting deer with an M1 tank. The fish don't stand a chance. Worse yet, these trawlers are not profitable without government subsidies.
These industrial trawlers can empty out a fishery in relatively short order. Super trawlers are able to stay out at sea for weeks at a time and travel to any part of the planet. No fishery is safe from these killing machines. Some countries have denied licenses to these ships to fish in their waters. But this does not stop them from fishing in the high seas where nation states do not have control.
Furthermore piracy with these trawlers exacerbates the problem. Piracy occurs where the trawlers fish illegal and do not identify or count the catch because it is transferred to other ships at sea. Piracy is difficult to detect and even more difficult to stop under current treaties since there is no global law enforcement. Only through creating a Global High Seas Marine Preserve and establishing joint enforcement rights can we possibly stem the problem.
Population Growth
The explosion in global population growth in the last 200 years is at the heart of the collapse of the fisheries. Two hundred years ago, in the early 1800s, the ocean going vessels were made out of wood and used sails for power. Radar, sonar and spotter planes had not been invented yet. The use of fossil fuels for industry had not occurred as industrialization was in its infancy. Plastics had not been invented. Agriculture did not use industrial commercial fertilizers. The runoffs from rivers next to large human populations did not yet create dead zones in the oceans. Most people lived in rural agricultural farming communities. Mega-cities did not exist. Two centuries ago there were numerous places on the planet where wild game both on land and at sea were abundant and the human population stood at approximately 1 billion.
In a short span of 216 years the planet's population has exploded to over 7.4 billion. Technology and population growth have decidedly tipped the scales against nature. Today, as rivers empty into the oceans, they create dead zones all over our now tiny planet. Consequently, the wildlife both on land and in the oceans has been decimated. From wild elephants to whales, from mountain gorillas to blue fin tuna, species are being hunted and slaughtered to extinction. Two centuries ago people ate what they were able to grow and wild meat added protein to their diets.
Obviously urbanization and industrialization changed consumption habits. Today, people in the developed world can decide on numerous choices of food. From Thai to Mexican, to Japanese sushi, Indian food, or whatever the consumer is in the mood for, there are almost infinite choices. Fish from endangered stocks or declining fisheries does not have to be one of these food choices. This will be an integral part of our marketing campaign to educate consumers on safe sea food choice.
There is no reason for people in the developed world to consume endangered fish species. A significant cause of the collapse of the global fisheries is the developed world's poor food choices in consuming declining stocks. If people in the developed world knew they were eating endangered animals, there is a greater likelihood that they would stop or at least decrease their consumption. That is the purpose of this marketing campaign. We seek to change first world consumption habits.
Fish Consumption
According to the United Nation's Food Agricultural Organization, "FAO", fish and fishery products play a critical role in global food security and nutritional needs of people in developing and developed countries. Global food fish harvesting and production has grown steadily in the last five decades, at an average annual rate of 3.2 percent, outpacing world population growth (1.6 percent). Hence, average per capita availability has risen. World per capita apparent fish consumption increased from an average of 9.9 kg in the 1960s to 17.0 kg in the 2000s and 18.9 kg in 2010, with preliminary estimates for 2012 pointing towards further growth to 19.2 kg. The driving force behind this unsustainable surge has been a combination of population growth, rising incomes, and urbanization interlinked to the strong expansion of commercial fish production and modern distribution channels.14
The global increase in fish consumption tallies with trends in food consumption in general. Per capita food consumption has been rising in the last few decades. Nutritional standards have shown long-term trends, with worldwide increases in the average global calorie supply per person and in the quantity of proteins per person. However, many countries continue to face food shortages and nutrient inadequacies, and major inequalities exist in access to food, mainly owing to very weak economic growth and rapid population expansion. The majority of undernourished people in the world live in Africa, Asia and along the Pacific Rim, with the highest prevalence of undernourishment found in Sub Saharan Africa.
