Posted by Small-scale fisheries produce as much annual catch for human consumption and use less than one-eighth the fuel as their industrial counterparts. They discard comparatively little bycatch and are far less destructive to deep-sea environments. They employ many more people.
“They are our best hope at sustainable fisheries,” says Daniel Pauly, director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre and co-author of a study published in the current issue of the journal Conservation Biology.
Then why is it that small-scale fisheries (characterized by UBC as fishers operating in boats 50 feet or shorter) receive at most only 20 percent of the world’s total government fishery subsidies?
Photo Dean Conger/NGS
Large-scale fisheries, on the other hand, typically do not target species for direct human consumption and discard an estimated 10-22 million tons of unwanted dead fish each year and reduces another 42 million tons of their annual catch to fishmeal.
The study authors point out that over the past decade, market-based sustainable seafood initiatives such as eco-labeling have been the predominant strategy for curtailing demand of dwindling fish stocks. But it hasn’t worked, they say.
“The U.S. conservation community alone invested $37 million between 1999 to 2004 to promote certification and “wallet cards” to encourage consumers to purchase seafood caught using sustainable practices.
“For the amount of resources invested, we haven’t seen significant decrease in demand for species for which the global stocks are on the edge of collapse,” says Pauly. “Market-based initiatives, while well-intentioned, unduly discriminate against small scale fishers for their lack of resources to provide data for certification.”
Furthermore, small fishers simply can’t compete on the open market with large fleets. Rashid Sumaila, also of the UBC Fisheries Centre, estimates that governments worldwide subsidize $30-34 billion a year in fishing operations, of which $25-27 billion go to large-scale fleets.
“It’s an unfair disadvantage that in any other industry would have had people up in arms,” says Jacquet. “But small-scale fishers are often in developing countries and have very little political influence.”
Pauly and Jaquet say eliminating government subsidies is the most effective strategy towards significantly reducing pressure on vulnerable global fish stocks.
“Without subsidies, most large-scale fishing operations will be economically unviable,” says Jacquet. “Small scale fishers will have a better chance of thriving in local markets, and global fish stocks will have an opportunity to rebound.”
Related National Geographic News:
- “Dirty Fishing” Emptying Oceans, Experts Say
- Big-Fish Stocks Fall 90 Percent Since 1950, Study Says
- Cold war military technologies have devastated global fish populations
- Fish Species Face “Double Jeopardy” Due to Overharvesting, Study Says
- Ban Spurs Dramatic Fish Recovery in Australia
- African Bush-Meat Trade Linked to EU Overfishing
