http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0831-05.htm
Published on Sunday,
August 31, 2003 by the lndependent/UK
Ban Fishing in Third of All Seas, Scientists
Say
by Severin Carrell
All fishing should be banned in a third of the world's oceans
to reverse a catastrophic decline in fish stocks such as cod
and tuna, British scientists have warned.
In a new study, they
recommend that large areas of ocean, including
the North Sea, around the Falklands, and the Gulf of California,
should be made into legally protected marine reserves, policed
by naval patrols and satellites.
The dramatic proposal
- expected to be endorsed by an international
conference on wildlife reserves next month - follows mounting
alarm
about the worldwide collapse of fish, dolphin, whale and turtle
populations, and the destruction of ancient coral reefs.
Professor Callum Roberts,
a marine biologist at York University
and co-author of the study, said the world's oceans were now
in crisis. "We've now reached the terrible and unstable state
where we're fishing species so heavily that there are virtually
no reproductive fish around," he said.
Last Thursday, the
scale of that crisis was underlined when
scientists with the Scottish Fisheries Research Service warned
that North Sea cod stocks, now down to about 40,000 tonnes,
were "critical" and called for fishing to be heavily
restricted.
That day, Australian
and South African fishery protection vessels
apprehended a Uruguayan trawler after a three-week chase, for
illegally catching the endangered Patagonian toothfish. Known
as "white gold", the fish was thought to be worth $2m
(£1.4m)
on the black market.
Prof Roberts, who will
address the World Parks Congress in
Durban, South Africa, next month, said both cases underlined
the need for a global network of ocean reserves, or marine
protected areas, where fish stocks and coral could fully recover.
The use of modern trawlers
with nets capable of reaching great
depths, fishing lines that stretch for 130km and holds that
can freeze thousands of tonnes of fish meant that very few
oceans were left unfished, he said.
The
magazine Nature reported last month that 90 per cent of
large fish stocks had been removed worldwide. In areas such
as the North Sea, trawlers were legally allowed to catch young
fish before they could reproduce.
Prof Roberts
described this practice as "crazy". "Imagine
if on land we were to plough up everywhere. But we don't
- we protect large areas for its landscape, for its wildlife
and its inspirational value. Yet, with the sea, we're ploughing
it all up ... We don't have anything like the number of
protected areas necessary."
In his new report,
published by the journal Trends in Ecology
and Evolution, he and his colleague Dr Fiona Gell analyzed
300 studies of 60 small marine reserves, which showed clear
evidence that reserves will rebuild decimated populations.
Closing 10-15 per cent
of a fishing ground for at least
five years, they found, would preserve local marine life.
But closing off 30-40 per cent of that area would allow fish
stocks to recover to commercial levels, spilling over into
the surrounding area. Far from killing off local marine
industries, that would give local fleets a new lease of life.
Their case studies
included a 2sq km area near the Isle of Man,
where a ban on trawling and dredging has led to a sevenfold
increase in scallop numbers within 11 years. In one South
African reserve, Tsitsikamma National Park, seabream numbers
are up between seven and 21 times compared with fishing areas
nearby. In the Long Island-Kokomohua reserve in New Zealand,
fish were 39 per cent bigger on average. In the Philippines,
coral reef species in Apo Island reserve increased eightfold.
Dr Gell said: "Stocks
typically expand between two and
five times in just five years of protection. Benefits continue
to grow for decades as populations of long-lived
species recover."
The World Parks Congress,
held every 10 years, is expected
to pass a declaration calling for a substantial global
network of marine reserves to be in place by 2012.
The Roberts-Gell report
is the first time that scientists
have made specific recommendations on the scale of marine
reserves.
The UK Government has
signed up to two international pledges
for a network of reserves - at the World Summit on Sustainable
Development in South Africa last year, and at a North Atlantic
marine pollution conference in Bremen in June. And, under
the Ospar pollution treaty, European governments have pledged
to draw up a list of marine reserves by 2012. However,
many conservationists claim that this could be too late
and believe more urgent action is required.
Research by
Nadia Iqbal
Close to extinction
» five species that have been killed
by the factory-ship load just to end up on our plates
Patagonian
toothfish (Falkland Islands and Patagonian Shelf):
Dissostichus eleginoides lives in the Falklands area -
one of
the world's richest marine ecosystems, teeming with penguins,
unique seabirds, squid, whales, seals and fish.
Kemp's turtle
(Gulf of California, Mexico): Lepidochelys kempi
is close to extinction. Devastated by shrimp fishing, only a
few hundred nest each year in the Gulf of California - the home
to manta rays, whales and sharks.
Cod (North
Sea): The common cod, Gadus morhua, is under severe
threat in the North Sea from overfishing. The central North Sea's
coral reefs are a crucial home and spawning ground for marine
life. Banning fishing would allow cod, halibut and hake to recover.
Bluefin tuna
(Florida coast): Due to overfishing off the US Atlantic
coast Thunnus thynnus is now critically endangered. It
could recover
if Florida's east coast was a reserve; the area is full of marine
life, including large tuna, swordfish and Olive Ridley turtles.
Whale shark
(Philippines): Uncontrolled hunting of rhincodon
typus for meat and highly prized fins led to a global ban
on
its sale. It lives near the Philippines, home to the world's
richest coral reefs and a "hot spot" for whales and
dolphins.
© 2003 Independent
Digital (UK) Ltd
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