From developed countries to developing countries, people have cultivated diverse fish and fishing techniques over many years, making fish a dietary staple around the world. Lobster has carved out a special niche in Chinese fish markets and freshwater fish and prawns are popular exports in Cambodia. While many countries rely on fish differently, they all source fish from Pacific Ocean fisheries in or close to U.S. maritime zones. As the popularity of fish continues to surge, especially among middle class families, this ascent raises a question: do we have enough fish in the U.S. maritime zones to feed the world?
History of American Fisheries
The United States boasts a long history of constantly revised fishery laws and regulations. In 1871, Congress predicted a devastated world economy if the decline of food fishes persisted. As a result, the United States established the U.S. Fish Commission to monitor the number of food fishes in American coasts and lakes that same year. This first attempt at increasing awareness of fishery conservation signaled a country working towards ocean sustainability.
While the U.S. Fish Commission spearheaded federal conservation policies, many U.S. fisheries continued to operate independently from the federal government. In order for federal bodies to refocus efforts on American fisheries, President Gerald Ford signed the 1979 Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. New catching quotas and accountability procedures issued under the Magnuson Stevens Act not only forced U.S. vessels to comply with the federal law, but also forced other countries’ vessels to pay closer attention to these regulations. Since its signage, the Magnuson Stevens Act has revitalized parts of the depleting fishery supply. Unfortunately, the progress created by the Magnuson Stevens Act has faced major hurdles in recent years.
A New Threat: Illegal, Unreported, or Unregulated Fishing
The ocean may seem like a vast pool of fish and underwater organisms, but it is far from infinite. The practice of overfishing, when fish are captured at a rate higher than they can reproduce, has become more popular over time. These destructive practices lead to irreversible effects for underwater ecosystems, including dramatic declines of fish populations. Because of overfishing, overzealous fishermen may unintentionally capture inedible sea creatures, also called bycatch, in their enormous webs. Examples of bycatch include marine turtles, sharks, and many other sea creatures now classified as “Critically Endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. Furthermore, eliminating certain species from the food chain will severely impact an ocean’s biodiversity, diminishing the fishing economy and the potential for fishing jobs for years to come.
Even when the world cracks down on dubious fishing practices, vessels can still evade punishment through illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing. In many cases, legal fishing can quickly turn illegal. Vessels may operate in legal areas, but easily engage in illegal activity by overfishing. New technological innovations have also spawned ways for fishing vessels to capture and sell fish illegally and evade government retribution. Often, Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a frequent target for hijackers. Hackers can modify a vessel’s AIS coordinate location in the database, trigger fake collision warning reports with other vessels, and even control the flow of AIS data to the tracking system. Because of this malicious software, more fishermen may venture confidently into the ocean to overfish.
Fisheries in the Developing World
While many people are trying to limit overfishing, the practice seems necessary for some developing countries. Sabrina Devereaux, now a North Pacific Groundfish Observer for the National Marine Fisheries Service, visited Madagascar to study fisheries for her senior thesis as an undergraduate. In an interview with the HPR, she cited that “99 percent of animal direct protein in the [Madagascar] local diet came from seafood because fish is the most readily available source of protein on the coast.” When asked about alternative sources of protein in Madagascar, Devereaux responded that options are limited. “If you are going to divert your resources to cattle ranching or other forms of agriculture, that means deforestation.”
On the other hand, overfishing negatively alters the long-term health of coastal developing countries and low-income communities in developed countries. In an email interview with the HPR, Eddie Allison, Professor at the University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, predicted the effects of overfishing on a country’s nutrition and food security. “When we are failing, catches fall, less fish is landed, and prices may go up,” he wrote. “This makes fish less available and accessible to the lower income consumers that need it most for nutrition and food security.” When some communities in the world cannot afford a much needed dietary staple, and especially when the situation escalates to life and death matters, immediate action must be taken.
The effects of overfishing can even impact the local fishing economy, specifically sustainable and domestic fisheries. The United States imports a staggering 80 percent of fish. Kim Thompson, a Program Manager for Seafood for the Future, told the HPR that she believes the percentage should be lower. She advocates for U.S. aquacultures that promote sustainability rather than encourage overfishing. Aquaculture allows farmers to grow the exact amount of fish they need for retail─no more, no less. Instinctively, restructuring the U.S. fishing economy around local aquacultures will not only enliven the American economy and job market, but also curb conflicts with countries fishing in the same global waters. In industrial nations such as the United States, revitalizing aqualcultures may lead to more jobs and infrastructure in rural and coastal communities. Yet, these self-reliant fishing policies become difficult to impose when the rest of the world wants to compete for limited ocean resources. The future of fisheries, once revitalized by the laws such as the Magnuson Stevens Act, now seems unmistakably grim.
