Poor African countries have been selling their fishing rights to richer countries for years, and now they can neither catch enough fish for their populations nor protect their fisheries from collapsing. In today's Wall Street Journal (behind a subscriber wall), the grim state of affairs is laid out:
Wealthy countries subsidize their commercial fishermen to the tune of about $30 billion a year. Their goal is to keep their fishermen on the water. China, for example, provides $2 billion a year in fuel subsidies; the European Union and its member nations provide more than $7 billion of subsidies a year. Such policies boost the number of working boats, increase the global catch, and drive down fish prices. That makes it more difficult for fishermen in poor nations like Mauritania, who get no subsidies, to compete.
The end result: African waters are losing fish stock rapidly, with ramifications both to the economies of Africa's coastal nations and to the world's ocean ecology. Over the past three decades, the amount of fish in West African waters has declined by up to 50 percent, according to Daniel Pauly, a researcher at the University of British Columbia.
According to the article, the European Union alone has a total of 85,000 fishing boats. Global warming may have made the situation worse -- at least in Mauritania, the focus of the article:
A drought in the 1970s and 1980s pushed people to the coast. The number of small fishing vessels grew to 3,600 in 2000, from 500 in 1986, according to the EU.
Now, the octopus population is in steep decline:
Octopus was a particular concern to Mauritania's fishermen. Each year, it accounts for about half of the country's $140 million of fish exports. A committee of Mauritanian scientists found that the octopus stock had declined by 31% from historical averages. The country's fisheries ministry recommended opposing any deal that permitted EU nations to fish for octopus, arguing that the species needed to recover.
EU negotiators offered to cut the number of boats fishing the species to 43 from 53, but not to limit the total octopus catch.
The best spawning grounds are near the coast, which makes it easier for small fishing boats from all countries to contribute to the collapse of these critical waters. Europe seems to have particular responsibility for overfishing. Clearly, eliminating subsidies for fishing fleets should be a top priority of the world community.
James Bond calls for more marine protected areas
Where the Sahara meets the Atlantic
Comments
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josullivan58 Posted 2:10 pm
18 Jul 2007
The central government gets cash (the benefit) and does not suffer (the cost).
Using immoral logic, the cost benefit analysis for the government is to screw the local people to get money for themselves.
If there was a more open democratic government they would not have done this.
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Jon Rynn Posted 2:43 pm
18 Jul 2007
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Colin Wright Posted 4:39 pm
18 Jul 2007
Surely the immorality does not end with the Mauritania government. How can agreements with dictators be legitimate?
Eliminating subsidies may not be enough, too. The common people of Mauritania ought to be able bring suit against the EU in an international forum, like a UN Sustainability Court. (Of course, a body like that is unthinkable under the current US adminstration.)
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Biodiversivist Posted 11:53 pm
18 Jul 2007
...he says as the Gulf of Mexico dead zone grows to the size of California :)
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Jon Rynn Posted 12:24 am
19 Jul 2007
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caniscandida Posted 12:42 am
19 Jul 2007
So what is the answer? Enlightened despots? OK, but they are hard to come by, first of all, and secondly, the enlightenment tends to wear off, sooner or later.
In this connexion, it should be noted that the EU is looking a bit hypocritical: on the one hand, green-wise, trying to look like a global conscience, with its serious focus on climate-change mitigation, and social-wise, trying to help out African governments and nations, e.g. by debt relief; but then on the other, subsidizing their own people, at the expense of poor Africans, and of the biodiversity of African coastal waters.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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Biodiversivist Posted 1:41 am
19 Jul 2007
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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amc89 Posted 2:10 am
19 Jul 2007
If you eat fish, this is another reminder to stick to local and sustainable seafood. Or better yet, switch to a plant-based diet.
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Jon Rynn Posted 2:31 am
19 Jul 2007
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Rachel Weisshaar Posted 11:26 pm
02 Aug 2007
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