SAMUDRA Report No.20, May 1998

Item Type monograph

Publisher International Collective in Support of Fishworkers

Download date 29/09/2021 12:36:02

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/33102 •

INTERNATIONAL COLLECTIVE IN SUPPORT OF FISHWORKERS

ICSF ON TRAdE IN FisHERiES INdoNESiA'S IMp£RiIlEd IslANds CO~MANAGEMENT iN MOZAMbiOUE MARiNE RESERVES iN NEW ZEAlANd FisHERiES AGREEMENI iN ARGENTiNA RETHiNkiNG THE BluE REvoluTioN QUOTAS iN UNiTEd KiNGdOM lifE iN AN ACAdiAN VillAGE INdiA'S PAAdu SYSTEM News ROUNd-up Contents

0 COMMENT 1

0 ARGENTINA Squawking like a wild fowl 3

0 INDONESIA Paradise in peril 8

0 AFRICA Local knowledge power 11

0 NEW ZEALAND The future reserved? 12

0 UNITED KINGDOM No to quotas, yes to licences 16

0 CANADA Making ends meet 20

0 TANZANIA Mangroves make way 24

0 MOZAMBIQUE All together 25

0 INDIA Fishing by turns 30

0 VIEWPOINT Needed: a jump·start 35

0 REPORT What's the catch? 39

0 ANALYSIS Engineering the Blue Revolution 45

0 DOCUMENT Does trade always make the grade? 57

0 DOCUMENT Tread cautiously 61

0 ANALYSIS No safe passage 66

0 NEWS ROUND·UP Russia, Japan, South Korea, Palestine, Greece Bangladesh, Nigeria, Netherlands, China, Nicaragua 70 Comment

Shades of trade

No one can deny the importance 01 trade In fisheries. About a third 01 global fISh produetJon enters international trade. In value tenns. this amounts to USS52 billion. According to the FAO, the developing counlnes Increased their share 01 in1ernalional trade 10 fish and fISh products Irom 44 per cent in 1985 to 46 per cent in 1995. In the same decade. the share ollow'lncome food-deficit countries (lIFDCs) rose from 14 percent to 19 percent. The 1996 Report of the WTO Committee on Trade and EnVIronment recognizes the developmental and environmental benelits of trade liberalization. including wiping out restrictions and distortions like lariff barriers and subsidies. This could lead to a more efficient allocation and use of resources.

The fisheries sector is otten cited as an exemplary beneficiary of trade liberalizatIon. Take the case of several African countries faced with high tariff barriers. If there were no such barriers, greater intra-regional trade could take place. This, in addition to reducing pressures on national waters, would also create new employment opportunities. Or consider the import of processed rish into the European Union (EU) and US, especially from developing countries. Atariff cutwill not only promote exports but could also prOVide more jobs in several developing countries.

The question of trade also throws up the ISSue 01 subsidies. It is generally argued that subsidies to fisheries encourage capllalto move into a sector that IS already overcapitalized. They promote overfishltlQ and represent amisallocation 01 goverrvnent financial resources. While this Cfilicism is valid for the fisherieS of developed CQuntries. especially in the case oflhe diStant·water fleel 01 the EU, ij can nol be applied 10 deve!oJMg countries for several reasons.

First, it assumes that subSIdies in fJshenes go pnmarily 10 harvestlf19 and not to the processmg or martemg sectors. ThIS may be true in many developed countnes, but preliminary evidence and field-level impressions suggest that this is nol so in developing counlnes. Second, the argument also presumes that fish stocks are generally depleted. While this may globally be true, in several countries, especially In the Indian Ocean region, resources may nol be overfished. There are other compelling reasons to retain subSidies in fisheries. In capture fisheries, subsidies may be needed to force fishers to shift to more resource-friendly harvesting methods. SubSidies may also help develop the fisheries of certain underexploited stocks and thus relieve pressure on other overex· ploited stocks. Further, certain socials~uatjons. like civil war (as In Mozambique) or famine (as in Senegal), may warrant SUbsidies, to help coastal populations overcome unexpected vagaries.

Available evidence from dilferentpartsofthe world, like Thailand, Senegal. South Africa and Ghana, suggests that most subsidies to the harvesting sector In developing countries go to large-scale fleets that would be rendered economically unviable without this crutch. By facilitating competition for space and resources, these subsidies thus pose an unfair threat to the arlisanal sector.

The operations of subsidized distant.water fleets in third countries affect the resources of developing countries, and also distort trade. In Maurrtanla, lor example, the operations olloreign vessels fishll"lQ under fishenes agreements have overfished cephalopod stocks. They also deprive the highly efficient domestic lIeet, whdl uses pnmarily artisanaltechnrques.

Many artisanal fishenes In the troplC3l belt depend on shrwnp production. In this seelor, they face competillOll not only from destructive trawling operatIOnS but also from brackishwater aquaculture operations. Many of the costs of shnmp aquaculture operatIOns are borne by society. and amount to hidden subsidies to the aquaculture industry. These hidden subsidies help the aquaculture mustry to seU shnmp al a cheaper pnce 10 the internatIOnal market This dlSCnrmnates agaInSt artisanal fishers. who use passIVe and enVlronmenHnendly techmques.

W~houl efficient and purposive flshenes management programmes, it would be qUite meamngless to leave fish mainly to the dynamics of trade. In countries with poor fisheries management policies and programmes, perhaps the only way to protect the right to lile and livelihood of economically disadvantaged coastal communilles is to place some restrictions on trade, until aproper manage­ ment system is put into eHecl.

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 1 = e\: J f

i::iiiilfl ..~ Argentina Fisheries Agreement Squawking like a wild fowl

In effect Argentina’s Fisheries Agreement with the European Union subsidizes the collapse of Argentinean fisheries

n January this year, Industrias nationals or residents. It also prohibited Pesquerast, a specialized fishing the transfer of quotas (in the new system) Ijournal in Spanish, carried an article from fresh-fish vessels (national) to on Argentina’s new Federal Fisheries freezer vessels (mostly foreign, although Law. Its headline warned: “Argentina is flying the Argentine flag). Nationalizing its Fisheries.” It went on to say that the new law would change the But, most importantly, they succeeded in legal framework of the Fisheries wresting a slight increase in the number of Agreement with the European Union (EU). years for which catches would be counted in allocating vessel quotas. These were set The article demanded that both political at eight years, up to December 1996. To a and economic pressure be applied on the certain degree, this has helped to iron out Argentine government to uphold the the distortions produced by the dramatic agreement. It also pointed out that 700 increases in freezer vessels in the last four Spanish jobs and the profitability of boats years, thanks to the vessels coming in operating in the Southwest Atlantic were through the Fisheries Agreement with the at risk. EU.

