‘Blue Shift’ confronts unsustainable fishing activities

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2022 the International Year of Fisheries and Aquaculture. This declaration represents an important acknowledgment of the millions of small-scale fishermen and fish farmers who provide healthy and nutritious products to billions of people around the world, and highlights the importance of sustainable fisheries as a fundamental issue for the future of biodiversity.

Current solutions to reduce the decline in fish numbers and ensure the prosperity of fish stocks depend on strict fishing regulations and the ethics of those working in the sector. However, these solutions show mixed results that underscore the need for a new approach to address the issues of overfishing and protect aquatic life.

A decline in sustainable fisheries

Globally, unsustainable fishing activities are responsible for the loss of 11 to 26 million tons of fish annually, an amount with an economic value of about 10 to 23 billion dollars. The activity is unsustainable when fish and aquatic organisms caught in natural sites exceed the amount that can be replaced by re-production. To reduce the impact of destructive fishing activities, it is included under Target 4 of Goal 14 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Program of Action. They include a call to “effectively regulate fishing, end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices, and implement science-based management plans to restore fish stocks as soon as possible”.

The fisheries and aquaculture sector has been expanding significantly over the past decades. Total production, trade and consumption reached an unprecedented record in 2018, as the amount of fish, crustaceans, mollusks and other aquatic animals, excluding mammals, reptiles and aquatic plants, which were caught in that year amounted to about 179 million tons. Since the early 1990s, most of the growth in production has been from aquaculture, while capture fisheries production has remained relatively stable, with some primary growth related to inland fishing. The sustainable development of aquaculture and effective fisheries management are essential to the continued growth of this sector.

However, the successes in some countries and regions have not been sufficient to reverse the global trend of wastage of fishing stocks. Between 1990 and 2017, the proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels decreased from 90 percent to 65.8 percent.

The most recent data from the Indonesian Ministry of Fisheries puts fish stocks in national waters at 12 million tons, down about 4 percent from the 12.5 million tons estimated in 2017. The data also indicates that 53 percent of the eleven fisheries management areas In the country, it is fully exploited, which confirms the need to impose stricter control over it, as the percentage in 2017 did not exceed 44 percent.

While the National Fish Resources Research Committee in Indonesia believes that this data does not reflect an actual decrease in fish stocks, but rather an improvement in the evaluation methodology, marine observers say that the numbers are worrying in light of the desire of the Ministry of Fisheries to increase production, while some fisheries have reached their production capacity. maximum. One of the ministry’s main plans includes reopening the country’s fishing areas to ships funded by foreign investors, knowing that these ships were previously responsible for depleting fish stocks over several years. The ministry is also studying the allocation of specific areas for fishing and other areas for fish breeding and nursery. The seas surrounding Indonesia are home to one of the world’s most diverse communities of marine life. The country’s fishing industry employs about 12 million people. Indonesian waters also record the highest amount of marine fishing production in the world after China, and together with Peru, India, Russia, the United States and Vietnam, they contribute to half of the world’s fish catch, which is approximately 85 million tons.

Asian dominance is not limited to marine fishing. For two decades, the Yellow Continent has controlled the world’s aquaculture production by 89 percent. Among the major producing countries, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Egypt, Norway and Chile have boosted their share of regional or global production to varying degrees over the past 20 years. Fish farming has expanded the availability of fish in regions and countries that have limited or no access to farmed species, often at cheaper prices, which has contributed to improved nutrition and food security. With increased fish production, technological developments, rising incomes, reduced waste and increased awareness of the health benefits of eating fish, the world is turning more and more towards aquatic life as a primary source of protein. However, the trade indicators in this sector declined during the past two years after the outbreak of the “Covid-19” pandemic due to the conditions of closure and interruption of supply chains.

Blue Shift to enhance fishing sustainability

The 2022 edition of The State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture focuses on the blue shift, a strategy that aims to strengthen aquatic food systems and expand their potential to sustainably feed the world’s growing population. Published every two years by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this report provides a comprehensive, objective and global view of capture fisheries and aquaculture for policy makers, civil society and others who depend on the fishing sector.

The Blue Transformation initiative stems from the 2021 FAO Declaration on Sustainable Fisheries and calls for the sustainable intensification of aquaculture, effective fisheries management, as well as the development of blue value chains that provide an additional source of supply, ensuring social and economic benefits while ensuring Fair distribution and access to aquatic food.

The blue shift of aquatic food systems in the MENA region is critical to ensuring food security and the livelihoods of communities. FAO believes that achieving this depends on making the sustainability of the capture fisheries and aquaculture sectors a top priority across the region, where the sustainability of these resources continues to suffer from a range of challenges, including illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, scarcity of water resources, as well as Climate change effects.

FAO is working on a number of programs aimed at promoting and facilitating regional cooperation, supporting the sustainability of aquaculture and fisheries, and improving the management of water resources in the region. In the UAE, fish farming is a great example of successfully employing innovations, as the country, with technical support from FAO, is investing in modern methods to build sustainable and profitable fish production that will maintain the country’s fish supply and improve its food security. Innovations include integrated aquaculture systems and recycled aquaculture systems, which allow species such as salmon and grouper to be propagated in the middle of the desert. In Algeria, Egypt, Oman and other countries, where arable land suffers from problems of salinization, erosion and nutrient deficiencies, integrated aquaculture and aquaculture that makes use of fish farming water for the production of vegetables, fruits and other foodstuffs is a solution to the problem of inhospitable or unusable land.

From the point of view of many, the habitats of non-farmed fisheries can be considered a common commons, although it is a finite resource, as no one owns them and there are no legal claims to them. Virtually anyone can catch fish from the ocean, leaving fish populations vulnerable to overexploitation.

The experience of In Season Fish, which is active in India and supports sustainable fisheries and ocean protection, shows that ethical consumption of seafood is first related to citizenship, teamwork and community structure. To this end, the organization has created a seafood guide for the whole of India that provides recommendations on the types of fish to consume. This guide increases the transparency of the seafood supply, and discusses opinions about the undesirable fish species in the country.

It is not only possible to rely on restricting fishing practices and the ethics of individuals to achieve the goal of sustainable fishing, but also to consider the fish supply chain, from fishermen to intermediaries to consumers, as an integrated chain and study how its links are linked to each other. At the same time, sound fisheries management must be promoted, and technical advances that support food security and sustainable production must be promoted.