According to the World Watch Institute, since 1950, seafood consumption has jumped almost eight times. This rise in global catch and consumption comes even as wild seafood becomes scarcer. In 2006, scientists tracking historical changes in the world's major fish populations estimated that all major fish stocks could be commercially extinct—less than 90 percent of their historic levels—by the middle of this century if current trends continue. We believe this underestimates the problem.
Seafood as a food choice in the developed world will undoubtedly spread to the developing countries as their economies continue to grow which will only increase the trend of declining fish stocks at a much faster rate. The devastation of our sea life will inevitably accelerate. Immediate action is required to educate the developed world's consumers and provide some hope for change.
On average, each person ate three times as much seafood in 2004 as in 1950 but the amount and type of seafood consumed vary widely.
The Chinese consume about a fifth of the world's seafood, eating per person roughly five times as much seafood as they did in 1961.They are also the second largest economy on the planet. Total Chinese fish consumption has increased more than 10-fold in that time. Over the same period, U.S. seafood consumption jumped 2.5 times.16
The Japanese consume the most seafood per person, about 66 kilo- grams each year. In Europe, the average person eats about 26 kilograms a year, slightly more than the average Chinese does.
For people in wealthy nations, seafood is an increasingly popular health food option; given its high levels of fatty acids and trace minerals, nutritionists recognize it as essential to the development and maintenance of good neurological function, not to mention reduced risk of cancer, heart disease, and other debilitating conditions.
In poorer nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, people are also eating more fish, if they can afford it or can fish for it themselves. For more than 1 billion people, mostly in Asia, fish supply 30 percent of the protein they consume, compared with just 6 percent worldwide. Consumers in Europe, the United States, and Japan favor larger, predatory fish, like tuna and cod, the populations of which are the most endangered. Most salmon and shrimp, two other popular items, are now raised in aquaculture. Farm raised salmon is an environmental disaster as it spreads diseases to the wild stocks.18
In contrast, poorer people tend to depend on smaller fish that are lower on the food chain, including herbivorous farmed fish like catfish, carp, and tilapia, as well as oysters, clams, mussels, and sea vegetables. In China, which raises 70 percent of the world's farmed fish, fish farming accounts for nearly two thirds of total fish consumption and is dominated by such herbivorous species.19
Things are drastically getting worse
The results of over fishing are alarming, because the pressure on fish populations has been escalating for years. According to the current State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) Report, the proportion of overexploited or depleted stocks has increased from 10 per cent in 1974 to 29.9 per cent in 2009. After temporary fluctuations, the proportion of fully exploited stocks rose during the same period of time, from 51% to 57%. The proportion of non-fully exploited stocks, in contrast, has declined since 1974 from almost 40% to only 12.7% in 2009. A clear trend is emerging: as far as overfishing and the intensive exploitation of the oceans are concerned, the situation is steadily deteriorating.20
The Proposed Solution
What we are proposing is a global public education campaign to educate people in the developed world on preservation of the wildlife in the oceans. This can be accomplished without great costs and with effective use of existing resources.
The data is out there. The consumer in the developed world needs to be aware of the problem. There are some excellent sites on the internet regarding the destruction of the wildlife in the oceans. We have created the world's largest web site on this issue: spaceoceanexploration.com. Included in our site are the web sites of various foundations like the Pew Charitable Trust and numerous others that have outstanding information. Monterey Bay's web site is outstanding and will be a big part of our marketing effort.
The Global High Seas Marine Preserve is a conservation partner with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We are currently proposing that our followers on Twitter and Facebook as well as in our lectures and radio shows download the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Food Watch app. We believe that if the consumer is educated about the problem of the collapse of the fisheries they are far more likely to do the right thing. Education is the solution to stopping the destruction of our sea life.
Education campaigns have worked in several areas where products were dangerous or defective and consumer habits had to change. In these implacable issues, change must come from the bottom up. The Monterey Bay Sea Food Watch provides the consumer in the developed world the information they need to make the right seafood choice. If we can get 100 million people to download the app and use it, and mesh the information provided with a carefully crafted media campaign – we can make substantial changes to save the fisheries from collapse.
