October 16, 2012
Happy World Food Day!
If it’s October 16th then it’s World Food Day! At Oceana we recognize the importance of this day, launched in 1979 by the UN to bring light to the issue of world hunger. With the world population careening towards 9 billion by mid-century and arable land growing both more scarce and more vulnerable thanks to global warming, we believe that well-managed fisheries will be critical to feeding the world.
Right now the world’s fisheries are not nearly as productive as they could be. More than half are over-exploited and technologically advanced fishing fleets are searching far and wide for ever more remote fish stocks that have yet to be exploited. But the idea that we can perpetually decimate stock after stock is not realistic on a finite planet. We need to manage our fisheries so that they give us enough to eat year after year. The good news is there are proven ways to do this.
1) Science-based quotas. Taking so many fish out of the water that populations are unable to maintain themselves one way to ensure collapse. Basing quotas on fish biology, rather than fishing industry interests is the only way to ensure that fish stocks will survive into the future.
2) Protect Habitat. Habitat vital to fish activities like spawning and feeding should not be steamrolled by bottom trawlers or fouled by pollution.
3) Reduce bycatch. Bycatch is the incidental catch of species not targeted by fishermen. It may sound like an obscure industry topic, but bycatch makes up over 10% of the world’s catch, or more than 16 billion pounds of wasted seafood every year. Bycatch is also a killer of endangered sea turtles, sharks and marine mammals.
These are steps that have been proven to restore stocks of fish wherever they have been implemented, from Baltic cod, to Spanish anchovies; from Japanese snow crab, to Norway herring, and the list goes on. While it’s counterintuitive, by imposing limits to what we catch today we will actually be able to increase the amount of fish that we catch tomorrow. A new study published in Science showed that sensible management could increase fish yields up to 40% and increase the biomass in the oceans by a whopping 56%! If managed wisely, our fisheries could provide the world with 700 million nutritious meals every day. That will be vital on a planet where almost a billion people already go hungry every day.
This World Food Day learn more about the world’s food security and vow to help fight world hunger. At Oceana it’s one of our highest priorities.