My first reaction to this article was one of Under the Fisheries Law, quotas will be surprise and shock. I wondered whether allocated depending on how much the reins of power had been seized by national employment is generated and nationalistic forces while I had been on how much investment is made in the holiday. But no, this was not the case: I country. Besides, the Spanish also need to bought several papers and magazines to understand that their behaviour of check the news and assure myself that we under-reporting catches over many still had the same government and that the years—some 300 tonnes per vessel on an economy was still pursuing the same average—has resulted in them now being neoliberal course. allocated some 1,500 tonnes per vessel. This seriously jeopardizes the profitability But then I remembered that our new of their fishing operations. As we say in Fisheries Law, which was approved in Spanish, “Go and cry to the Church, dear November 1977 and ratified last January, sirs” and which had been severely criticised for its shortcomings (see SAMUDRA Report Spanish boats No. 19), had feebly tried to address a Until 1986, no more than 20 freezer number of abuses and introduce some trawlers were catching the hubbsi hake changes in their place. (our main fishery resource) in Argentine waters. Yet, in that year, taking into Last November, an important movement account Uruguayan and Argentine of fishermen, workers from the catches (around 390,000 tonnes), INIDEP shore-based plants, and small fishery (the National Institute for Fishery entrepreneurs succeeded in making some Research) reported that the resource was improvements to the preliminary draft of fully exploited. However, the Argentine the Fisheries Law, so that when it was authorities continued to allow the entry of finally approved, it ruled that 75 per cent these boats, mostly of Spanish origin. By of the crew working on boats flying the 1989, there were at least 40. In 1993, the Argentine flag had to be either Argentine year before the agreement with the EU

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 3 came into force, the number of freezer Or perhaps, the new law almost trawlers had increased to 65, with innocently changed the plans to destroy reported catches of 495,000 tonnes yet another of the world’s fishing (including 70,000 tonnes by Uruguay); grounds, by preventing the acquisition of that is to say, 27 per cent of the resource quotas from the fresh-fishing fleet?

Argentina Argentina had been overfished. But does the new law alter the legal ast year, the number of these framework of the Agreement? To start vessels catching hubbsi hake had with, the Agreement (and the subsidized Lrisen to around 100 (22 through fleet invasion prior to the Agreement) fisheries agreements), with reported alters the biological framework of the catches of around 650,000 tonnes, Agreement. The spawning stock biomass including those from Uruguay. This of the hubbsi hake has been reduced to meant that 67 per cent of the resource had such low levels that INIDEP researchers been overfished. estimate that a total allowable catch (TAC) of 80,000 tonnes is needed to provide the The question arises: When the agreement stock with a 95 per cent chance of was signed in 1992 allocating them a recovery. quota of 120,000 tonnes, did the European experts and negotiators ignore the fact However, given the catastrophic that the hubbsi hake was already socioeconomic consequences of such a overexploited? low level, the Fisheries Secretariat has set a politically more acceptable TAC of 30,000 So great is the present crisis that we no tonnes for this year. This gives the stock a longer crack many Spanish jokes, as they 40 per cent chance of recovery. have backfired on us. Before the Agreement, most of the companies But at this level of fishing, there will be a operating in Argentina were Spanish, loss this year of around 30 per cent of they knew about the state of the fishing fishery-dependent work places in our grounds, and they received heavy country. Will the EU support these 3,000 subsidies to come and fish here (see box (or more) workers? And what about the on Pescanova). Argentine companies that will be pushed to the wall? It could be argued that the Agreement intended to replace existing boats with Such a level of fishing will increase new boats of an equal fishing capacity. pressure on coastal, pelagic and But, how would this equal capacity be deep-water resources beyond sustainable measured? The argument is itself limits. Will the EU help reduce this self-deluding: boats with a capacity to pressure which threatens us with a catch and process 10,000-12,000 tonnes general fishery collapse? annually have had transferred to them licences to catch and process around It would seem that such a scenario is dealt 2,500-4,000 tonnes annually. Without any with in Article 9 of the Agreement: “If, as controls, who could possibly believe that a result of a change in fish populations, the these quotas would be adhered to? This Argentine enforcement authority decides only increased overfishing. to adopt new conservation measures affecting the fishing activities of vessels In the very act of its signing, the fishing under this Agreement, discussions Agreement asserted in Article 3 that “the shall be held between the Parties with a Parties shall co-operate to promote the view to amending the Annexes and conservation and rational exploitation of Protocol I hereto and maintaining the fish stocks on a sustainable basis, in general balance of the Agreement”. accordance with the relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Collapsing fishery Law of the Sea.” Surely Europe or Spain will not continue trying to catch 120,000 (or more) tonnes of Could it be that it was thought that the hake when the fishery is collapsing. Or entire fishery could be taken over, and all will they? But, according to this Article, the Argentine fishworkers pushed out? “Conservation measures adopted by the

4 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Argentina Argentine enforcement authority shall be Article 5, Clause 3 of the Agreement states, applied in a non-discriminatory manner “As part of its policy for the restructuring to all vessels...” of its fleet, the Community shall facilitate the inclusion of Community vessels in ndustrias Pesqueras accuses the undertakings established or to be Argentinean government and the established in Argentina. To that end, and IFisheries Law of applying as part of its policy for the technical “discriminatory measures”. The existing renovation of its fishing industry, regulations are, to a certain extent, Argentina shall facilitate the transfer of discriminatory. For example, there is a current fishing licences and issue the 100-mm mesh size allowed for trawls appropriate new licences pursuant to this towed from the side, and 120-mm for Agreement.” trawls towed from the stern. The EU’s policy for the restructuring of its The law states that catch quotas can not be fleet is very clear. And, no doubt, the transferred from fresh- to frozen-fish Agreement has contributed to the success vessels. In this sense, the 20 or so of this policy. Through it, financial Argentine freezer trawlers are equally support has been provided to its “discriminated” against. boatowners to set themselves up here.

As regards work places, we are not aware No modernization of any other foreign business activities, What we have not fully understood until which have brought their own labour now is how has Argentina benefited from forces with them to operate in Argentina. the “technical renovation of its fishing For example, it seems ridiculous that industry”? According to a very interesting McCain, a company recently established piece of work carried out by Roberto Dula here, has brought 150 Canadians to for the Argentine Centre of High Seas Balcarce. Captains, the average age of the freezer trawler fleet is 13-17 years, while the However, it seems that we have to tolerate fresh-fish fleet is aged between 14 and 18 this at sea, for vessels which have adopted years. Therefore, even from a simple our flag and which, moreover, must abide perspective, there has been no such by our laws. Why? Surely, it is Spain ‘renovation’ or ‘modernization’. which should change its custom of exporting its fisheries workforce to Rather, there has been a covert countries which are less experienced and importation of second-hand vessels at aware. highly subsidized prices, affecting the

