WWF logo






WWF-
INTERNATIONAL

Avenue du
Mont-Blanc

CH-1196
Gland


Switzerland

Tel: +41
22 364 91 11




Annual Report


GLOBAL FOCUS ON OCEANS

fishmarket
The average American eats 20.4 kilograms of fish per year; their Japanese counterpart eats 66 kilograms, the highest consumption in the world.

A joint initiative between WWF and Unilever, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) provides everyone with the opportunity of becoming involved in the conservation of the oceans by buying fish products that carry the MSC logo. By harnessing consumer power, the MSC will develop economic incentives to promote sustainable, well-managed fisheries.


For years it was assumed that the seas could feed the world. Between 1950 and 1989, the world's marine fish catch rose by a staggering 500 per cent, with around 200 million people in the developed world depending on fishing for their livelihoods. Fish currently provides 16 per cent of all the animal protein we eat and fish products are used as animal feed and fertilizers, and in adhesives, lubricants, and cosmetics. But fish catches have been falling since 1989, and today up to 70 per cent of marine fish populations are either overexploited or only slowly recovering from overfishing.

text The MSC is an independent, non-profit organization that will develop criteria for sustainable fisheries management, accredit and monitor other certifying bodies who will inspect fisheries worldwide, and identify, through the use of the MSC logo, retail fish products that have been caught from responsibly managed fisheries.

Unilever, which controls about a fifth of the US and European frozen-fish market, has pledged only to sell MSC-certified fish products by the year 2005. They have now been joined by Pacific Andes International in Asia, Kallis & France Foods and Western Rock Lobster Development Association, both in Australia, and Britain's three largest supermarket chains: Tesco, Sainsbury's, and Safeway. As Fishing News, the United Kingdom trade magazine reported, "All the signs are that this scheme will become a major force in world fishing and marketing."

"Part of the problem," says Mike Sutton, Director of WWF International's Endangered Seas Campaign, "is that too many boats are chasing a diminishing number of fish, encouraged by unrealistic subsidies."

Today, the world's governments are annually paying billions of dollars in fishing subsidies which clearly contribute to overfishing. In addition, indiscriminate fishing practices scoop up young fish that are needed if stocks are to replenish themselves, as well as killing more than 20 million tonnes of by-catch: unwanted fish, marine reptiles and mammals such as turtles and dolphins, sea birds, and other ocean life that is then dumped back into the ocean. WWF is addressing these issues through MSC codes of sustainable fishing practice which are being developed in workshops that involve conservationists, fisheries experts, and members of the fishing industry.

"We hope that when the first fish products bearing the MSC logo arrive on the market in 1998," adds Sutton, "the public will join WWF in its efforts to save the seas."

BackIndexNext