Year in, year out, governments and their attendant agencies, eminent scientists and nature groups around the globe remind us all of the increasingly unsustainable consumption of our natural resources. Be it oil, water or rain forests, mankind’s unceasing appetite to consume the natural resources around him seems to know no bounds.
The hard facts of exponential population growth, coupled with an economic expansion motivated simply by incessant growth and profit, have lowered our respect for Mother Nature to a spectre of ridicule. As sceptics and multinational lobbyists continue to pooh-pooh efforts to redress the imbalances of our excessive human activity on our fragile environment, figures continue to demonstrate the unrelenting damage on our limited global resources. One classic example must surely be the state of fish stocks around the world.
The world is in danger of running out of fish! Studies currently being carried out, namely a respected 10-year census called “Census of Marine Life” by Professor Daniel Pauly from the University of British Columbia in Canada, reveal a set of facts and figures that clearly demonstrate the true scale of mankind’s devastation of the oceans.
It is reckoned that mankind has consumed as much as 95 per cent of the large fish in many seas and hence some of these species are threatened with extinction. It is believed that the global annual fish catch is fast approaching 150 million tons. This figure contradicts an official United Nations estimate, which states that the global catch was around 90 million tons at the last count. At any rate, both figures, in varying degrees, strongly indicate that unless a way is found to adopt sustainable fishing practices, fish, from shark to tuna and cod, will clearly suffer declines that point to crashing events. A stark reminder must surely be the state of many shark populations that now stand at five per cent of their
natural numbers.
Much of this over-fishing is the result of the frenetic activity witnessed over the last 50 years. For thousands of years, fishing was a localised activity bound by restricted technologies in fishing and, of course, the lack of refrigeration. It was only in the 14th century that trawl nets were introduced, heralding the stripping of the seabeds. Industrialised fishing came much later with the invention of the steam-powered vessels that culminated in the birth of factory fishing vessels in the 1950s. These vessels could travel hundreds if not thousands of miles away from home in search of fresh stocks and virgin locations that were often important and strategic breeding grounds. Giant lines spanning 50 miles, and the use of sonar and spotter aircraft, must have been the turning point in this massively lucrative industry. All these technologies have made the regeneration of fish stocks an uphill, if not impossible, struggle.
A perfect example of the systematic depredation of a fish species must be the Grand Banks event. The world’s richest cod fishery off Newfoundland came to an abrupt end in the 1990s when the cod population was systematically wiped out after a century of frenzied fishing. All this had already happened in the 1960s when the herring fishery collapsed in the North Sea. Sadly, the bluefin tuna could be the next well-known victim to face this end.
This year a series of events close to home have highlighted the consequences of overfishing. For a considerable time now, fish farming in Malta has been an established industry. The introduction of ‘tuna ranching’ created a completely different business model. In a relatively short period of time our islands became the centre of a multi-million dollar industry. Probably due to its location and weather, Malta has become the principal hub that receives catches from across the Mediterranean. Tuna is captured alive and fattened in pens around the Maltese coast for eventual export primarily to the Japanese market. Incidentally, Japan consumes 80 per cent of all tuna caught around the globe! This industry has grown to the extent that today it represents five per cent of Malta’s GDP.
The rumblings regarding the sustainability of this industry have been around for some time. The quantities of bluefin tuna and the size and age of the same fish caught suggested that the sustainability of this activity had to be questioned whether we liked it or not. WWF and Green Peace, along with countries such as Monaco, have been the most vociferous, going so far as suggesting a complete ban on tuna fishing, especially on an industrial scale. The European Union entered the fray and prohibition was creeping evermore up the agenda. Interested countries such as Spain, Italy, France, and of course Malta, fought tooth and nail to resist such a ban for obvious commercial reasons. A total ban on tuna fishing would certainly be a blow for Malta especially in these trying economic times. The proposed ban was overturned at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species (CITES) with some reservations. The season was shortened, hopefully giving time to the tuna to at least recover some of the lost ground it has suffered of late.
This remains a controversial issue, especially for Malta. Having heard both sides of the argument, it appears evident that controlled tuna fishing is, at the least, inevitable. From an economic perspective, the continued overfishing would in the medium term spell financial and environmental disaster. On the one hand, environmentalists must accept the realities surrounding the issue. More so, all those involved in this industry should understand that a short-sighted approach would lead to the decimation of the tuna species and the eventual demise of such a valued industry. If the fishing industry is not strictly regulated both internally and externally, we will destroy this final frontier and end up with the likes of jellyfish and algae on our plate.
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