Fisheries CPR Paper

by

The Professor

Pew_Report

The Pew Oceans commission consists of experts who are scientists, lawmakers, and industry representatives. Thre are 18 members. Roughly, the membership can be divided into lawmakers or ex-lawmakers (5), scientists (3), environmental group representatives (2), public policy experts (4), and industry representatives (4). They are leaders in their fields, CEO's, directors, etc. The inclusion of a range of stakeholders recognizes that buy-in from a variety of groups is needed for the report to have impace, and that the issues are both scientific and political. [:(Cmnt by william prothero: The description of the areas of expertise and professional focusses of the committee member is essential to understanding possible bias in the recommendations.):]

The report states the following developments that cause concern for the health of the oceans (Panetta, 2003) [:(Cmnt by william prothero: This is a summary of the report's recommendations that includes most of the main points.):] :
1) destruction of coastal wetlands from urban sprawl, leading to loss of habitats for species nurseries and oil and grease pollution from runoff from streets.
2) degradation of rivers by nutrient runoff. This causes algal blooms that consume the oxygen in the water, die, and result in large dead zones.
3) overfishing of commercial fish species, such as ground fish and salmon. 30% of the fish populations that have been assessed are overfished or being fished unsustainably. Destructive fishing practices ruin the habitat and ecology that commercial species depend upon.
4) invasive species disrupt the ecology that supports commercial species. Invasive species are spread by farmed fish that escape, in the holds of ships bilge water, and from home aquariums whose owners discard exotic species or plants.

Other threats the report mentions are:
1) sea level rise due to global warming, which submerges coastal wetlands.
2) loss of coral reefs due to ocean temperature rise
3) changes in atmospheric circulation that disrupt normal patterns of upwelling.

The followin is a summary of some of the most important recommendations of the Pew Report:

The oceans health is vital to the well being of our nation and that a long term economic sustainability of the oceans depends on ecological sustainability. "We must treat the oceans as a public trust" (Panetta, 2003).

The objectives that are proposed are (quoting from the Pew Report Executive Summary) include recommendations to form a unified national policy that emphasizes a wholistic ecosystem health approach instead of focussing on a single commercial species. Governence and management needs to be unifed and appropriate to the scale of the resource. Protecting habitat and minimizing pollution is also recommended.

It recommends putting management into a more focussed agency and consolidating the many confusing and conflicting rules and overlapping jurisdictions. The establishment of marine reserves is also recommended.

To restore the fisheries, the management of access to fishing areas and catch limits is recommended. Also, limits to bycatch and regulations on fishing geat that could damage the ecosystem habitat.

To preserve coastal regions, non=point source pollution must be controlled and critical habitat preserved from development.

Cleaning coastal waters requires laws or more effective enforcement to control point and non-point source pollution and invasive species.

Regarding aquaculture (fish farms), a national policy based on sound conservation principles needs to be developed.

Implementing any policy or vision requires funding. The report suggests doubling funding for basic ocean science and research, improve scientific oversight of management practices, and broaden ocean education and awareness for all.

The_Controversy

The arguments put forth by the National Fisheries Institute are mainly:
1) US fisheries are healthy, according to NOAA, UN, and other organizations.
2) Current fisheries management is working remarkably well.
3) The fishing industry regularly works with governments to ensure fish stocks are sustainable. Examples of good management are numerous. Massive overhaul is not needed. The NFI offers some examples of improvements that are taking place in fisheries that are recovering.
4) There is enough management.
5) Pew Commission's findings on overfishing are not supported by facts. In fact, progress is being achieved in maintaining and rebuilding fish stocks and that a 2002 NOAA report states that overfishing is occurring in less thatn 10% of US fisheries.
6) We don't need an independent national oceans agency because it adds cost and unnecessary bureaucracy.
7) NFI blasts any attempt to create new governing bodies.
8) A unified ocean posicy is already in place. We don't need another one.
9) New marine reserves should be located based on facts, not randomly designating certain areas of the sea as no take zones (did Pew recommend this?)
10) Re catching non-target species (by-catch), the industry is making great progress. New net designs have resulted.
11) US should not restrict fish farms. New advances have resulted in better practices and the advantages are many [:(Cmnt by william prothero: It's a complete summary of the NFI arguments agains the Pew Report):] .

My_Analysis

The best data on this subject comes from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)report [:(Cmnt by william prothero: The NMFS data is a bit hard to get at, but this comes from the executive summary.):] : "Implementing the SFA: Reports, Plans & Studies, 2003". This is the most recent data available on the health of the fish stocks. It focusses on species that are of interest for commercial fishing. On page 8, the report states:

* The number of stocks for which the fishing mortality rate exceeds the overfishing threshold decreased from 66 in 2002 to 60 in 2003.
* The number of stocks found to be not subject to overfishing increased from 208 in 2002 to 232 in 2003.
* The number of stocks for which harvest rates are unknown or for which overfishing thresholds are not defined decreased from 658 in 2002 to 617 in 2003.

