Why Cover OVERFISHING?

Seafood is the primary source of animal protein for as much as one-sixth of the world's population. In the U.S. alone, commercial and recreational fishing annually amounts to a $50 billion industry. Throughout much of the developed world, fresh, affordable fish are plentiful in grocery stores and supermarkets and on restaurant menus. Per capita fish consumption has been increasing -- among Americans, up from 12.5 pounds per person in 1980 to 15.6 pounds in 2000.

Consumption is increasing, but fish stocks are declining worldwide as a result of environmental pressures and growing demand for seafood. In 1998, more than 1,600 scientists from around the world issued a joint statement entitled "Troubled Waters." They say the most pressing threats to ocean health result from human activities, and that the threats are exacerbated by commercial activities and coastal population growth. In their view, the primary threats to ocean health include species over-exploitation, habitat degradation, pollution, introduction of alien species, and climate change.

Worldwide, 80-90 percent of the global fish catch takes place along the world's coastlines and in upwelling systems where nutrient-rich deep-water currents run up against continental margins. Nearly 40 percent of the world's population lives within 60 miles of a coastline. Nutrient-rich conditions that favor fish production along coasts lead also to increased vulnerability to risks posed by human activities.

In reporting on some fisheries issues, for instance the virtual disappearance of oysters in the Chesapeake Bay, overfishing in effect is the story. More often than not, though, it is an important part of a larger and more complex story. Along with other natural and human-caused factors, overfishing alters coastal and ocean ecosystems, and contributes to the decline of fish stocks worldwide. Reporters covering issues related to food, nutrition, and diet inevitably end up at some point also covering overfishing.

Story Ideas

1. What are the sources of the seafood consumed in your area? How much of it is farm-raised? Which species have been designated as either "threatened" or "endangered"? What do area restaurant chefs and patrons think about the quality and availability of fish? Do they see trends?
2. Are local environmental and consumer interests active in encouraging sustainable fishing practices? What are their techniques, and how are they working?
3. Are fish stocks in your area threatened? And if so, what recovery efforts are under way at local, state and federal levels? How do commercial fisheries view these efforts and the impact on their livelihood? What are the impacts of recreational fishing?
4. Is aquaculture or "fish farming" a viable alternative to exploitation of wild fish populations in your community? Is fish farming practiced in your area? What environmental issues are associated with fish farming?

Background and Context

Fishing practices and the overall health of the world's fisheries are "not on the radar screen" for many people. The public remains largely unaware of declining supplies. In some advanced societies, few people make their living from fishing, or know the source of their seafood, so regulations and fishery policies often are seen as directly affecting relatively few. Furthermore, fish farming and advances in fishing technology have combined to help control costs, and aquaculture now supplies one- third of the world's seafood supply. That may lead to complacency on the part of the public, and perhaps also of editors.

The Pew Oceans Commission defines overfishing as a level or rate of fishing mortality that reduces the long-term capacity of a marine population (that is, an identifiable separate group within a species) to produce maximum sustainable yield on a continuing basis.

Overfishing and the consequent decline of fish species are not new phenomena: By the beginning of the 19th century there were already reports of severely depleted fish stocks, and fleets were ranging ever more distant from home ports in the Grand Banks and North Sea. Even so, there were those like Thomas Huxley, British biologist and advocate of Darwinism, who in 1883 still viewed the world's fish stocks as inexhaustible.

Until recently global fish yields remained fairly steady, notwithstanding the advent of increased levels of fishing and mechanized harvesting. Overfishing initially attracted widespread attention in the U.S. in the mid-1990s, with reports of the collapse of prominent fish stocks such as Atlantic cod and haddock. In 1998 came the initial reports of a worldwide decline in the supply of fish. Earlier reports of sustained yields were later to be proven inaccurate. Market researchers reported in 1999 that commercial catches of seafood had declined for the sixth straight year, and there were credible reports that decades of misreported catches had obscured declining yields.

The U.S. responded by legislating tougher controls over the U.S. fishing industry, and the United Nations declared 1998 "the International Year of the Ocean" to try to draw more attention to the problem.

Environmental Issues/Costs

Fishing-Induced Ecosystem Impacts

The results of overfishing can be seen not only in the absolute numbers but also in quality and size of certain species of fish available to consumers. One phenomenon, known as "fishing down the food web," involves the systematic removal of the largest top-level predators, usually the most valuable fish species in a system. As a result, smaller, less valuable species (typically prey or forage species) increasingly are caught.

Another phenomenon, known as "serial depletion," involves the shift from commercially prized species to related, but perhaps less valuable, species, as prized species decline in abundance.

Marine ecologists point to research showing that the combined effects of overfishing, bycatch, habitat degradation and fishing-induced food web changes can alter the composition of entire ecological communities.

Bycatch is the incidental catching, discarding, or damaging of living marine resources when fishing for targeted species. Worldwide, annual bycatch is estimated at nearly 60 billion pounds - roughly 25% of the overall catch.

