Fishy business

Najma Sadeque
25-04-06

 

Because the earth's waters are so vast and so deep, people always believed that the marine life in it was inexhaustible. Even operators of huge factory-fishing trawlers that haul in hundred of tons of fish, once believed the same. They thought the ocean was so vast it could not possibly be damaged by the activities of puny humans. As it turned out, the 'puny' humans, armed with arrogant and inadequately-tested technology and overpowering greed, have succeeded too well. Within a mere half a century, more than two-thirds of the world's fisheries have been either already fully exploited or over-fished.
Although satellite has mapped all of the earth's waters and ships have travelled virtually all over, only a tiny fraction of the oceans, which cover 70 per cent of the Earth's surface, has been explored. People still know more about the moon and stars than they do about the oceans. Millions of species live in the ocean - 90 per cent of the planet's living biomass lie there. Yet they are vanishing before we have a chance to understand their role in the survival of the environment.
Billions of pounds of fish each year are wasted as unwanted "bycatch" (catch tossed overboard, dead or dying, because of regulatory mandates and lack of market), and hundreds of thousands of seabirds, marine mammals, sea turtles and other marine life are also killed through destructive and inefficient fishing practices. Global bycatch comes to 20 million tons a year, which is bad enough. Dolphins, small whales, and porpoises which are not small fish at all, are among the victims that end up as accidental global bycatch, an estimated 300,000 individuals per year!
This state of affairs is not reflected in the report by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) that examines "Fishing Capacities and Fisheries in Pakistan." It focuses on Pakistan's potential in commercial fishing which operate towards exports, and not at all in the interest of domestic markets and sustainability. It says little about the fisherfolk whose sustainable livelihood it once was and who were the only ones to practice fishing, but who have been systematically thrown out of it as earning foreign exchange irrespective of the cost or the desirability of the means, it makes for rather detached reading. It also does not say anything about negative environmental impacts as a result of urban, agricultural and industrial activities that use the seas as a dumping ground for toxic wastes and other filth.
There are said to be about 19,000 registered boats in Pakistan, of which almost two-thirds operate from Sindh and the rest from Balochistan, that fish throughout the year except during June and July, during breeding time. With whopping profits to be made from exporting shrimps for an insatiable Western market, the shrimping fleet, unregulated, also mushroomed. This is not good news because sea shrimp causes one-third of all global catch, although it comprises only 2 per cent of the seafood. How can that be? Because when shrimp (or any target species) gets netted, it's not just that which gets caught. The most 'efficient' of nets are simply not selective; they just trap everything that comes in their fold. And the ratio of this 'bycatch' from shrimp fishing ranges from 5 to 10 times as much as the shrimp itself.
What happens to this 'bycatch'? Well, it depends. Those that are edible and have some local market value, even if lower, are brought into harbour. The rest used to be tossed back into the sea. That's the difference between traditional and modern fishing. The former caught only what was needed; modern fishing is criminal in its wastage.
Later American businessmen got smart and our countries followed suit. Now the fish that no human wants to eat is ground up and mixed with grain and organic waste and fed to farm chickens. The feed probably has a lot to do with why farm chickens don't taste as good as free-range chickens. Now catching any kind of fish in bulk, irrespective of type, is a highly lucrative business for the exploding market in chicken feed. Yet, there is an insanity about emptying the oceans for high-cost commercial chicken feed. Especially when the chickens don't even need it.
It didn't take them long to deplete our waters. To ease some of the pressure on shrimp, the Pakistan government encouraged shrimp trawlers to convert into gill-netters and longliners. Several hundred did but there are problems with longliner vessels that involve fishing net lines that are many miles long. In fact many Western and Far Eastern vessels have longliner nets up to 80 miles long. They are dotted with thousands of baited hooks, which are supposed to snare the fish. But when fish-eating sea birds dive to catch a fish, they often get snared as well. Each year, around the world, over 300,000 seabirds are killed by longliners.
Despite constituting the majority of fisherfolk, small fishermen have never received any credit facilities or incentives to help improve their lot, as do trawler owners who already have the capital and are doing well. It is an exact parallel of the state of farming, where the overwhelming majority of peasants have been totally sidelined, without credit, rights or representation.
Ninety per cent of the world's fisherfolk work at the local, small-scale level, and take in about half of the global catch. That's not much because it is shared by over 3 billion artisan fishing communities. Compare this to the minority of commercial operations, many of them illegal, most of them subsidised that are snatching their livelihoods away. The industrialised countries dish out an estimated US$15 to US$20 billion per year in government subsidies (equal to nearly 20 per cent of worldwide fishing revenues), which, instead of helping to adopt conservation measures, has promoted excess fishing capacity and encouraged over-fishing.