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 5 Pescanova power

Pescanova, the world’s largest multinational Scotland, Spain, France, Equatorial Guinea, fish processing company, operates in Argentina Ireland, Italy, Falkland Islands, Mozambique, under the names of Argenova and Pesquera Namibia, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Argentina Argentina Andina. Founded in 1960 and based in Vigo. San Pierre-and Miquelon (Canada) and Pescanova introduced onboard fish freezing to Uruguay. This enables Pescanova to corner 20 Spain. Today, it is the world’s largest per cent of the world catch of hake. multinational company catching and processing fish. It owns the world’s largest private fishing The success of Pescanova has only been fleet; more than 140 vessels operated by 60 possible Thanks to the generous subsidies it companies in over 20 different countries. In has received from the Regional Council of 1993, it made profits of around 2,000 million Gallicia, the Spanish Government and the EU. pesetas (US$ 13 million). Of its equity, 37 per cent is controlled by the Fernandez-Souza In 1992, a year in which the company suffered family, and the South African conglomerate, severely from the crash in hake prices, it Barlow Rand, owns a further 20 per cent. received US$ 9 million worth of subsidies from these three sources, at a time when its profits Controlling more than 13 per cent of the market were only US$ 3.3 million, that is to say, the for frozen fish and about 40 per cent of the subsidies received were thrice its profits. Most market for processed fish products, Pescanova of these were invested in the construction of is Spain’s most important freezing firm. It new vessels. enjoys a 40 per cent share of the market for fishery products and boasts a competitive edge Pescanova’s policy for expansion has been over rival fishing companies by maintaining a responsible for debts totalling over US$ 265 presence on fishing grounds worldwide. It is million at the beginning of 1993. It was only an assured of increasingly scarce raw material increase in the capital provided by the Regional supplies through its long-standing policy Council of Gallicia that saved the firm from establishing joint ventures in countries with rich being bought up by the multinational, Unilever. fishing grounds. Thus the group controls organizations in Argentina (where Argenova operates 15 freezer trawlers out of Port —This piece has been translated from material Deseado in Patagonia), Australia, Chile, submitted by Ernesto Godelman

development of the Argentine marine Argentina’s fish exports. It sounds strange industry, while allowing the Spanish to claim that if we give our clients direct boatyards to continue building boats, in access to catch the resources, they will the meantime, also with the help of increase their purchases of fishery subsidies. products. Statistics show that, while exports have increased, Argentine A case in point is that of the vessel Mar del companies have lost clients and unit Cabo, a 76-in trawler, constructed in 1964 prices for fishery products have reduced, by Astilleros Barrera of Spain, brought in something which is bound to happen to catch a quota of 4,614 tonnes of a when one buys from oneself. On the other surplus species (i.e. not hake). Another hand, within the framework of GATT and argument used to justify the signing of WTO, Europe has ended up providing the the Agreement in Argentina is that better same reduced tariffs to the rest- of the access for our fisheries products has been world. secured to the European market, thanks to a reduction in tariffs from 15 per cent Alarm bells to 5 per cent. Although, significantly, The boss of European fisheries, Emma highly processed fishery products remain Bonino, along with her Euro-Hispanic excluded from this reduction, the benefit deputy, has sounded the alarm bell is conditional on Argentina fulfilling the because the Argentine fishery law catch quotas allocated to Europe. proposes to introduce conservation measures for straddling stocks and highly In 1994, Europe, with tariff rates of 15 per migratory stocks outside of the EEZ. cent, was already taking half of Frightened by the Canadian ghost of the

6 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Argentina

turbot war, Bonino has acted not unlike fishing power has acted in a highly one of our local wild fowls, named tent irresponsible manner by placing such This interesting bird from the pampas, high expectations on exploiting an lays its eggs in one place but gives an already overfished species through this alarm call from another to distract fisheries agreement. predators. Canone seriously imagine that, on the high seas, Argentine patrol ships Taking into account all its shortcomings, will use force to capture European fishing the new Argentine fisheries law, to a boats in international waters? certain extent, at least, makes an attempt to correct these abuses and the damage vidently, within the framework of they have caused to our fishing grounds. the New York Agreement on However, the spokespersons for EStraddling Stocks and Highly European fisheries (including Emma Migratory Stocks, Argentina is allowed to Bonino) have only shown, us their worst intervene in the regulation of waters sides. With friends like these, who needs adjacent to its EEZ, seeking to establish enemies? agreements with third countries to ensure the - rational management of its resources and associated food chain. This is the spirit of the law.

But, worried by the imminent breakdown of the irresponsible second-generation fishery agreement with Argentina, Bonino is squawking from the other side.

On 6 November, Argentina will decide whether or not to reject these fishery agreements. Whatever the outcome, institutionally, the agreement with the EU has completed a process of irresponsibly This article by Ernesto Godelman, increasing fishing pressure, where Chairman, CeDePesca, Mar del subsidized European boatowners and the Plata, has been translated by Brian Argentine government have both O’Riordan of Intermediate contributed to reducing our main fishery Technology resource to a state of collapse. The least that can be said is that the world’s greatest

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 7 Padaido Islands Paradise in peril Indonesia Indonesia

Threatened by a dwindling fishery, the Biak people of Indonesia’s Padaido Islands are trying to cash in on their fishing culture

n the village of Pasi in the Padaido escalating industrial fishing will be on the Islands of Biak, Irian Jaya, virtually coastal communities of the Padaido Ieveryone is a fisher. Male or female, Islands. young or old, people’s thoughts turn naturally to the sea. Their songs and Another worry is that the number of small dances are celebrations of the beauty and boats is also increasing, but the fishing bounty of nature. Their native language grounds are not. Young men from fishing is replete with descriptors for the many families now often leave the village to look moods and depths of the sea, the variety for work in urban centres, while women of reefs, the shapes of corals and the are left behind in charge of growing myriad reef fishes. From the high forest families. called Mbrur down to Sorenberamen, the deep blue sea, the Biak people have For women of fishing families, life is a names for each of what modern science relentless cycle of work and more work. would call the island’s ecozones. Their fishery is in shallow waters where, at low tide, they glean shellfish and crabs. The traditional fishing territory of Pasi They work neck-deep in water, using includes unpopulated islands to the east hand-made wooden goggles to spot the and south. To these islands go the men, elusive shells on the bottom, tipping their women and small children, carried in harvest into the small perahus that float dugout outrigger canoes called perahu, to beside them. The catch is taken to shore harvest fish and shell fish. Using where it is boiled. The meat is extracted hand-lines, spears and gill-nets, they and threaded on slivers of palm frond, catch a bewildering array of then dried and smoked over an open fire. multi-coloured fish: perhaps 25 different species in a day, and, in one week, over a Fish are also smoked, then packed into hundred. handsome baskets, kanyuwer, sewn together from the rich red bark of a We know this because the artisanal tropical tree. The women make the fishers of Pasi have staffed to record the baskets, collect the firewood, and also names and sizes of the fish they catch so tend the gardens and process the main that they can monitor both their economic cash crop, coconuts, to produce cooking progress and the health of the resource oil. they depend upon. They have good reason for such care and concerns, for The gardens are small clearings slashed their livelihoods are under threat. out of the forest where root vegetables, coconut and banana trees are grown. Not In eastern Indonesia, the vast majority of much else can grow here, for the sparse fishers fish from hand-made perahus to grey soil barely covers the coral rubble feed their families and catch fish for the and gleaming white limestone core of the local market. However, an increasingly island. large proportion of the total fish catch is being harvested by huge commercial Forest resources fishing boats owned by powerful urban The forest provides wild greens, capitalists. Time, and the monitoring data medicinal plants and the materials to being collected by Pasi villagers, will tell make woven baskets and hats. All these what the long-term impact of rapidly are gathered and processed by women,

