7. What needs to be done
WWF believes that the following steps will be essential and should be implemented immediately in order to speed up the transition to sustainable, well-managed, and ecologically-sound fisheries: 1. Strengthen national, regional, and international capacity to manage marine fishes: Governments must allocate sufficient funds to develop the scientific and technical capabilities necessary to adequately manage their marine fisheries. Those nations suffering from a fishery management system rife with conflicts of interest must reform their laws. International commissions charged with managing shared fisheries and those on the high seas must immediately implement the provisions of the 1995 UN Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks & Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. Among other things, this will require regional bodies to open their decision-making procedures to public scrutiny. Finally, fishery management at all levels must be relieved from sweeping political interference aimed at satisfying the short-term economic needs of fishers rather than the long-term requirements of fish populations and the marine ecosystem. To help ensure that these reforms are carried out, the United Nations should create a high-profile Global Oceans Forum to elevate fishery conservation and other ocean issues higher on the international political agenda. 2. Focus management programmes on limiting effort and restricting access to fisheries: Past efforts at fishery management have been characterized by ineffective measures such as mesh-size restrictions and trip limits that simply attempt to legislate inefficiency. These techniques should be abandoned in favour of management schemes that limit fishing effort, especially in fisheries that are overfished or depleted. Effort should be reduced to levels consistent with sustainable fishing and the recovery of depleted species. Limited-access programmes should prevent new entry into fisheries that are fully subscribed and form a part of comprehensive management plans for each fishery. However, they should not be allowed to create private property rights in any fishery. 3. Enact and implement recovery plans for depleted species: Most overfished species, even those that have been severely depleted, are not subject to any kind of recovery plans. Fishery managers should as a matter of priority develop and implement effective recovery plans, including target population sizes and timetables for achieving them. The targets and pace of these plans should be driven primarily by the biological requirements of the fish populations involved, not the short-term demands of the local fishing industry. Well-managed fisheries that are allowed to recover from past overfishing would help restore the vitality of the marine ecosystem and concurrently yield far more to fishers. 4.Reduce and eliminate the subsidies that sustain commercial fisheries:The US$54 billion in subsidies that are propping up unsustainable fisheries should be eliminated immediately, including those for shipbuilding and construction, refitting of fishing vessels, market research and development, industry bailouts, low-cost industry loans, and development of fisheries for so-called `underutilized' species. Where subsidies are provided, they should be part of a comprehensive plan for the future of the fishing industry, including decommissioning of fishing vessels and retraining of fishers, where necessary. 5. Accelerate programmes for decommissioning excess fishing fleet capacity: Overcapacity due to unbridled growth of the world's fishing fleets is one of the most serious problems facing marine fisheries today. At a minimum, funds for vessel buyback and decommissioning programmes should be increased as quickly as possible in order to expand these programmes to achieve an immediate reduction in fishing effort. Funding of future decommissioning programmes should be dictated by capacity-reduction targets specific to each fishery. Governments should make the appropriation of these funds a top priority in drawing up their annual fisheries budgets. 6. Expand programmes for retraining fishers displaced by overfishing and effort limitation: The legacy of past open-access fisheries is a population of fishers that far exceeds the number required to catch what fish are available. Many of these people have few skills or professional abilities other than fishing or fish processing. Retraining programmes are urgently needed in order to move displaced fishers into productive employment in other sectors as quickly as possible and prevent unnecessary social upheaval. Funds for retraining fishers should be a priority and should go hand-in-hand with those for decommissioning programmes. 7. Develop social and economic incentives for sustainable, well-managed fisheries: Today's social and economic forces mostly provide an incentive for unsustainable, destructive fishing. Positive incentives for sustainable, well-managed fishing are urgently required. Market forces and consumer power must be harnessed in order to create such incentives. Governments should take the lead in developing and enacting economic incentives for sustainable fishing, thus providing a `carrot' rather than merely the `stick' of prescriptive regulations. In addition, an independent Marine Stewardship Council should be established as soon as possible to create voluntary, market-led incentives for sustainable fishing and swing consumer power behind efforts to recover and sustain clean, well-managed fisheries. This will require conservation organizations and progressive businesses to educate seafood consumers about the enormous potential effect of their purchasing decisions. 8. Reduce the `footprint' of developed countries on third-world fisheries: Northern states pay huge amounts to secure access to the fisheries of other nations, notably in the developing world. International standards for distant-water fishing should be developed as a matter of priority and enforced by UN mandate. No country should be permitted to purchase fishing rights from a foreign government without a full assessment of the impacts of such fishing on the specific fisheries involved, their associated marine ecosystem, and indigenous fishers that have relied on the same resources for generations. 9. Eliminate destructive fishing practices such as the use of poisons and explosives: Destructive fishing practices should be phased out immediately in favour of more sustainable, less destructive alternatives. Enforcement of laws that proscribe activities such as cyanide fishing, bleach fishing, and the use of dynamite should be strengthened. Funding should be provided for programmes that train fishers to use techniques other than poisons and explosives. Where practicable, governments and industry should ban supplies of poisons and explosives intended for fishers. Where specific fisheries have traditionally used poisons, such as cyanide in the `live fish' trade of East Asia, simple tests should be devised that allow inspectors and customers to determine when poisons have been used and to act accordingly. 10. Reduce and eliminate the bycatch of marine wildlife in commercial fisheries: Commercial fisheries currently kill and waste 18 to 40 million metric tonnes of fishes and other marine wildlife annually. To add insult to injury, modern fishing practices have a devastating effect on marine biological diversity and the physical environment of the oceans. The enormous destruction and waste of marine life should be prevented by the use of bycatch reduction devices on fishing gear. Mandatory programmes should be imposed immediately to require the use of such devices wherever they are available. Incentives such as bycatch quotas should be imposed or made available to encourage the use of the least destructive fishing gear and practices. When implementing programmes to reduce waste by allowing the landing of bycatch, governments should use extreme caution to ensure that these programmes do not impede bycatch reduction efforts. The reduction of waste should go hand-in-hand with the elimination of bycatch.
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Copyright 1996, The World Wide Fund For Nature