www.readMETRO.com february 2019
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“We fish too much” Daniel Pauly
The French-Canadian scientist Daniel Pauly is famous in the world of marine biology. Professor and project leader of ‘Sea Around Us’ at the Institute for Oceans and Fisheries at University of British Columbia, Canada, talked with Metro about human impact on the oceans and fishing industry.
Eduardo Ribeiro
Metro World News
When was ‘Sea Around Us’ created and how does this initiative for the preservation of oceanic populations act? ‘Sea Around Us’ was founded 20 years ago to monitor the global impacts of unrestricted fishing. We evaluate fishing activities worldwide to compare actions of different countries. Our goal is to help international organisations, as well as the industry, to address concerning issues. The difference of our work is that we look beyond the local impacts. What was the main thing you discovered? The first and most critical problem we identified was how insufficient or incomple-
te the statistics were. Many countries do not share clear information about the seizure of small proportions of fish. And number of fish collected by small nets is alarming, but not reported. How much fishing impacts the oceans? We are fishing 50 per cent more than we should. This explains why it has been increasingly rare to be able to extract large quantities of fish. Fish population is declining faster than it manages to reproduce in a sustainable way. What can be done to combat the problem? What we need to do, which is our mission, is to recognise that it is time to rebuild the fish stocks of the oceans. Restoring fish population to its natural state is a matter of
fishing less. It is basically like this: fishing less frequently and respecting the limits means gaining the volume. That makes sense. That’s exactly what it’s about. It is not something that consumers can take on as responsibility. It is useless to reduce consumption. The response must come from governments. Inspection is needed to produce less, with more discernment. The management of fisheries in certain areas must be regulated. If governments do nothing, the result will be inevitable: there will be no more fish. Do you believe the restoring fish population to its natural state is possible? It’s still possible. If we assume the commitment now and the countries delimit sustainable amount of fishing for
industry, the goal can surely be reached.
“fishing less frequently and respecting the limits means gaining the volume.”
I suppose we are already in a situation when action is needed, right? Yes. Every year that passes and governments do not intervene or do not assume that responsibility, the situation is getting worse. What to do when fishing industry has so much autonomy? If the corporations are strengthened, they become impossible to be regulated. However, the industry will eventually end its own business. So, one of the beneficiaries of the recovery of the oceans and seas is the industry itself. It will benefit from a selfsustainable market together with environmentalists and nature. It is a question of economic intelligence.
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