8 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Indonesia

whose only rest comes on Sunday-the day already, according to recent surveys, the set aside in each of these deeply religious majority of reefs have been damaged or communities for prayer and reflection. totally destroyed and less than 10 per cent are in pristine condition. Fishing s electricity is introduced to the communities in Padaido, under the villages so is demand for modern leadership of their church and Aconsumer goods. Traditional environmental organizations, have set up baskets are replaced with brightly a reporting system, and now actively coloured plastic ones. Fishing families discourage the use of bombs and poisons need more money, and, therefore, must in the fishery. However, theirs is a difficult travel to farther reefs and try to catch more battle and they need support from higher fish-but there are limits. levels of government to enforce bans on destructive gears. Indonesia’s waters are The reefs are not as productive as they large, and the enforcement capacity very once were. The fishers say that the fish limited. To make things worse, the source must be smarter than they used to be; the of ammunition for blast fishing is older men can remember when the fishing sometimes the Indonesian military! Now, was easy. Overfishing is a difficult with the monetary crisis adding to the problem with many social and economic pressures at all levels, protection of complexities. fisheries resources has become even more difficult. Even more distressing is that there are many areas where the reefs are dead: Learning to monitor smashed with dynamite or poisoned with With the help of a local environmental cyanide. These modern ‘fishing organization, Yayasan Rumsram, and with technologies’ are used when the demands seed money from an international agency, of the modern consumer culture outstrip the Biodiversity Conservation Network, the ability of hand-line and spear to Padaido Islanders are learning how to provide cash. Not just fish but corals and monitor the health of their coral reefs, and all other animals, and sometimes the planning new economic development. fishermen themselves, are maimed or They know that the possibilities for killed in the process. expanding their fishing effort are limited. They have made start by building fish The problem of destructive fishing in aggregating devices so that they can catch Padaido mirrors a larger problem across pelagic as well as reef species. However, Indonesia. This country is the world’s their main hope for the future lies with centre for coral reef biodiversity but ecotourism.

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 9 placed in the mangrove forest, feeding a stream that leads to the beach where the village children swim.

The hotel owners, who live in a distant

Indonesia Indonesia urban centre, arc hungry for more land to use for waste disposal and want increased access to local fresh water supplies. They also want to build a marina over the magnificent Saba reef-one of the few in Padaido that can boast almost 100 per cent cover of healthy living corals. The villagers are determined that this will not happen. Fortunately for them, the local government in Biak is also determined to protect the rights of local people as they deal with such wealthy investors.

However, at the national level, the area has been declared a national marine tourism area. What this will mean for traditional tenure, particularly of the The fishers want tourists to come to their uninhabited islands in the Padaido villages, to listen to their songs and archipelago which support the artisanal stories, to admire their stunning beaches fishery, is as yet unclear. and coral reefs, to taste fresh fish and lobster, to buy their baskets and learn It is clear, though, that Biak, and, indeed, about their traditional medicines. They all of Indonesia, need competent know that this must be a locally owned management institutions for fisheries and and controlled effort; otherwise they will coastal development. The rights of the simply become museum pieces, many indigenous people also need formal objectified by urban tour operators who protection. Some NGOs and law activists, will move tourists through to look at supported largely by foreign funders and them and then return to the city. The working together with sympathetic people are not interested in being passive government staff as well as academics, are displays. They want tourists to stay and currently trying to move Indonesia spend their money in the villages. towards a form of fisheries co-management in which small fishing Families are building small bungalows communities will have a formal and where guests can stay overnight. The respected place at the table. women are preparing themselves to cook special traditional foods for their visitors. It is to be hoped that these efforts will soon They are practising their songs and bear fruit, before what remains of dances so that they can be performed on Indonesia’s rich biological and cultural demand. And, most importantly, they are heritage is lost to destructive fishing, mass saving up their money and learning how tourism and ill-regulated industrial to work together with people in other development. villages to develop a small travel bureau which will market their product. They want their children to learn English so that they can tell tourists about their history, culture and coral reefs.

The way ahead will not be easy. As with This report has been filed from the fishery, there is heavy competition in Indonesia by Irene Novaczek the tourism industry from the industrial sector. Already a five-star hotel has encroached on Saba village territory and the hotel’s waste water pipe has been

10 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Africa Community rights Local knowledge power

A workshop in March led to a declaration on community rights and access to biological resources in Africa

he task force of the Scientific, created by a large part of humanity, Technical and Research represented by 150 states, in 1992. TCommission of the Organization of African Unity (OAU/STRC) on community A smaller part of humanity, represented rights and access to biological resources by 40 states, concluded the negotiations met in Addis Ababa from 20 to 23 March for the creation of the World Trade 1998. The objective of the meeting was to Organization (WTO) in 1994. The develop a draft model legislation on objectives of win are global and concern community rights and access to biological the movement of goods and services resources to ensure the continuing control throughout the world to ease by local communities of their natural international trade. resources, knowledge and technologies, as well as to develop a draft African It is the conviction of the task force that the Convention on the same. WTO-based approach is predatory in nature and runs counter to the aspirations After national review and discussions, the (It communities which are closely linked model legislation would be expected to to the biodiversity so necessary for the form the basis for African nations to survival of the planet. The task force develop national legislation on believes that the privatization of life forms community rights and access to biological through any intellectual property rights resources, community knowledge and (IPR) regime violates the basic right to life. technologies. It is expected that an African convention would create coherence The task force, therefore, strongly among the different pieces of national recommends that OAU /AEC member legislation. states urgently make legislation to regulate access to biological resources, Natural resources and indigenous knowledge and technologies so that such knowledge and technologies are a legacy access shall be allowed only with the prior humanity owes to local communities. The informed consent of the local task force understood a local community communities and the state, and shall as a section of society in a given area benefit them, and to recognize community whose means of livelihood are based on rights in order to protect the heritage of the natural resources, knowledge and the people of Africa. The task force technologies of, and related to, its commits itself to the achievement of the immediate ecosystems.The local noble objectives of this proposed community keeps adapting, generating legislation and this draft convention on and regenerating those natural resources, community rights and access to biological knowledge and technologies as its resources. preceding generations had done and, if spared disruption by external forces, as its succeeding generations will do. This piece is based on a posting by Kristin Dawkins of the Institute for The essential role of the community in the Agriculture and Trade Policy, conservation of biological diversity, on Minneapolis, US, on the Fishfolk which the very survival of planet earth is mailing list. dependent, is recognized by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 11 Marine reserves The future reserved?