Researchers find that shrimp trawling, for instance, leads to discards of five pounds of shrimp for every pound caught. Other fish with high rates of bycatch include Patagonian toothfish (Chilean seabass), trawl-caught Atlantic cod, haddock, monkfish, and dredged scallops. Bycatch is generally less for hook-caught fish such as rod-and-reel-caught yellowfin tuna, pole-caught skipjack tuna, and trolled albacore tuna.

Declines in one species can alter the relationships of prey to predators and thereby pose risks to entire ecosystems. As an example, overfishing of reef-dwelling triggerfish and pufferfish resulted in an explosion of the sea urchin population, which in turn damaged Caribbean corals by over grazing protective layers of algae. Other examples abound.p> Fewer numbers of adult species can also mean less genetic diversity among spawning populations and reduced ability to adapt to future environmental changes. Disruption of prey to predator relationships also can increase ecosystem vulnerability to invasive species. Bottom fishing and other destructive fishing methods can scour vast areas of seabed, crushing and burying bottom dwelling species.

Species extinction

Marine species were once assumed to be virtually immune from extinction. This is no longer the case.

A November 2000 report by the North American Fisheries Society lists 82 species as either "vulnerable, threatened, or endangered" in North American waters. Another 22 species are categorized as vulnerable, threatened, or endangered with global extinction. The list includes several species of sharks, sawfish, skates, sturgeons, Pacific coast smelts, cod, seahorses and pipefishes, rockfishes, snooks, groupers, and gobies, along with Atlantic salmon and Atlantic halibut. Fish species that reproduce slowly, such as sharks, sturgeons and groupers, generally are at most risk.

In its 2000 report, "The State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture" the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says half of the world's marine stocks are fully exploited, and it warns against overfishing on the high seas. "About 47 percent of the main stocks of species groups are fully exploited and are therefore producing catches that have reached, or are very close to, their maximum sustainable yields," the UN-FAO report says. It points to aquaculture as the fastest growing food production sector.

To the Ocean Conservancy, a U.S.-based citizens organization, overfishing poses the greatest single threat to the world's oceans, "with a more profoundly negative impact on our oceans than all other human impacts, including pollution."

The group's July 2002 "Health of the Oceans" report warns of failing health of the world's oceans. "Because the oceans look fine on the surface, people assume that, underwater everything is fine too, but it's not," says Roger Rufe, Ocean Conservancy President. "When they don't catch fish, or the ones they catch are small, many people assume it's bad luck, but it's not." The group recommends an ecosystem-based management approach to fisheries, with a focus on entire ecosystems and not just on individual species.

More recently, research released in the May 15, 2003, issue of Nature reported a 90 percent decline in large predatory fish biomass from pre-industrial levels, with the reductions occurring throughout the global oceans and posing 'potentially serious consequences for ecosystems."

In that research -- which prompted front-page coverage from leading newspapers worldwide -- Ransom A. Myers and Boris Worm reported that an 80 percent decline from pre-exploitation levels typically occurs within 15 years of the onset of commercial fishing of a species. The researchers describe that estimate as "conservative" because, in part, substantial declines in stock occur in the early years of exploitation, before surveys are begun. Remedial efforts often are initiated only after industrialized fishing has begun, they write, "and only serve to stabilize fish biomass at low levels."

Ransom and Worm say their research is the first to show "general, pronounced declines of entire communities across widely varying ecosystems."

Debate over root causes and remedies

While fishing industry representatives and conservationists agree that some species have declined, agreement on root causes and corrective strategies remains elusive. Some in the fishing industry cite causes largely outside their individual control, such as global warming, natural ocean cycles, and changes in ocean currents.

The Pew Oceans Commission maintains that fishery declines often involve some combination of environmental and fishing effects, saying "while it is academically interesting, the continued debate over which is more important only delays implementation of precautionary policy."

Some in industry have been critical of environmental interests for, from their perspective, sounding the alarm prematurely and filing disruptive lawsuits that further complicate fisheries management. In the U.S., these interests point in particular to the large number of lawsuits filed in connection with the Endangered Species Act.

Protagonists agree on the need for improved technology for oversight and increased productivity and on the need for better data for fisheries management. Experts point also to a desire to build trust between regulators and fisherman, who often distrust government statistics on fish populations.

Fishing bans and marine refuges

In the U.S. there have been some notable successes in restoring depleted fish stocks. The National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has long-term plans to rebuild 75 fish species.

Groups such as the Ocean Conservancy are calling for large areas of ocean to be declared as marine reserves, similar to national parks and off-limits to fishing, to allow stocks to rebound. In recent years, Florida, the Virgin Islands and Hawaii have created these refuges. Despite the growing popularity of these reserves, less than 1 percent of ocean waters is protected worldwide.

Marine ecologists Ben Halpern and Robert Warner from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in a recent review of 81 studies of "no take" reserves, came to some striking conclusions. Their report in the May 2002 issue of Ecological Letters concludes that overall, reserves boasted 20% to 30% more species, with a comparable increase in the average size of fish and invertebrates. Moreover, they said, populations were nearly twice as dense, and the total amount of living matter was nearly three times greater in reserves than in unprotected areas. They reported also that benefits resulting from the reserves were realized quickly, and peaked within a few years.