Beginnings of a Solution
No single country can solve the overfishing crisis. In fact, solutions to the overfishing crisis demand international collaboration. If countries cannot comply with universal fishing laws then the underwater ecosystem remains threatened with irreparable consequences.
Three years ago, the overfishing problem drew massive headlines. In 2015, the UN released a list of 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 14, also known as Life Under Water, specifically addressed the ways that countries should unite to conserve ocean resources for trade and transportation. This goal provides an overview of the overfishing crisis for all countries to refer to and outlines possible solutions that are globally agreed upon. When all countries have a unanimously agreed upon solution for overfishing and sustainable oceans, this signals immense progress for fisheries. Unfortunately, a single, broad UN goal is not enough to prevent this hostile practice.
Fortunately, one tool plans to reshape the future of ocean conservation. Global Fishing Watch, an initiative launched in 2016 by Google, releases Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data by tracking publicly broadcasted AIS on fishing vessels. Devereaux explained the benefits of Global Fishing Watch, especially its seamless integration with Google Maps: “Any member of the public can go online…Google has added a layer on Google Earth to see where and when industrial fishing vessels are fishing.” The rise of technology has made illegal vessel tracking easier. With more than 20 billion data points, data science, and machine learning, ocean researchers can pinpoint commercial vessel identities, dubious fishing reports, and countries responsible for illegal fishing.
In an interview with the HPR, University of California, Santa Barbara Professor Douglas McCauley spoke highly about using VMS to catch and fine unregulated vessels in a closed area of the Pacific Ocean. At the same time, he vocalized the importance of improving the emerging technology. “One of the limitations [of VMS] is that it is harder to see smaller fishing vessels,” McCauley reports. “Another limitation is that sometimes vessels don’t comply with their own national laws for proper use of AIS.” Since AIS can only identify vessels that exceed 100 gross tons, smaller vessels can evade the signal and subvert similar surveillance efforts. But AIS was never designed to catch overfishing. According to McCauley, AIS was originally designed to prevent vessel collisions at sea. As a result, researchers developing the new technology must ensure that AIS can fulfill its two duties: promoting safety at sea and creating new ocean surveillance. Despite some of the current limitations with VMS, McCauley paints a hopeful picture for the future. With the technological revolution on the horizon, he predicts that nearly all vessels will be trackable on ocean waters in about ten years.
Unfortunately, McCauley’s prediction of ten years is a long time to wait─by that time, it could be too late to reverse the effects of overfishing. As the world waits for the day when all fishing vessels are accounted for, there must be more ways to demand greater ocean sustainability. But where does the onus for change lie? Should the fishery, the supermarket, the restaurant or the consumer have the most impact on the ocean’s future?
Who Should Change the Overfishing Conversation?
Not all solutions are easy. Realizing this, Allison delivers a more indefinite response to the overfishing crisis. While “some people are looking for ‘magic bullets’—simple solution[s] to all the complex challenges of governing this very diverse sector of our society and economy,” he said. “[A] simple solution doesn’t exit.” While overfishing maybe be a complex and multifaceted problem, several scholars have identified specific stakeholders that should start fixing the problem.
Thomas suggests that the broader public must pressure retailers such as Walmart and Target to sell sustainably raised fish. Specifically, she wants the public to show more support, either in the form of donations or volunteer work, to NGOs in the U.S. championing this cause and fighting big retailers. As for consumers, Thompson believes that “the most important thing a consumer can do is go into a restaurant or retailer and ask do you carry sustainable seafood.” The simple act of asking such a question is the first step to pressuring a business to buy sustainable seafood. This question becomes especially crucial in central United States where fishery education is rare often due the lack of major bodies of water.
Echoing Thomas, Devereaux realizes that “people don’t know about [overfishing], but they don’t care to know. That needs to change before a massive movement takes place. You need people to care.” Public interest in overfishing spikes during major events such as the UN Sustainable Development Conference and the International Conference on Fisheries and Aquaculture Management. But unlike key issues such as pollution and global warming, overfishing is not often taught in U.S. schools. To reach a broader and younger audience, these key issues need to be integrated into U.S. and World History textbooks and curriculums. In the meantime, Devereaux recommends that people follow research initiatives like Sea Around Us on social media and in the news and read resources like the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Guide before choosing seafood restaurants. Organizations and guides could help propel a perpetual conversation about solving the overfishing crisis in the U.S. and abroad.
Since the overfishing crisis seems to get worse every day, rapid multilateral action is imminently necessary. However, governments are not the only stakeholders that should be involved. Consumers, restaurants, and suppliers share a collective responsibility of changing the national conversation and opposing fisheries that engage in illegal behavior. Unless people in the United States and the world come together to address this complex issue, resources that many people take for granted today may not be available in ten or twenty years. Overfishing is a major global threat, and the conversation about it urgently requires a larger public spotlight.
Image credit: Bruno de Giusti / Wikimedia Commons