New Zealand Zealand New The experience of New Zealand seems to suggest marine reserves as a proactive solution to the crisis in the world’s oceans

arine reserves are probably the be killed before the fishery was closed. most proactive means of This quota, like a stock assessment, is an Mcountering the present crisis in estimate of the sustainable mortality the world’s oceans. In that part of the derived from the biological parameters, globe where the hemisphere is centred on and the numbers killed on vessels, New Zealand, 90 per cent is ocean and the Ministry of Fisheries observers marine ecosystems there are isolated extrapolated over the whole fleet. Last from humans. They should, therefore, be year, the figure was more than 100 less affected by exploitation and females, already much greater than the pollution than those of most other agreed quota before intensive lobbying countries. New Zealand should thus be led to the Minister closing the fishery. Yet, the ideal test case for marine reserves. even before this year’s fishing season had begun properly, it was estimated that Under New Zealand’s Marine Reserves more than this number of breeding adults Act, such reserves are set aside primarily had already died at sea from this for scientific purposes. The need for mysterious illness. The consequences of increased scientific understanding is very further human impact could be serious. clear, as threats to the ocean from both natural and human sources are blatantly On the mainland, following numerous obvious. complaints of human acute respiratory irritation, there have been official As the worst El Niño since 1983 reverses warnings to keep people off two popular the normal climatic patterns in the South beaches. In another outbreak in Pacific, dramatic die-offs of marine Wellington, a university marine scientist mammals, penguin, fish and seabird kills, found that all marine life in the harbour toxic algal blooms and red tides are had been killed and that the city could hitting New Zealand waters with only wait for a change of weather to unexpected severity. Such impacts disperse the toxin involved. threaten fisheries, economics and equanimity. They demonstrate just how Around the coast, there have been little of the complex dynamics of marine numerous closures of beaches, marine ecosystems and their living species is farms or specified lengths of coastline for known. shellfish harvesting as a result of monitoring toxic blooms in the north, In the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, there have even been dramatic red tides more than 1300 pups of the endangered off local beaches. This is the first time since Hookers sea lions have died for reasons the unprecedented crisis in 1992-93 that scientists have as yet been unable to there have been reports of such determine. With a population of under widespread and intensive impacts. If 15,000, Hookers are the rarest and most nothing else, it raises questions about how isolated of sea lions in the world. much we know about the dynamics of the Campaigning in recent years by marine ecosystems. conservationists, concerned that the numbers of adults drowning in the nets Unusual events of the squid fishery could lead to Although so many unusual events have extinction, led to the Ministry of Fisheries occurred this summer, the fact that they setting a quota on the number that could have occurred in many different bodies of

12 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 New Zealand water separated by features such as the as a source of pleasure for nature Southern Convergence means that the enthusiasts. Indeed, in those reserves search for causal factors must be sought in established long ago, the spectacular features that encompass the wider area. volume and diversity of fish that so excited the early European explorers to enerally, threats from pollution New Zealand can again he seen, while and overexploitation of the newer destinations are showing signs of Gworld’s oceans are increasing. If reverting to this state. With ‘spillover’ and these major impacts can be removed from increased larval export from expanding specific special and representative species populations, practical benefits ecosystems, allowing them to regenerate also flow beyond the designated areas to to [heir previous, natural state, and the environment and those who depend providing them as control groups, it could on it. Many species and the products of lead to better knowledge. spawning do not recognize gazetted boundaries but rather, as the pots of Such areas of marine reserve are a small lobster fishermen surrounding some but vital contribution to the protection of reserves testify, become distributed the seas. Marine ecosystems are complex widely and contribute economically to and diverse and, with the difficulties of these and other stakeholders. monitoring within a fluid medium, we know comparatively less about them than There are now 14 such reserves sprinkled about terrestrial systems. Scientists around New Zealand: Cape typically use control groups in order to Rodney-Okakari Point (the Leigh Marine remove the effects of as many variables as Reserve and the first established), the possible and marine reserves are seen as Kermadec Islands (the largest marine appropriate for this purpose. reserve in the world), Poor Knight Islands, Whanganui A Hei, Tuhua (Mayor Island), By preventing the removal of fish, Kapiti Island, Long Island, Kokomahua, seaweeds, shellfish and other living Tunga Island, Piopiotahi (Milfurd Sound), organisms, it is believed they may revert Te Awaatu Channel (The Gut)-these latter to a more natural state and, therefore, two are both in Fiord land, following allow for both better understanding and application made by the Federation of the regeneration of fish populations. Commercial Fishermen-Westhaven (Te Marine reserves are of value not only for Tai Tapu) and, more recently, Pollen scientists but have social values and Island and Long Bay, established under benefits for education, recreation, the Marine Reserves Act. In addition, but management baselines, conservation and under different legislation, there are two

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 13 Marine Parks, Tawharanui and outside. If marine reserves can contribute Mimiwhatangata, and the Sugar Loaf positively toward regenerating local Islands Marine Protected Area. areas, then, in order to be effective Applicants have included university nationally, a network of marine scientists, Maori groups, biogeographically and ecologically community groups, the Federation of representative reserves is required. This Commercial Fishermen, the Department should include all types, from those on New Zealand Zealand New of Conservation, and conservation exposed, hard coasts to the soft estuarine groups. mudflats, mangroves and wetlands.

hese are generally no-take areas In the Hauraki Gulf, just outside for scientific purposes under the Auckland and adjacent to the region of TMarine Reserves Act, but their greatest population in New Zealand, establishment was often motivated by a efforts are under way, in terms of both desire to conserve representative areas of theory and implementation, to define a the sea, its habitats and species-places network. Scientists have used both where people can visit and see fish and physical and biological criteria to define marine life as they used to be. Overseas, principles, so that selected areas would it is recognized that “New Zealand’s include both representative and unique marine reserves provide an international marine ecology. To explain the principles, model for the protection of critical marine Professor Bill Ballantine, a marine scientist reserves around the globe,” as and leading proponent, uses the analogy Groundswell reported in A Newsletter on of a trawl net. just as the meshes are largest Marine Reserves. at the mouth and reduce in size at the cod end, where the quantity of fish will he the In reality, as yet, only a tiny four per cent densest, marine reserves offshore need to of the territorial sea (out to 12 nautical be greater but further apart and, inshore, miles) is protected and, without the where habitats and species are both Kermadec Reserve, there would be less denser and more diverse, the reserves than one per cent in marine reserves. The should reduce to smaller size but increase immediate target is an area of 10 per cent. in number. On land, the need for conservation is well recognized and almost a third of New More significantly, for specific Zealand is protected in national parks stakeholders, Ballantine has shown that if and reserves. Even this does not seem to one area has a higher priority for one be enough to preserve the uniqueness of group, then, provided a neighbouring New Zealand’s landscape. Marine area also meeting the principles is ecosystems are even more complex and available, it will serve the purposes of a so the issue is more urgent. network just as well.

New Zealanders like to fish and gather In the Hauraki Gulf, there are now around food from the sea both commercially and eight marine reserves or special ecological privately, so virtually the entire coastline areas gazetted, with a further eight in is, or has, until very recently, been fairly advance stage of the application exploited-so setting tip reserves is process. As yet, in only two widely controversial. Yet divers have testified to separated pairs are the reserves close the sometimes spectacular recovery of enough for natural biological linkages to marine life within the reserves. Some, like occur obviously. Nevertheless, it would Leigh just north of Auckland, have need only another eight reserves before become major attractions, where people the anticipated synergistic interactions can see dramatic schools of fish by just between them could reasonably be paddling into the water. expected to provide an effective network.

