0.19 Natural capital: fisheries  (Page 14/14)

The spread of itqs

There are an increasing number of countries moving to various versions of ITQs. In Europe Britain, Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands and Spain use them. This has already led to smaller fishing fleets in those nations.

An EU “Green paper” issued April in 2008 states that all EU countries should issue ITQs and that these rights should be tradable between national fishing fleets. This is a true market-oriented reform.

Emerging nations would do well to consider- ITQs tradable between different national fishing fleets. There are, however, problems administering the ITQs (as we see below).

Still, the spread of ITQs has a long way to go. Thus far of the worlds 10,000 fisheries, only 121 are using ITQs. It is not easy to allocate catch shares. Enforcement is not easy. Developing a good ITQ system sometimes takes 5-10 years, but if the world in emerging nations does not move toward ITQs future generations will not eat much fish. But, ITQs are necessary but not sufficient as tools to protect fisheries.

Other sensible regulations

There are two kinds

1. Ancient methods
2. New forms - modern methods

1. Ancient Methods

   Millennium ago, salmon fishing in Scotland was all from riverbanks. The first known regulation of fisheries was that decreed in Scotland salmon fishing a thousand years ago (1040) by Malcolm II, King of Scotland. (Malcolm was also the King who surrendered to William the Conqueror). Later King Alexander of Scotland strengthened Malcolm’s regulations in 1150.

   Malcolm II later imposed a limited season on fishing for Atlantic salmon. This prohibited Scotsmen from fishing until several weeks after the beginning of the annual salmon run, so as to allow enough breeding stock to go upstream and lay eggs and fertilize them. Salmon are born in freshwater and later young fish head for the ocean. Mature adults return to their birthplace to spawn. The regulation was strongly enforced.

   900 years later (1909) in Alaska canneries set up at mouth of Yukon River took almost all the salmon headed up river. As a result Eskimos and Athabascan upstream were starving. This was stopped by an Episcopal Deacon called Hudson Stuck, who convinced the U.S. Congress to pass a law prohibiting unchecked fishing at the mouth of the Yukon.

2. New Forms

   Now there are new forms of traditional regulations shown to be useful in U.S. Gulf Coast. The question is how transferable to emerging nations are the lessons learned from Gulf Coast and Caribbean?

   Consider how fishery protection measures used in the West can be utilized in emerging nations. The major issue is lack of intangible capital available to governments that would enforce fishing regulations (see Chapter __): administrative skills and enforcement techniques are lacking. This cannot be easily overcome without higher compensation to relevant officers.

   This represents a promising area for foreign aid to finance training and equipment in emerging nations to enforce fishing regulations (see Chapter ___).

   At present, these new approaches to overfishing can be administered fairly well in the richer nations. With exceptions, not so well in poorer emerging countries. In developed nations, technology has been increasingly used to enforce ITQs. GPSs (global positioning systems) are now placed on boats so that satellite monitoring is possible at all times. Also, governments in rich nations consult websites where they can keep current on all landings, by date and by species. This also helps fishermen. Why? They can also consult websites to decide:

   1. Whether to sell the catch fresh, or to freeze it
   2. Whether to buy or sell ITQs this week or next month

   This approach could also work in Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. However the technology is expensive and trained inspectors of boats are few and far between in poor nations. Again a very good foreign aid project would be to furnish equipment and technology for fishing regulation in poorer nations.

   Newer and affordable technology is required to curb illegal fishing, estimated to be $23 billion worldwide from:

   1. Catching more fish than allowed
   2. Catching fish from areas closed to fishing to permit recovery of fisheries
   3. Mislabeling fish caught

   There are new tools available to limit these problems. This tool uses genetics to determine where fish are caught, and which particular local population (fishery) it came from. Such a system is already in use in Denmark. “To Fight Illegal Fishing, Forensic DNA Gets Local”, Science, December 10, 2010, p.1468.

   Illegal ocean fishing will likely soon be sharply curbed in America and European and New Zealand fisheries using new technologies such as SNPs (single-nucleotide polymorphisms). SNPs are Specific Nucleotides in a DNA sequence that varies according to fish species and varies according to spawning grounds. This is a genetic test, could be used by poor emerging nations, but for 2 issues”

   1. Cost of enforcement
   2. Corruption in enforcement

   In most emerging nations where fishing is restricted, owing to ITQs, or banned, it is relatively easy for boats to slip undetected in and out of these areas to take illegal fish, either because of faulty enforcement or corruption of enforcement officials. New technologies promise to rectify this problem. Google has developed a free tool that allows anyone with an internet connection to identify and, if need be, board illegal fishers. The device is called the Google “Fishing Watch Tool”. The tool uses satellites to capture signals from automatic tracking devices required today for all large ships, so as to avoid collisions at sea. “Google Joins Fight against Illegal Fishing with Free Tracker Tool”, Financial Times, November 14, 2014. The free software rapidly analyzes massive amounts of data with the help of a behavioral algorithm that enables enforcement officials to determine where a boat is located, how fast it is moving and whether it stops or moves slowly in order to commence fishing. Google plans to roll out a website for free public use before 2017.

   It is expected that this new, free tool will enable sharp reductions on illegal fishing now totaling about 26 million metric tons per year.