|
Health of our oceans a food and health issue
By Jon Lien
April 2002
The Food Security Network of Newfoundland and Labrador
2002 Edition No.2 April - December
Most of us have begun to realize that the oceans of the world are in trouble and the food supply this critical environment provides is threatened.
In Newfoundland, some realized the Northwest Atlantic was in trouble well before the 1992 moratorium was initiated. For years the Inshore Fishermen's Association had been warning that fish were no longer coming to their nets. After John Crosbie made his shocking announcement about Northern Cod we all became alarmed. We had been catching Northern Cod in sufficient quantities that this fish stock, which had sustained Newfoundland fisheries for centuries, had collapsed.
Even then the skippers of offshore trawlers were reporting that they could get a load of fish as fast as they always could. That was likely true because of the remarkable technology used to locate and catch fish.
Throughout the history of fishing in the North Atlantic there were always constraints on where and when you could fish. Ice, depth, distance, weather, cold all provided limitations that protected populations of fish by limiting fishing. But technology changed that. Natural sanctuaries, created by limited technology had disappeared. Now we can fish at great depths and distances, under ice - any place, at all times of year.
Over time the fishing capacity simply did the fish in. Some, however, still argue that, rather, the ocean climate had changed and it was that environmental circumstance that did the fish in. There may be an environmental component in declines of fish but there is not anything we can do about that even if true. Managing the impacts of our fishing capacity and technology is the only thing we can control.
But we have not learned our lesson, and in spite of talk of a moratorium on Northern Cod, we continue to fish them. The stock has declined since 1992 and is now only an estimated 3% of its historical average biomass.
We have a Sentinel Fishery for Northern Cod. This is a good information fishery in which inshore fishermen are hired to fish in particular ways to make an assessment of stock status. It does not require much fish.
There is an Index Fishery, which some say was also developed as another information fishery, but is simply a politically-motivated commercial fishery. This fishery takes 5,700 tonnes from the Northern Cod stock which now may be reduced to as low as 10,000 tonnes. In this fishery there is high grading where fishermen discard smaller fish already dead so they can fill more of their boat quota with higher priced large fish. That increases the total impact that the Index Fishery imposes. Only about 40% of landed catches in this fishery are monitored, so cheating on quotas is easy.
There is also the Recreational Fishery, another unjustified, political fishery. Last year this fishery took 3,000 tonnes. It has rules but they are impossible to enforce. No one really knows how much fish die in this fishery.
And there is also a by-catch of Northern Cod that occurs in fisheries for other fish species. Again, quantification of the by-catch is not possible and rules regarding it are difficult to enforce.
If we carry on as we are, Northern Cod are gone and will never come back as an important food species in Newfoundland and Labrador. I will dearly miss my fish and chips.
The state of Northern Cod in Newfoundland is similar to the state of fish populations and fisheries in most parts of the world. On Canada's West Coast a rockfish fishery captures rockfish that may have lived up to 205 years. Eating such an ancient creature somehow seems perverse. The terrestrial equivalent is harvesting ancient forests. The Food and Agricultural Agency of the U.N. estimates that 70% of the world's fish stocks are collapsed, depleted or fully exploited.
But there are additional food issues that arise because of the state of our oceans.
The U.N. Group of Experts on the Marine Environment have cited studies that show 20% of shellfish sold in the developed countries contain bacteria or viruses that can make people sick. They estimate that, in waters near industrialized countries, people who enter the ocean to swim have a 1 in 20 chance of becoming ill because of contact with ocean water. The World Health Organization estimates that human heath costs, because of the state of our oceans, cost some 16 billion U.S. dollars a year.
All that seems pretty extreme - problems somewhere else. But consider this. Fifty percent of all possible aquaculture sites in Newfoundland are so contaminated with human waste they cannot be used. Bodies of Beluga Whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence contain so many chemicals that following a necropsy they must be disposed of as toxic waste. An estimated 300,000 seabirds die each year on Newfoundland's Southeast Coast because of the deliberate dumping of waste oil. Here at home in Newfoundland and around the planet, oceans are in trouble indeed.
Oceans have served humanity as an important source of protein for centuries. They are now experiencing massive changes because of fishing, shipping and land-based activities. Unless we wise up, threats to the oceans quickly affect the amount and quality of food they provide.
If we got a bad hamburger at a restaurant, or a spoiled item at a supermarket, we'd complain. It's about time Canadians started complaining about the way our oceans are managed. At present, that management clearly threatens a sustainable food supply.
Jon Lien is a specialist in animal behavior and is a retired professor from the department of bio-psychology at Memorial University. He currently heads the Whale Research group of that institution.
The Food Security News is a free newsletter produced by The Food Security Network of Newfoundland and Labrador. Contact John Carrick Greene if you would like more information or would like to become involved.
Top
|