Such benefits are becoming widely Deep water resources recognized and scientific research has Not all ecological nor biogeographical endorsed them by showing an types, however, are represented, unexpectedly large increase in fish-there particularly in offshore areas. Despite are now 20 times more rock lobster, and knowledge of New Zealand’s deepwater 12 times more snapper in the reserve than fishery resources, efforts to set aside

14 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 New New Zealand squid fishery arc askance at any suggestion of exclusion from the now lucrative Squid fishery. Even the offshore areas seem to be fully exploited.

In most coastal waters, not only is it more necessary to set aside marine reserves but it is also more difficult without encroaching on jobs and livelihoods. The fishing industry has supported marine reserves in theory, and even applied successfully for a couple, hut, in practice, it has opposed most applications. Nevertheless, through consultation and negotiation, there is hope that sufficient reserves will be designated anti that fishermen who will be hardest hit in the short run will be the recipients of the greater benefits from more prolific stocks in the longer term.

As the older reserves regenerate closer to examples of the habitats and ecology that their unexploited state and as the newer support them have yet to advance beyond reserves begin the process of forming a the thinking stage. network, our understanding of their species, dynamics and inter-relationships In Australia, however, scientists, and increases in detail. We begin to others working on orange roughy, accumulate the knowledge and skills through their research, management and necessary to counter the many and diverse conservation organizations, have ensured threats to the ocean, that at least a few of the known deep-water sea mounts and their diverse Complex fisheries benthic (bottom-dwelling communities) Whether the same reasoning and remain unfished in an interim reserve. processes that auger well for New Zealand can be applied to the even more White conservationists see reserves as a biologically and socially complex fisheries proactive means of countering the present n the tropical developing world is an issue crisis in the global fisheries, the issue is for investigation by those who use them more controversial for other stakeholders. or know them best. As just a tentative The sub-Antarctic, where pleas have been suggestion, perhaps communities could made for a 100-km exclusion zone around set aside spawning and nursery areas as a the Auckland Islands to protect the tithe—certainly an immediate sacrifice, foraging grounds of the endangered but one offering potential benefit in the Hookers sea lions, is one example. longer term over a much wider area.

Species ignored in one culture may he highly prized in another and thus offer lucrative markets. In the past, New Zealanders had no commercial interest in squid, but that is by no means the case now as industry has expanded to meet those demands or even create others. Despite management efforts, some stocks are reducing and effort is shifting to other This article has been written by Leith species. As the companies fishing on the Duncan, an environmental fisheries apparently dwindling stocks of orange consultant based in New Zealand roughy are increasingly marketing the once-despised oreo dories, so many of the same companies working the deep-water

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 15 Fisheries management No to quotas, yes to licences

Linking the licence to fish to individual vessels of specified capacity could help to sustain the European Union’s inshore fisheries United Kingdom Kingdom United

ritain, once described as an island revision, but it is not the cause of all our of coal surrounded by fish, has, in ills. Brecent years, seen both its fishing and mining industries decimated. In the You do not need to look too deeply at the 1980s, the Conservative government fishing industry to realize that a select under Margaret Thatcher effectively bunch of people are making vast sums of dismantled Britain’s mining industry-a money very quickly. Every week, the traditional and historic sector which fishing press contains announcements supported thousands of livelihoods and about another multimillion pound vessel scores of communities. leaving a boatyard with ever more sophisticated electronic gadgetry In the 1990s, the fishing industry in the UK designed to find fish faster and more faces similar prospects. The decline can efficiently. These vessels need to land ever be traced back over several decades. In larger amounts of fish to pay for bank 1938, there were 38,000 full-time loans, expenses and the deposits for the fishermen in the UK; today, there are next, larger, vessel that will be ordered in 14,000. Fish stocks, taken as a whole, are three years time. lower than they have ever been. One way out of the crisis would be to do away with This fish can come in two ways—it can be quotas and, instead, develop and ‘bought’ from other fishermen, or the fish introduce a new system of licences. can be landed illegally. It is no longer a secret that in some ports on the northern Those opposed to UK membership of the edges of Britain, over 40 per cent of European Union (EU) have taken up the landings are those of the latter category. cause of British fishermen with gusto. These so-called ‘black fish’ find their way According to them, the Common down to larger processors in England. Fisheries Policy has handed ‘our’ fish to causing a drop in auction prices. greedy and rapacious European fishing Fishermen in smaller boats, unable to fleets. Honest British fishermen are the catch more to compensate for the drop in only ones to abide by t he rules, and are price, are the inevitable losers in the game, being squeezed out of the industry. While along with the fish themselves. our boats are being burned by order of Brussels, Spanish vessels are lining up to While some people seem to be finding fish right up to British beaches. ways to turn the Common Fisheries Policy to their benefit, by fair means or foul, The truth is a little different. many fishermen in the small boats sector Mismanagement of the UK industry for 20 find themselves losing out. years has seen an unnecessary decline in both employment and fish stocks. By Fishery closed accepting the pain of cuts in vessel For example, last December, the UK numbers several years ago, countries Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and such as Spain are now taking advantage Food (MAFF) calculated that the UK quota of restructuring funds denied to the UK of English Channel plaice had been taken, because we failed to implement similar and ordered the fishery closed. The quota policies at the same time. The Common was for vessels under 33 feet, which, up to Fisheries Policy has undoubtedly failed in 1 January, had to throw back any plaice many respects, and requires substantial they caught (as by-catch).

16 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 United Kingdom For the small beach boats that rely on this stock, but politicians do not rely on fishing stock, such as the historic fleet at Hastings, for their livelihoods. it was not a good Christmas. The fleet is already in decline and, at best,’ marginally A licensing scheme, weighted to take viable. The sad thing is that the demise of account of local priorities, could be these small beach boats has a minimal devised to be phased in as the CIT is effect on the stocks of fish that are most renewed. This would use market forces to affected by a fewer number of much larger ensure both commercial and biological offshore vessels. The result of the current success of stocks, could largely eliminate system of managing our fish stocks is that any threat to the industry from the fishermen are being reduced faster than environmental movement, and would the stock of fish. halt the decline in employment that the fishing industry has suffered over the last review of the Common Fisheries 50 years. Policy has to be undertaken by the Aend of 2001, and many of the The present licensing system, whereby current derogations to the open-access licences with no legal value are being principle (such as the 6- and 12-mile traded at ever more exorbitant prices, is limits) will be evaluated. It is likely that concentrating quota and tonnage in a this review will recommend some diminishing number of hands. Rule fundamental changes (and these breakers, be they ‘blacking’ fish or derogations may be lifted). under-reporting engine capacity, can afford to pay the highest prices for further Already, the debate has started on what licences, increasing pressure on those changes should be made to it. The operating within the system. European Commission is at present consulting stakeholders, and it is to be Expanded capacity hoped that those representing smaller The smaller vessels that do least damage vessels will make their views known and to stocks and employ two-thirds of the be listened to. My own view is that the UK’s fishermen, suffer when quotas are quota system should be scrapped. reduced because of the antics of these larger vessels that have expanded their It has failed to protect stocks, has alienated catching capacity. A case in point is the fishermen, reduced the accuracy of South West Hand-line Fishermen’s research and disrupted markets. Association (SWHFA), an association of Politicians like quotas as they are an easy some 500 fishermen operating smallboats way of maintaining national shares of a in the inshore mackerel fishery around

