Commercial Fishing “Unsustainable” Says New UN Report

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Commercial Fishing “Unsustainable” Says New UN Report

 

March 30, 2005 — By Sea Turtle Restoration Project

 

 

FOREST KNOLLS, CA — The United Nations Millennium

Ecosystem Assessment

Synthesis Report released today calls capture

fisheries “unsustainable”

and

calls for the expansion in Marine Protected Areas with

flexible no-take

zones that contribute to the economy. These

conclusions echo the

efforts of

3 nations, more than 800 scientists from 83 countries

and 230

non-governmental organizations from 54 countries

calling on the UN to

implement a moratorium on industrial longline fishing

in the Pacific

and

implement a network of high seas MPAs to protect both

fish stocks and

species endangered by longlines.

 

“The call to implement a moratorium on industrial

longlining and create

a

network of high seas MPAs in the Pacific resonates

with the new UN

report.

High seas MPAs would both protect fisheries relied on

by coastal

communities

for food while contributing to sustainable

development,” says Robert

Ovetz,

PhD, coordinator of the Save the Leatherback Campaign.

 

“Current patterns of use of capture fisheries are

unsustainable,” the

UN

report suggests. “Humans increased the capture of

marine fish up until

the

1980s by harvesting an ever-growing fraction of the

available resource.

Marine fish landings are now declining as a result of

the

overexploitation

of this resource (C18.ES).” (p. 172)

 

This conclusion echoes new concerns by the US

government that longline

caught bigeye and albacore tuna are overfished in the

Pacific. Southern

blue

fin tuna is already considered critically endangered

by the World

Conservation Congress. Recent reports in the

scientific journal Nature

and

another to be published soon in the journal Ecology

have also warned

that

billfish and shark populations have declined by about

90 percent in the

Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific since the

1950s.

 

Billfish and sharks as well as endangered sea turtles,

seabirds, marine

mammals and even tuna and swordfish are caught and

killed by longlines

as so

called bycatch. A recent study by the Sea Turtle

Restoration Project

found

that 4.4 million of these species are caught and

killed in the Pacific

each

year.

 

In Hawai’i, which the report singles out for

attention, “the annual

recreational value of the coral reefs of each of six

Marine Management

Areas

in the Hawaiian Islands in 2003 ranged from $300,000

to $35 million.”

(p.

91) In contrast, industrial longline fishing in

Hawai’i generates about

$55

million while recreational fishing trip-related

expenditures that were

estimated to range from $130-$347 million overall in

1995-1996.

 

The UN report also contrasts the contribution of

marine fisheries to

the

economy, with a global value of $80 billion, compared

to saltwater

recreational fishing, worth about $30.5 billion

annually in the US

alone.

The spin-off effects due to hotel occupancy, tours,

services and

transportation result in vastly more economic benefits

for coastal

communities than industrial fishing.

 

Longline Moratorium Resources:

 

 

 

Interviews with leading scientists are available

Review copy of the documentary “Last Journey for the

Leatherback?” is

available upon request

B-roll video footage is available upon request

Download the UN report at:

www.millenniumassessment.org/Public/Login.aspx?Heading= & ReturnURL=/public/Me

diaAccount.aspx

Press packet is available upon request

The Sea Turtle Restoration Project is a

California-based marine

conservation

organization that works to protect sea turtles and

other marine species

in

the United States and in countries around the world.

For more

information

about sea turtles and the Sea Turtle Restoration

Project, please visit:

www.seaturtles.org and www.savetheleatherback.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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