Page 56 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August/September 2017

56 Overfishing Is Destroying the Oceans

China has fished itself out African nations’ ocean floors. fish, fish.”
In addition to overfishing these “For every pound [of farm-raised
of its own waters, so countries’ waters, China’s industrial trawlers are salmon] you create, you need two to three

likely having a devastating environmental pounds of raw fish to feed fish,” says Brubaker.
Chinese fishermen are impact on anywhere they travel. Rashid Kang, “It’s a losing battle, and they’re going farther
now sticking their rods in head of Greenpeace East Asia’s China Ocean and farther to get their fish.
Campaign, says though it’s hard to determine At the moment, there are no
other nations’ seas whether or not Chinese fishing boats are the straightforward solutions. In a 2016 report,
main cause of fishing stock decline throughout Greenpeace laid out one option (pdf): if China’s
West Africa in recent decades—other possible government cut back on subsidies to private
Continued from Page 56
contributing factors include excessive fishing by companies responsible for distant-water fishing
commercial fishing fleets from other nations and fleets, they could mitigate the damage. Without
A country can draw up agreements to allow
by local fishermen—it’s likely China’s subsidies that lower the cost of things like fuel
other nations’ fishermen to catch “surplus” stock
industrial trawlers have contributed by and the design of fishing vessels, the distant-
in their exclusive economic zones, and China
damaging the coastal habitat and their fishing business would a significantly less
likely has many of these in place, including with ecosystem. profitable, if not negative sum, endeavor,
Mauritania, Senegal, and Las Palmas in the A 1998 paper in Conservation Biology Greenpeace writes.
Canary Islands, according to the Wilson Center,
found that when a trawl net scrapes the bottom Dirk Zeller, a senior scientist and
a Washington, DC-based independent research
of the ocean floor, it kills off many “benthic executive director of the “Sea Around Us”
firm.
organisms”—the living creatures living on the project at the University of British Columbia
But a 2016 paper published in Nature
seafloor that serve as feed for fish like tuna. And and the lead author on the paper that found the
Communications found that China has been
because these ecosystems have a slow recovery discrepancy between China’s FAO numbers and
disguising the total amount of fish caught by its
time, continuous trawling prevents them from likely actual distant-water catch, is not
distant-water fishing fleets. In its reports to the
redeveloping after initial damage. Decimating optimistic. “[China] needs to maintain its
FAO dating as far back as the 1980s, the study the source of nutrition for organisms higher up economy, and fishing is a large part of that,”
found, Beijing would overstate the number of in the food chain eventually causes those says Zeller. “Sustainability is not something in
fish caught within its own exclusive economic
animals to die off as well. their agenda.” []
zone, while underreporting how much was
Back home, China’s middle class’s
caught far away. They can get away with it
appetite for high-quality fish like salmon is sated
because the agreements drafted to allow Chinese
indirectly by these distant water fleets. Much of
vessels to fish in other countries’ economic
the salmon purchased in the local market comes
zones are not available to the public, and the
from aquaculture—fish raised in freshwater
only way to determine whether the fishing was
farms. That sounds nice and sustainable, until
illegal is to bring the accused to court. you hear how that salmon is fed.“Fish are
From 2000 to 2011, China officially getting harder to catch,” says Kang. Local
reported 368,000 tons of fish caught per year, on
fishermen in countries like Senegal, Mauritania,
average, outside its domestic fishing areas. But a
and Guinea “used to go out for half a day, but
2013 study that analyzed catch counts of
now they have to go out for days to catch their
Chinese fishing vessels in international zones
supply.”
from “scientific literature, mass media, [and]
A 2017 study published in Fish and
websites of both governmental and
Fisheries found that China hauls in more fish
non‐governmental organizations” with field catch for non-human consumption than any
observations and interviews came up with a other country in the world. This catch is
much different number: 3.1 million tons or more typically converted into fishmeal and fish oil,
of fish per year in the same time frame, nearly
used to feed aquaculture fish. According to
10 times what China was reporting to the FAO. THE JESSE KALSI RADIO SHOW
Richard Brubaker, the founder of Collective
Based on the data available, the researchers THE POWER OF HOME NUMBERS
Responsibility, a sustainability-focused strategic
believe the uncounted catch is predominantly
advisory firm, the demand for aquaculture is COMING SOON TO
coming from Chinese fishermen scraping West
“wiping out a lot of these [fishing] stocks to feed WWW.XZBN.NET