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 17 Devon and Cornwall. Their quota for much fuel per tonne of fish landed, as well 1997 was so small that the fishery was as destroying the seabed and employing closed early when they had used up all fewer fishermen, would have to pay their quota. Thanks to quota transfers correspondingly more. Once the system from the large pelagic sector, members of had been established, the greatest bugbear the SWHFA were able to continue fishing of our industry—quotas—could be until the end of the year. abolished. Policing would still be required, of course, to stop abuses of the

United Kingdom Kingdom United ow, then, would charges for system such as has taken place with the licences reverse the decline in ‘de-rated’ engines in sectors at the larger Hemployment and stocks, and end of the fleet, but overall costs of restore a measure of profitability to the enforcement would be greatly reduced. hardest pressed segments of our fleet? A new system could be introduced which Without quotas, there would be no reason would allocate the right to fish to a to cheat on logbooks; the number of specific vessel and gear combination. fisheries officers required would be Skippers would apply for an entitlement reduced and the statistics that the to fish with a particular vessel, specifying scientists use would become much more the types and the specifications of the reliable. gear to be used, hold capacities, horsepower, etc. An entitlement to fish It is inevitable that a great deal of within a certain fishery would then be rationalization would occur in any fishery provided, and the licences would only subject to such a system. This could be allow a fixed quantum of effort for the catered for. Those who had spent large named vessel. amounts of money on the open market investing in quota or licences would need Easily managed and enforced catches compensation; an effective capacity within this restriction would be reduction programme that could not unlimited. Permission would be required subsequently be overtaken by technology before fitting updated equipment that would be required if effort control was to increased catching capacity in any way. be avoided. Owners would still be able to The absurdity of the closure of the upgrade their vessels, but their licence Cornish hand-line fishery or the under-10 charge would be increased to reflect the m plaice and sole fisheries would never extra profitability they could expect to again be seen. achieve.

The removal of the common right to fish Such a scheme would inevitably lead to an should mean that those no longer allowed outcry, which would have to be addressed to fish should be entitled, via some form by phasing in licence fees gradually, and of government or management body, to by announcing details of the scheme pay for the privilege to enter a restricted several years in advance. Once in place, fishery. The money obtained should be charging structures could be set so that used not only to contribute towards the market forces gradually caused vessels to cost of management arid enforcement, change to low-impact, high-employment but should go into the coastal methods of fishing. communities historically dependent on the stock. This could be used for Large, highly efficient vessels would compensation, job creation or training for remain in areas such as North Norway those choosing to leave the fishery. and Rockall, but there would be a market force in favour of a shift towards more Once priorities for a local fishery are traditional fishing practices elsewhere. decided, licence costs could be weighted The days of owners using ‘black fish’ to reflect the effect of a particular vessel money to pay for larger vessels, which, in on that fishery. A longliner, for example, turn, need ever larger amounts of ‘black capable of landing. 100 tonnes of fish’ to sustain them, would be over. top-quality fish, with zero discards and by-catch, would pay significantly less Patent failure than a trawler with the same catching One reason for the patent failure of the capability. A beam trawler using twice as attempts to manage our fisheries has been

18 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 United Kingdom

the lack of support, or outright hostility, of fishermen themselves.

s it became evident that licence charges would allow the majority Aof vessels to become more profitable, support of the majority of thinking and honest fishermen would make it a simple matter to isolate those breaking the rules.

Those caught would not be able to renew their licences. Once it became clear that in a depleted fishery, effort control would be introduced, it would be in the interests of all those in the fishery to bring to heel those responsible for the depletion.

Government, unshackled from costly enforcement of quota restrictions, could place on vessels a greater number of observers who, concerned only with compliance with technical measures, would be free to collect more, and better quality, data on which to base further, better-informed management decisions.

Our industry is at a crossroads. In the lead up to 2002, we have a choice—carry on This piece, based on an article that with a system that will make millionaires first appeared in Fishing News in of a few and paupers of many, or have the February 1998, is by Andy Read, guts to go for a system that will maintain who was Assistant Chief Executive the diversity of fisheries that sustain our of the National Federation of coastal communities. Fishermen’s Organizations during 1996-97. The views expressed in this article are entirely personal.

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 19 Social history Making ends meet Canada

During the 1920s and 1930s, fishing played a major role in the work and social life of Val Comeau, an Acadian village

he 1920s and 1930s are now The people of Val Comeau are known as sufficiently distant in time to be Acadians. They are descendants of some Tfading from living memory and of the earliest European settlers to North moving into history books. This article is America, coming from France in the 17th one part of that transition. It describes life and early 18th centuries. The Acadians during the inter-war period in the small settled in what is now known as Nova village of Val Comeau, as remembered by Scotia, hundreds of kilometres south of a handful of village elders and their the main area of French settlement in children. Quebec. They rapidly developed a pattern of farming and a cultural tradition distinct That memory speaks of hardship, but also from their northern brethren. of a time when an abundant environment provided the villagers with the resources In 1755, they were forcibly deported from to have large families and a vibrant social their homeland by the English during the life. Theirs was a way of life far removed war for Canada, a war in which the from the alienating offices and suburbs of English eventually triumphed over the modern North America. Work consisted French. of a multiplicity of activities which varied according to season, depended on the After years of being scattered around the abundant resources of the ocean, forests, British and French colonies that fringed and land around Val Comeau, and were the Atlantic, some Acadians made their organized socially by household, gender way back to Canada’s eastern seaboard. and class. As their lands had been colonized by a The village of Val Comeau is on Canada’s wave of Scottish and English immigrants, Atlantic coast, looking out from its the Acadians were compelled to move to north-eastern New Brunswick shore other areas of the east coast. An important across the icy Gulf of Saint Lawrence destination was the northern and eastern towards Newfoundland, 400 km distant. coasts of New Brunswick, areas far It straddles a small peninsula, a kilometre removed from the major centres of wide at its base and 5 km long, cutting English Canada. Val Comeau and its between the ocean and Tracadie Bay. larger neighbour, Tracadie, were probably founded at the end of the 18th century by From its founding, the settlement has this wave of Acadian refugees. followed two roads, one, which traverses the base of the peninsula and the other By the 1920s, Val Comeau was a well which cuts northward up its centre. In the established village with around 200 1920s and 1930s, the houses were placed residents and branches of two merchant at the roadside, while expanses of pasture fishing companies. Household and class and vegetable gardens were cut out of the were the primary social divisions within forest behind them. the village. The most important and most evident form was the household. The small fishing dories of the community and its merchants were Family ties pulled up above the high-water mark on The family bonds within the household the beach beneath the lobster canning served to organize most aspects of life. factory of the merchant house, WS Loggie. Social and economic responsibilities in the