Advocacy groups and market pressures

Efforts to shift demand away from environmentally damaging products and extraction techniques have met with some success. Several environmental groups have compiled lists of over-fished species they urge the public to avoid. Some from the fishing industry counter that the status of fish stocks in a region is too complex for consumers to make knowledgeable decisions about which species to fish and eat and which to avoid.

The U.S.'s largest seafood trade association, the National Fisheries Institute, has expressed support for FAO-developed eco-labeling standards. Eco-labeling refers to the certification and labeling of fish and seafood harvested or raised in a sustainable manner.

Success Stories

There are some remarkable success stories of the recovery of once-overexploited populations. The mid-Atlantic striped bass fishery, once threatened, took 15 years to recover. This recovery was the result of fishing moratoria and increased size limits (effectively raising the age of first capture from two to eight years). Recovery of Atlantic sea scallops, now well under way, can be credited to establishment of large area closures. Success with rebuilding of northeastern groundfish has resulted largely because of these same measures and also because of dramatic reductions in fishing mortality. Ongoing Research

Researchers in Census of Marine Life (CoML) pilot programs are seeking to better understand how marine organisms use the marine environment. Findings along these lines are expected to play a major role in developing ecosystem-based management programs.

Scientists on the West Coast of North America, for instance, are tracking salmon and large pelagic (open ocean) tunas, whales, sharks, seals, sea turtles, and sea birds to better understand migration and breeding patterns.

The Tagging of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP) effort involves using microprocessor-based satellite tagging technologies, with data transmitted by satellite and by conventional radio signals to laboratories on land. TOPP scientists expect to be able to track the movements of up to 4,000 individual organisms and currently are tracking elephant seals, sea lions, gray whales, albatross, turtles, bluefin tuna, giant squid, and great white, blue, and salmon sharks.

The Pacific Ocean Salmon Tracking (POST) program implants acoustic tags on individual salmon to track them for the duration of their life on the continental shelf. The tags transmit information on location and movement of juvenile salmon, and POST scientists hope to draw conclusions on spatial and temporal distributions of mortality rates, and also on salmon migration routes. Some tags also transmit information on the temperature and depth of tagged animals. With migration routes better understood, says POST Principal Investigator David Welch, "scientists hope to be able to better define where specific stocks of salmon go, and thus be able to better protect weak stocks from fishing pressure."

Players/Sources

Ransom A. Myers and Boris Worm, "Rapid Worldwide Depletion of Predatory Fish Communities," Nature, May 15, 2003, p. 280 (Ransom.Myers@dal.ca and bworm@dal.ca). Website for full text of article and supporting press materials: http://fish.dal.ca/~myers/ and http://ram.biology.dal.ca/~myers/depletion/.

Pew Commission on Ocean Policy, a private foundation-funded organization seeking to stimulate dialogue on policies needed to restore and protect marine resources in U.S. waters. Formal recommendations expected in report due in June 2003. Director of Communications: Justin Kenney, (703)516-0605; website: http://www.pewoceans.org.

Pacific Ocean Salmon Tracking (POST), David Welch at david.welch@kintamareseaarch.org or press officer Carla Sbrocchi at sbroccc@vanaqua.org; website: http://www.postcoml.org.

Tracking of Pacific Pelagics (TOPP), Barbara Block at bblock@stanford.edu or press officer Randy Kochevar at Rkochevar@mybayaq.org; website: http://www.toppcensus.org/index.cgi?flash=1.

U.S. National Ocean Policy Commission, authorized by the Oceans Act of 2000, charged with providing recommendations to the President and Congress on all aspects of U.S. ocean policy except national security. Final recommendations to President and Congress due in 2003. Phone: (202) 418-3442. Public Affairs Officer: Pat Naughten, naughten@oceancommission.gov; website: http://www.oceancommission.gov/.

Ocean Conservancy, membership organization with more than 900,000 members/volunteers dedicated to the protection of the world's oceans. Conducts yearly "Health of Oceans" assessment of ocean resources and ocean management. Media Manager: Tom McCann, (202) 429-5609; website: http://www.oceanconservancy.org.

National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in the U.S. Department of Commerce, regulates the $50 billion U.S. fisheries industry. Website (http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov) includes numerous reports on status of fisheries and oceans, including listing of endangered species.

National Fisheries Institute, a leading industry trade association for the fish and seafood industry, phone: (703) 524-8880; website: http://www.nfi.org.

American Fisheries Society, membership organization of 10,000 fisheries scientists and managers with mission to promote conservation and sustainability of fishery resources and aquatic ecosystems. Contact: (301) 897-8616. Among publications available at website, http://www.fisheries.org/, is "Marine Stocks at Risk of Extinction."

Editor's Note

This press backgrounder is the second in a series on marine life and biodiversity published as a supplement to Environment Writer newsletter, published by the Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting, located at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography, in Narragansett, R.I. The first in this series, on marine biodiversity, is available online at http://www.environmentwriter.org/resources/news/0403_biodiversityA.htm.

This series is part of the overall Census on Marine Life (CoML) program. Future installments in this series will be published over the next several months. Funding for this series was provided to CoML by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.