All : Fish Poachers Could be Exterminated before 2048
Submitted by (Juanita Brock) 06.11.2006 (Article Archived on 20.11.2006)

The article about diminishing fish stocks in Journal Science does not go far enough. We could prolong decline in fish stocks if we stop poaching.

Photo (c) James Glass (Tristan Times) Transhipping processed lobster tail at Tristan da Cunha.

FISH POACHERS COULD BE EXTERMINATED BEFORE 2048

Transhipping processed lobster at Tristan da Cunha

An Editorial by J. Brock (FINN)

Hats off to the authors of a report in the Friday, 03 November Journal Science, when we were warned that fish fingers could be “little more than a fond memory in a few decades.”  The article named pollution and over-fishing as the main culprits.  Nonetheless it is right about pollution - people who illegally dump pollutants at sea have a lot to answer for - but naïve concerning over-fishing.  Today’s editorial deals with over-fishing.

I have no doubt about scientists foreseeing species extinction – or their commercial extinction - but what is unclear in the report is whether the world-wide catch data they relied on for research took species that have been poached into consideration. 

I know that some fishing nations use models and do research cruises to determine biomass and estimate what could be poached when they determine the total allowable catch and if that is reached early, a date to close the fishery.  However, in many instances fisheries do not have the money to conduct the research needed to determine biomass, let alone how much poaching to take into consideration. 

Not all fishing nations can afford fishery patrol vessels and their legal and policing systems are not adequate to bring true justice to those who have been caught stealing their fish.  At approximately £5,000.00 a day per ship, the Falklands and South Georgia fisheries can share resources and routinely patrol their respective fisheries zones. 

But go north to Tristan da Cunha and you find that there are weeks on end when patrol cover is scant to non existent.  While they can patrol the area around Tristan, Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands with the resources they have, officials must rely on licensed fishermen and the M/V Edinburgh to monitor the waters around Gouth Island – a Tristan da Cunha dependency. 

The further north you go, the less resource there is to protect abundant fisheries.  Like it or not, poachers plunder fish stocks on the Bonaparte sea mount on a regular basis and there is little the authorities on St. Helena can do about it.  Further north still, the rich fishery at the Grattan seamount is also robbed of fish and income for Ascension Island.

Whether managed by species or ecosystem – and I think Dr. Worm is correct in his assumption – individual vessels or syndicated ones who methodically steal fish will not pay attention to any warnings until there is nothing in the sea to take out.  It is the honest, hard working fish-workers who suffer – who have suffered – since fisheries regulations have been put in place – and for some coastal nations, that’s a pretty long time.

The damage doesn’t end with fish workers and their incomes.  Poaching takes money from much needed projects such as infrastructure like roads and hospitals.

In the United Kingdom there is a limit to days when a vessel can fish but there is no limit for a poaching vessel.  Granted, in the best managed fisheries, like the ones in waters around the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, patrol vessels are a deterrent to poaching in many instances.  Note I said many instances.  If the fish are present there are poachers waiting to take them.

Yes.  We have political will to turn things around but we are thwarted by two things - both of them illegal – illegal dumping of pollutants at sea and the poaching of our marine resources.  Ask any fisherman who has paid for his licence, what he thinks about the next ship over taking fish without a licence or catch quota and you will receive a very angry reply.  There is strong temptation that next year the angry fisherman will go poaching and forget about paying for his fishing licence.  

We don’t live in an ideal world and people will dump their harmful waste into the sea and steal its resources until they are stopped – globally.

To be cynical, I would say that if poachers have their way, 2048 would be leaving it too long for ecosystem extinction - I can’t see intelligent people buying poached fish from heavily polluted oceans.  And when the fish are gone we finally would have solved the problem of poaching.

Cynical or not, if nothing is done bout poaching fish it could be sooner rather than later that we are all fished out.  That political will to save our fish stocks and clean up our oceans needs to focus on the illegal activities that cause the dilemma.