Ultimately, we aim to amend the Law of the Seas Treaty to create a Global High Seas Marine Preserve that will take 70% of the ocean off limits to industrial commercial fishing. To accomplish this change in international law will require substantial advertising and careful use and coordination with the media. If we can achieve this paradigm shift in thinking, we can nature back on an equal footing with humans. The world will have the largest wildlife park and put nature and humans back in balance.
Why create the largest wildlife park in human history and close off the entire high seas to industrial commercial fishing? There are numerous close-to-shore initiatives that are focused on trying to save the fish stocks. However commendable, these initiatives are not adequate and without a global solution they will inevitably fail to turn around the collapse. Fish simply do not recognize man made political boundaries and trawlers do not stop at the edge of the territorial waters. While various nations are creating marine preserves within their zone of control, these piecemeal approaches will not solve the long term problem of the collapse of the fisheries. These private and government sponsored initiatives will have a much greater chance of success with the creation of the largest wildlife park in human history, a Global High Seas Marine Preserve.
To bring about this historic change, a global public awareness campaign must be initiated. With massive support from the global community politicians will make this change in international law. Without international public awareness there is no possibility of saving the fisheries from collapse. Surprisingly enough most people in the developed world are unaware that the ocean's fisheries are collapsing or that over 70 million sharks are killed annually by Asian cultures for shark fin soup. The consumption habits of consumers in the developed world must be changed for the fisheries to be saved. This is the central focus of our marketing campaign. We are working on educating the consumer on sustainable fishing and not eating endangered fish.
This paradigm shift to close off all of the High Seas to industrial commercial fishing with the creation of a historic Global High Seas Marine Preserve is a long term holistic approach. This approach will solve the decline of the fisheries. With much of the ocean completely unprotected, this project incorporates existing initiatives to reverse the collapse of the fisheries.
.How will this affect the one percent of the industrial commercial fishermen in the developed world who are responsible for approximately 70 percent of the catch? Ultimately, they will have more fish. Closing off the High Seas will enable the fisheries to recover. It will also enable local governments to properly manage their fisheries. Presently there are many initiatives to provide assistance from governments and private foundations.21
The problem of the decline and collapse of the global fisheries is primarily caused by the wrong food choices of consumers in the developed world. People in the developed world unknowingly eat wild sea life that is endangered. If the developed world's consumers knew they were killing the oceans every time they eat wild sea food that is endangered, they would not do it. Public education is the focus of this marketing campaign. The collapse of the fisheries is not caused by poor countries with indigenous populations with long traditions of fishing and sustainable fishing methods. Poor countries do not have giant fishing trawlers that are fishing 24 hours a day and killing everything in their wake.
The Tragedy of the Commons Since the High Seas do not belong to any nation, the area is available for exploitation by all developed nations. Consequently, the tragedy of the commons has taken hold with the fish stocks. Without ownership or proper enforcement prohibiting wealthy nations from industrial commercial fishing, there is the quest to catch every last fish before your competition beats you to it. Everyone ultimately loses, especially poor populations who must depend on fishing for survival, as the fisheries are depleted to exhaustion.22
Much of the ocean in the High Seas is like a fragile desert. Most of the fish exist is in the areas where the waters are not very deep and there is plentiful food from plant life. In the deep waters of the High Seas there is not going to be as much wildlife since there is not enough light and food. But fish do not recognize national boundaries and migrate. As they leave the protection of local marine preserves and economic zones, they migrate and are out on the High Seas. There they are caught by whatever commercial fishing vessel has scouted them. Because of the advances in industrial technology for high tech fishing, the rich countries are devastating the wildlife in the oceans. The schools of fish can be tracked from the air, and when they reach international waters they are slaughtered.
What makes our proposal unique is that it involves a long term holistic solution to the tragedy of the commons. Without closing off the High Seas to industrial commercial fishing, as soon the fish stocks leave protected waters of the local marine preserves, they become common property. Despite the existence of scientific quotas and international fishing agreements, the decline continues. The fishing quotas are routinely violated by many countries through illegal fishing. Once in international waters, ship to ship transfers are a common method used to avoid charges of illegal fishing.