According to the above numbers, the percentages of "stocks" that are over-fished decreased by 9%. The number of stocks found not to be overfished increased by 11%. This is a good direction. The National Fisheries Institute presents the numbers in the most optimistic way possible. {link: F-LincodSpawn.jpg}Figure 1 shows an example for a "recovering" fishery, ling cod. The upward trend could indicate a successfully recovering fishery, but the precipitous decline since 1973 dwarfs the recovery. The NMFS report is oriented toward commercial fisheries, and doesn't address the ecological system that supports healthy fish stocks. The NFI assertions mention 5 success stories and claim Alaska as a success to, but those fisheries have never been over-fished. However, the New England groundfish increase of 150% is very misleading, because the base number is so small.
[:(Cmnt by william prothero: Quotes from scientists are used in lieu of direct data plots, since they are hard to come by.):]
The problem is now, as you kind of indicated, we have 5,000 square miles of ocean that's closed to fishing in New England. We have 20,000 square miles of ocean closed to fishing off our Pacific coast. That is not an indication of a healthy fishery, and some of these stocks will take decades to bring back (PBS report, 2003).

A UPI article (5/14/2003) quotes a study by Canadian ressearchers (who they do not name) asserting that there was a 90% decrease in the population of large ocean fish, from tuna to cod, since the commercial fishermen took to the seas. This time period covers 47 years for 62 predatory species.

"Since 1950, with the onset of industrialized fisheries, we have rapidly reduced the resource base to less than 10 percent -- not just in some areas, not just for some stocks, but for entire communities of these large fish species from the tropics to the poles," said study co-author Boris Worm of Dalhousie and the University of Kiel in Germany (UPI article, 2003).

Others criticize the methodology of this study, but:

"Even if the authors' numbers are off by as much as 50 percent, this is a big, big problem," said Randy Kochevar, science communications manager for the Monterey, Calif., Bay Aquarium and principal investigator with the Tagging of Pacific Pelagics research project, an international collaboration to study migration patterns of large open-ocean animals in the North Pacific. (UPI article, 2003).

[:(Cmnt by william prothero: This is an interesting sideline that is one of the data links in the assignment links page. ):] One of the main methods of analyzing the health of the fisheries is to compile catch data. How many fish are being caught of a particular species? If catches are declining, that is a good indication that the fish populations are declining. Watson and Pauly (2001) have analyzed the statistics of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). They rely on catch figurers provided by member countries. They were suspicious of continued increases in total catch, even after the Peruvian Anchoveta collapse in 1972. The authors assert that the global fish catch is significantly lower than reported, because the Chinese fishing industry is over-reporting catches. They over-reported catches because of state-mandated catch targets. {link: F_distortion.jpg}Figure 2 (top) shows the global fish catch from FAO statistics. The two top curves show the catch figures uncorrected (top line), corrected for Chinese over-reporting (middle line), and for no Anchoveta included. The corrected plot line shows a decline in Anchoveta catch after 1985, and the difference between the middle and bottom plot lines (still in the top figure) is the contribution of the Anchoveta catch's contribution to the global total.

The bottom plot of {link: F_distortion.jpg}figure 2 shows the reported Chinese catches and corrected catch figures. The top line (of bottom plot) shows the catch in both the EEZ (exclusive economic zone) and distant fisheries, the middle line shows the catch for the EEZ only, and the bottom line shows the corrected EEZ figures.

From figure 2, top plot, we see that the corrected global catch figures indicate a decline in overall catch. This decline was masked by Chinese over-reporting.

[:(Cmnt by william prothero: These arguments are based on NMFS data from the executive summary. ):] Here is my analysis of the situation.
1) The NFI pick a smaller number of success stories to present an optimistic view.
2) NFI uses misleading percentages to imply great success.
3) Data on marine biomass is lacking. This is the critical number that is needed to decide whether the oceans are truly being "fished out" by commercial fishing.
4) It is common to criticize methodology because there are errors. Errors always exist and sometimes even data with large errors can give important indications of problems.
5) Government intervention is costly for the fishing industry. They want to avoid it.

"We have forgotten what we used to have," Jackson said. "We had oceans full of heroic fish -- literally sea monsters. People used to harpoon 3-meter-long swordfish in rowboats." (UPI article, 2003).

6) I find the claims that the largest adult fish are gone, very credible.

Sustainability

A resource is more efficiently sustainable if waste is minimized. For example, by-catch is a huge problem in trawling, as is destruction of the bottom environment that provides habitat and sustenance that support the ecological food chain.

Threats to the ocean health also include pollution and nutrient runoff from coastal areas. We should be managing large farms that produce animal waste and over-fertilize. The runoff enters our rivers and oceans and creates algal blooms that use the oxygen in the water and suffocate marine life.

The ordinary citizen can:
1) donate or become involved in organizations that support policies you agree with.
2) in restaurants, only eat fish that are fished sustainably. Don't order chilean sea bass and orange roughy, two overfished species.
3) write letters to your legislators and advocate for a responsible, sustainable, clean ocean environment.

References

UPI Article, 2003. http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030514-014438-1306r

Watson, R. and D. Pauly, 2001. Systematic distortions in world Fisheries catch trends, Nature v.414, 29Nov01.

Figure 1. Biomass of Ling Cod. This shows an upward trend in biomass, beginning in 1998. {fig: F-LincodSpawn.jpg}

Figure 2. Catches of Anchoveta The top figure is the global catch, with and without the Anchoveta catch included. The lower trace of the top figure is the global catch with the corrected Anchoveta values. The bottom figure shows the reported Chinese figures, both uncorrected and corrected for over-reporting. {fig: F_distortion.jpg}