Experts are trying to accelerate in Costa Rica what has been stuck on the political level for decades: shaping global fisheries so as to prevent the collapse of the world’s oceans. A report is also being presented that sets off alarm bells.
The fact that the world’s oceans are not doing well has been known not only since the discovery of plastic islands in the oceans but also since the first traces of microplastics were discovered off the American East Coast in 1972. It has been just over 100 years since the realization spread that the seemingly endless abundance in the vast expanses of the oceans is not so endless. It was the inventions of the war industry in the first half of the 20th century that enabled the fishing industry to drastically expand its catch (sonar, radar).
Thus, in 1923, the first management organization was launched to regulate the halibut fishery. It became increasingly clear after World War II that fisheries worldwide were getting out of balance.
Fish stocks are recovering more slowly
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has documented year after year that the pace of fishing is increasing, while fish stocks are not regenerating to their full extent—a gap that has been widening since the 1980s. According to FAO data, more than a third of fish populations are overfished.
The counter-movement is slow to get underway. Since the early 1990s, it has been clear that there need to be additional zones where fisheries are regulated, but it would take two decades for all 17 agreed management organizations to be established. However, simply demarcating such areas bureaucratically does not lead to recovery of fish stocks.
In a report by the environmental organization Greenpeace (“Untangled – How the Global Ocean Treaty can help end mismanagement on the high seas”), it is mercilessly pointed out how far apart the theoretical claim and the practice of fishing fleets are. To meet a conservation agenda, the requirement should be for fisheries management to follow scientific findings. Additionally, there is a lack of a holistic view; the focus is usually on a single fish species. The regional management organizations also operate with too little transparency. At the same time, the report accuses the fishing industry of withholding information on exact fishing locations, making efficient controls difficult to impossible.
Protection for one-third of the world’s oceans
In view of these weaknesses, a “Global Ocean Treaty” was adopted last year to make it easier, among other things, to establish protected areas. In this regard, France has taken the lead in demanding that one-third of the world’s oceans be protected.
However, while the Global Ocean Treaty has many signatures, it is far from being in force. It requires ratification by 60 states. Currently, only seven countries have taken this step. France is the furthest along in the process, and in the other member states, it will take some time, even though the EU has joined the agreement. In the UK, the outcome of elections is awaited.
China, on the other hand, is accelerating the issue. “This has a strategic background,” reports Jehki Härkönen. He is a member of the Greenpeace delegation participating in the meeting. “China wants to be present at the first meeting of the contracting parties to help decide on the specific implementation provisions.”
China has the largest fishing fleet and is among the largest exporters. In Europe, large fleets are mainly from France, Spain, and Norway. The EU and the USA are the largest fish importers. Ratification in the USA is unlikely—not because of the presidential elections in November but due to the balance of power in the Senate. Achieving a two-thirds majority is unlikely, as has been the case with many other international agreements in the past. It is secretly expected that the 60 ratification documents will be deposited next summer. The next ocean conference is scheduled for June 2025.
Fishermen are in dire straits
In addition to effective management of fish populations and protected areas, there was a third central issue in Costa Rica: finding a solution to help small boat fishermen who mainly fish for subsistence or small-scale fish markets. Worldwide, there are about three million small and very small fishing boats with engines and about one and a half million non-motorized ones. Three-quarters of these fishermen are based in Asia, with the remainder in Africa. Their share in Latin America and the Caribbean is much smaller.
Large fishing fleets are now so efficient that returns for small fishermen are increasingly declining. Efforts will be made until the ocean conference next year to find ways to improve the situation of small fishing businesses and to set up financial assistance for states to support coastal villages, enabling people in these regions to make a living. At the two-day conference in Costa Rica, small fishing businesses were more strongly represented and drew attention to their precarious situation; fishing industry lobbyists were more restrained.
The conference, designed as an informal exchange at the expert level, ended over the weekend without a binding final document. Instead, a resolution was adopted that strongly emphasizes the precarious situation of the world’s oceans – and the need to take countermeasures. The conference served more as an icebreaker in stalled negotiations to initiate an emergency brake on the world’s oceans.
