SUNS  4311 Wednesday 28 October 1998


FISHERIES: INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT WILL REGULATE CATCHES

Rome, Oct 26 (IPS/Jorge Pina) -- Overfishing degrades global marine resources and causes extensive economic damage, stated the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Monday.

FAO stressed that the world fishing capacity will continue to expand - as it has from the early nineties - but it must be drastically reduced in order to allow highly valuable species like the Atlantic cod, haddock and temperate water tuna to repopulate.

Non-industrial fishing will also have to be submitted to controls in order to protect coastal resources, said FAO at the inauguration of an international conference on fishing fleets, sharks and sea birds
running from Monday to Friday in Rome.

Representatives of some 80 countries attending the conference will sign on to a document entitled "elements of an international instrument for the regulation of fishing capacity" to be presented in the next FAO Fishing Committee meeting in February 1999.
FAO stated yields of 35% of the 200 biggest fishing resources show symptoms of descent, and those of 25% are stabilised on a level of high exploitation.

"These figures indicate that 35% of the biggest fishing reserves in the world require urgent regulation in order to undo the damage caused," said assistant director general of the FAO and head of the Fishing Department, Moritaka Hayashi.

The species suffering overfishing and which require urgent attention include the Atlantic cod, haddock and red loach, along with both Atlantic and Pacific sardines and tuna.

Then there are the swordfish and the common or red tuna and the white tuna.

World fishing production reached some 122 million tonnes in 1997, while in 1996 it was 121, said the FAO.

The number of sea fishing embarkations continues to increase, but at a slower rate: at 1.6 percent per year since 1990, compared with 2.9 percent between 1984 and 1989.

The data disseminated by the FAO show the world fishing fleet has remained relatively stable since 1989.

Estimates put the world fishing fleet at around 1.2 million covered vessels, most of which operate in Asia.

Following two decades of rapid growth, estimated at 3.6% annually, the number of embarkations in the world showed only a slight increase of 0.9 percent per year from 1990 to 1995.

Global tonnage of the fishing vessels is estimated at 24 million tonnes, compared with 22 million in 1990.

Most of the expansion in fishing vessels in Asia is attributed to the Chinese fleet, which reached 450,000, a third of all the world's fishing vessels.

China's fishing fleet, which totalled some six million tonnes in 1997, is the biggest in the world, followed by that of the Russian Federation, with three million tonnes.

"Without global action, the combination of over-exploitation and excess fishing capacity joined with population growth will be translated into serious risks for the sea resources," said Hayashi.

"When the excess ships of a fleet are eliminated, it must be checked they do not transfer to another, thus increasing capacity," he added.

In recent years, some vessels eliminated from the market in the industrialised countries ended up in developing countries already suffering problems of overfishing or went over to fishing in the high seas.

The draft of the "international instrument for the ordering of the fishing capacity" demands "efficient, equitable and transparent control of the fishing capacity from here to 2005."

This voluntary agreement must guarantee the states which "are up against a problem of excess capacity commit themselves to maintaining current levels and to progressively reduce their fishing capacity."

Meanwhile, the other states must "take precautions in case of eventual increases of the same."

The draft proposes continual evaluations of fishing capacity on a national, regional and world level, alongside the production and implementation of national and regional plans for its effective control
and reduction which should be made public before 2001.

Furthermore, an exhaustive report must be produced of the situation every two years.

Subsidies encouraging capacity are already falling, but their progressive elimination would do away with one of the causes of excess fishing capacity, states the project.

The initiative also proposes that first steps be taken immediately to substantially reduce the capacity of vessels involved in fishing temperate water tuna and the over-exploitation of other ocean resources.

This document also demands a common initiative against the increasing number of vessels using flags of convenience.

The international community must recognise the capacity of the fleet must be determined on the basis of the state of the populations, concluded the FAO.