RIGHTING THE WRONGS OF OVERFISHING AND ILLEGAL FISHING

By Brian O'Riordan Reprint | | Print |

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BRUSSELS, Dec 20 2010 (IPS) - Fishing rights must respect human rights. The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) believes that the development of responsible and sustainable fisheries is only possible if the political, civil, social, economic, and cultural rights of fishing communities and wider society are addressed in an integrated manner. Industrialised overfishing and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by industrial vessels is a scourge on everyone’s human rights, but especially on the right to life and livelihood in communities that depend on small-scale artisanal (SMART) fishery activities.

To achieve sustainable development and respect for human rights, those operations that contribute most to overfishing and undermine the sustainability of natural fishery production systems the most should be phased out first. In parallel, priority access should be given to those fishing operations that contribute most to the local economy, do the least damage to the marine environment, distribute the benefits from wild fish resources most equitably, and respect the political, civil, social, economic, and cultural rights of fishing communities in an integrated manner.

Small-scale and artisanal fisheries through their sheer numbers may be the cause of overfishing in some parts of the world. But such fisheries provide an important social and economic safety net, the value of which must be weighed against the alternatives. For ICSF, the solution to overfishing and illegal fishing involves a SMART [1] approach to fisheries, based on multi-species, multi-gear, low impact, multi-season, energy-efficient and labour-intensive fishing, that is integrated into upstream and downstream fisheries activities rooted in local communities, where the objectives of fisheries management should be both to conserve fisheries resources and to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities.

SMART fisheries are of greater strategic importance and greater inherent value to society at large than large scale industrial fisheries. With due recognition and respect for human rights, and if provided with the right kind of support, the SMART fisheries sector has tremendous potential to contribute to sustainable development and to the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Overfishing is correctly seen as one of the main problems besetting global fisheries. But it is not just a problem of “too many boats chasing too few fish” as many claim. It is also about how, when, and where fishing is done. It is a combination of size, power, fishing technology, location, season, and many other factors. It includes the use of unselective and environmentally-destructive gear and management measures that provoke waste by discarding over-quota and lower-value fish and that inadvertently cause the degradation of fishing grounds and key fisheries habitats.

The “too many boats” view fails to identify those fishing fleets that do the most catching and the most damage to natural fishery production systems. It makes no distinction between small-scale artisanal (SMART) fishing activities that are relatively sustainable and larger-scale industrial and semi-industrial operations that are relatively intensive and potentially highly destructive.

Sustainable development requires that social, economic, and environmental demands are met in a balanced way. The industrialized fishing model, placing relatively short-term economic demands ahead of social and environmental considerations, is not conducive to sustaining employment and decent work, food supplies, and a healthy environment. Rather, generating sufficient profits to meet its capital outlays, running costs, and commercial expectations is the bottom line.

Roughly half the world fish catch destined for human consumption (around 30 million tonnes) is caught by industrial fleets. These tend to fish nomadically, use industrialised fishing techniques like trawling that are responsible for discarding vast quantities (20 to 30 million tonnes annually) of by-catch, the death of untold numbers of marine mammals, reptiles, and avifauna, and with a significant, but unknown, impact on habitats vital for fish. When fisheries collapse, corporate investors switch their capital to other sectors. Consumer mass markets tend to be fickle, demanding low priced foods first and sustainability and human rights second.

The other half of the global food-fish catch is caught by SMART fishing operations, which use relatively small generally undecked vessels. These account for an estimated 75 percent of all fishing activities worldwide and generate a diverse range of inter-dependent livelihoods that together make a vital contribution to local economies, the fabric of societies, and cultural identity. Primarily dependent on male labour for fish harvesting, the labour of women, and often children, is vital in all aspects of SMART fisheries.

The “too many boats” exponents advocate rights-based management systems that incorporate market-based allocation mechanisms as the solution. ‘Privatizing’ access rights for fishing though such mechanisms as ‘catch shares’, ‘individual transferable quotas’ (ITQs), or under the guise of ‘wealth-based’ fisheries, will force out inefficient surplus fishing capacity they claim, because ‘ownership promotes stewardship’.

Such reasoning is inherently flawed. It favours those who fish the most and in the least sustainable way; it places those with the greatest financial might at the greatest advantage, and encourages speculative boom-and-bust markets for fishing rights and their accumulation in the hands of a few. As such it discriminates against the customary rights of small-scale and artisanal fishing communities to fish and is an affront to their political, civil, social, economic, and cultural rights. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

(*) Brian O’Riordan is Secretary of the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), Brussels office (briano@scarlet.be).

[1] Based on small-scale artisanal fishing, as defined above