On the other hand, small fisherfolk have been squeezed out of their living, not only because mechanised competition has encroached on their waters, but also because the inland and near-coastal waters have been increasingly polluted by toxic, agricultural and industrial runoff. Zone I waters which is the area that is 12 to 35 nautical miles from the coast is said to be reserved for local fishermen, but is stated to be "under-utilised due to the lack of modern boats." Many environmentalists however disagree with this interpretation, as modern fishing vessels would deplete the area faster and completely. About 80 million tons - around 90 per cent of world fish catch - is drawn out from nearby coastal waters of all countries.
For the commercial deep-sea fishing boats that ply Pakistan's Exclusive Economic Zone II waters extending 35 to 200 nautical miles outward and are open to national as well as foreign vessels, it is rich picking. That is where the major problems arise.
Foreign vessels are supposed to employ at least 25% Pakistani crew. It is not clear how this is verified, but 25% is highly unsatisfactory both in terms of job-creation, as well as the small pay in contrast to the huge harvests and profits reaped from trips that can extend up to 60 days at peak season. After all, some 73,000 tonnes worth of fish and fishery products make their way to China, Japan, European Union and the Gulf countries and sell at premium prices. The royalty of US$5,000 per fishing trip that is charged in advance, prior to the issuance of NOC for each trip, does not compensate for the human or environmental cost.
Ultimately, everything ends up in the ocean. Whether it is melted snow originating from the mountains and flowing into rivers or it is contaminated on the way by unregulated waste such as sewage, and agricultural and industrial runoff containing fertiliser, pesticides and oil. River waters come down to deltas and estuaries where saltwater meets freshwater creating the unique environment of the mangroves which are the nurseries of 85% of commercial fish species, including shrimp in the tropics. Such water may flow outward up to 20 miles from shore. After all, 80 per cent of all the pollution in the world's oceans comes from land-based human activities.
Plastics are a mixed blessing on land, but are an absolute curse at sea. Being light, plastic floats, and floats very far and wide indeed. Each and every year, plastic waste kills up to an average of a million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish each year. While organic wastes eventually decompose, plastic does not, and the same floating, plastic waste can keep killing marine life as long as it is in the water.
All business and industry and commercial agriculture contribute to serious environmental damage beyond the lands. So in the interests of their own health and survival, if not in the interests of the marginalised people, it is worth remembering that toxic runoff has led to nearly 150 coastal 'dead zones' in the world, the sizes ranging from 1 or 2 square kilometres up to as much as 70,000 square km where there are no more fish. Fish stay away from there because it is too poisonous for their lives. Some 20,000 acres of coastal marshes, habitat for juvenile marine life, are wiped out every year. Over 70 per cent of the world's marine fisheries are now either completely depleted or are being fished beyond their sustainable limit.
Very few marine habitats are protected areas, the way some landmasses are made national parks off-limits for exploitation. Britain recently designated some areas protected when its national fish, the cod, almost disappeared. The far-out high seas covering 50 per cent of the earth's surface are beyond any national jurisdiction whatsoever and are the greatest risk.
A lesson should be taken from the US that unfortunately many governments ape unquestioningly. Recent reports have shown that a growing number of seafood are contaminated with heavy metals (like mercury), industrial pollutants (like PCBs) and pesticides (like DDT). A quarter of a million people are employed in the US seafood industry, but because many fisher stocks have collapsed, the US now imports 75% of its seafood. American livestock factory farming produces about 500 million tons of manure every year, more than three times the waste produced by humans. They don't make good or safe fertilizer because they are liberally laced with antibiotics and growth hormones and other undesirables that they are fed intensively during their shortened lives, and drain out with other wastewater into rivers and seas that poison the waters and marine life.
Beaches for swimming and tanning are an American passion, so it was rather disconcerting for them when in 2002, over 12,000 American beaches were declared unsafe or off-limits for swimming or recreation because of contamination.
Our largely environmentally-ignorant urban builders have also picked up the bad habit of putting concrete over everything, including where it is not needed. Paved surfaces cannot absorb polluted water so the runoff flows over until it finds a path to drain into waterways. Every year, In the US over 28 million gallons of oil from car driving or other activities, end up in rivers, lakes and streams. As a result, a moratorium was imposed on further offshore oil and gas drilling in most parts of the US, but it is not known how long it will stay in place under Bush.
What the Pakistan government and commercial fisheries must realise is that the seas are not just fishing grounds but also the main source of water and earth's life, and breeding and growing grounds are not confined to two months of the year for all species. Fishing is NOT a growth industry and never will be without risking extinction - and should not be viewed as primarily an export investment to feed an already over-fed West. Yet as small-scale and medium-sized entrepreneurships if maintained on a sustainable basis, there is tremendous potential.