20 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Canada

household were organized along gender R Loggie fished salmon, for which it hired and age lines. a number of men to work on its dories. A & R also had storage sheds at Val Comeau dults were most directly for its equipment. concerned with production, while Athe old and young helped where For the villagers of Val Comeau, the they could. At a broader level of class merchants were the primary link to the differentiation, there were two groups: the world economy. Their shops in Val three or four large landholding Comeau and fracadie stocked goods basic households and the poorer villagers with to the lives of Val Comeau’s residents, but only small plots. The former were which were in short supply or unavailable descendants of the initial settlers of Val locally. From their shelves could be Comeau who had managed to preserve procured everything from wheat flour, the land parcels that their ancestors had salt and lard to cotton thread, fishing received from the Canadian government supplies, and cast iron wood burning as settler grants. The remaining villagers stoves. To gain access to the goods, the were either post-land grant immigrants or villagers needed cash, a primary source of those who had lost their lands. which was the merchant companies themselves. The latter hired the men and All households possessed enough land for women of Val Comeau to fish for them a garden large enough to provide and work in their factories. vegetables for the long winter, but only the large landholders could make farming In many parts of Atlantic Canada, fishers their principal occupation. They were in a and their families were bound to position to hire the poorer villagers to merchants through a system of debt assist them during planting and relations. A weaker version of this system harvesting. prevailed in Val Comeau. The merchants were the principal source of the A third, non-resident, group was also industrially produced goods which made vitally important for the village: the life more comfortable. merchants. Both the merchant companies in Val Comeau were from Credit availability English-speaking areas of New As these goods were available on credit Brunswick. WL Loggie was the major redeemable against labour for the player in Val Comeau, specializing in merchants, the latter were able to assure lobster fishing and canning, for which it themselves of a regular labour supply. had boats and a factory in the village. A & Two factors, however, limited the

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 21 Canada

merchant power to control the workforce eels, trout, salmon, and gaspareau were of Val Comeau. fished from the rivers, while clams were available in great quantities at low tide. As irst, the villagers had access to an their men were away at sea much of the abundant environment which gave time, the women of Val Comeau had the Fthem a subsistence base other than primary role in tending the family the merchant stores. Second, by the 1920s, vegetable plots and caring for the few the growing Canadian economy animals that they might have. Cabbages, provided alternative sources of potatoes, beans, turnips and carrots were employment in New Brunswick and the principal crops. They were stored beyond. through the winter in root cellars dug into the ground behind the house. Work in Val Comeau was directly structured by the year’s four seasons. Late Late summer was a busy period for the spring, summer and early fall, from the household. At the end of August, many beginning of May to late September, was families decamped en masse to blueberry the crucial period of the year for fields in the interior where they picked subsistence. During that time, sufficient blueberries at a penny a pound for farmers stores had to be accumulated so that the or merchants. In September, the harvest household could survive the harsh had to be brought in rapidly to escape the winter. For the large landholders, this first frost. meant planting and tending their crops of wheat, oats, buckwheat, potatoes and At the end of the month, the men stopped vegetables. fishing in order to cut firewood for the winter heating and cooking needs. They For the rest of Val Comeau’s residents, generally exchanged salted fish for this meant different tasks for men and firewood at the rate of one 200-lb barrel women. Most of the men worked on the per 20 cartloads. September and October merchant boats fishing principally for were also the best times for hunting moose lobster, cod, mackerel, salmon and and deer, which were a welcome addition herring. Around four or five men owned to the winter stores. Rabbits, ducks and. their own small boats from which they geese were also hunted at this time and caught their own lobster and other fish. In through the winter. both cases, the men ensured that they salted or pickled sufficient fish for the Merchant boats needs of their households throughout the A few men of Val Comeau continued to winter. Other fish did not require a boat: work on the merchant boats through the

22 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Canada fall, but most departed for New important economic characteristic was the Brunswick’s extensive forests where they diversity of its economic base which were employed by timber companies depended on three rich ecological zones: through to the following April. Trees were the ocean, the forest and the land. From felled through the late fall and winter, these, the residents of Val Comeau met until the spring thaw in late March or early their own direct subsistence needs and April and then rafted down the rivers earned the cash with which they could swollen with the run-off of melting snow. access industrially produced goods. The Those men who remained in Val Comeau diversity of Val Comeau’s economy and through the winter engaged in hunting the adaptability of its residents provided and smelt fishing through holes carved security in a beautiful but unforgiving into the ice on the Tracadie river, or in the environment. small bays down the coast from the village.

As men’s work took them away from the house for extended periods, women had a critical role in assuring the vitality of the household. They were the caretakers of the household, stitching clothes, ensuring that the winter stores were sufficient, preparing meals, caring for children, and cleaning. At the same time, they played a central role on the family farm and engaged in wage labour when it was available. Many women, especially those not yet married, worked in the Loggie factories canning lobster, cleaning fish or cooking for the employees of WS Loggie who lived in the village.

Softening the challenge of deriving a living in the harsh climate of northern New Brunswick were the numerous social activities of the villagers. In that pre-television era, entertainment was a family and community affair. Its primary site was the kitchen of the house. After a copious meal of boiled fish, potatoes and molasses-based desserts, family and neighbours sat around the wood stove listening to legends, singing, playing instruments and joking. The major festival of the year was the Mi-Careme, towards the end of winter, where a masked gang of men went from house to house in the village hooting, banging, scaring small children, and telling tall tales about the residents of each house they visited. Attendance at the Sunday mass in Tracadie also provided a chance for socializing, as did frequent shopping trips to the larger centre. This piece by Derek Johnson draws It would be misleading to say that Val on data collected during the Comeau in the 1920s and 1930s was a course of his work for an M.A. thesis fishing village. Fishing was just one, though perhaps the major, economic activity of the village. Val Comeau’s most

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 23 Shrimp aquaculture Mangroves make way Tanzania

The Tanzanian government has given the nod to the Rufiji Delta shrimp project

he Tanzanian government has countries against our project, the decided to give the green signal to government made a historical but wise Tthe proposed large-scale shrimp and gutsy decision.” farm venture in the Rufiji Delta. According to information reaching the Supposedly, all that remains flow for final Mangrove Action Project (MAP) from a approval is an ‘official’ letter of the correspondent in Tanzania some time decision to approve the project by the ago, “The government here is in favour of cabinet from the Minister of Natural the Rufiji Delta prawn project though Resources and Tourism before proceeding most of the NGOs and some government with further surveys and investigations. conservation organizations and even the Fisheries Department are against it. This Those opposed to this project are by no is in addition to several villagers in Rufiji means resigned to just let things happen Delta who do not want this project. In any as industry wants. According to Paul case, the whole project has moved Nnyiti of the Wildlife and Conservation beyond scientific facts to politics. Official Society of Tanzania, there is still much approval may be announced any time.” more that can be done: “The way I see it, we may end up appealing to the world to That approval was finally announced help put out facts on the destructiveness recently and many industry of the project in order for the government spokespersons from near and far seem to to change its present stand on this huge be speaking of this event as if it were a project. Alternatively, we have to work major victory for the aquaculture with the Director of Forests, who is in industry. Yoshi Hirono, a shrimp farming charge of mangroves, to prohibit the consultant and general manager of the project.” African Fishing Company’s shrimp farming project in Tanzania, reported, Networking tour “On 19 November, the cabinet of the One of the regions that a team from MAP Tanzanian government met and plans to visit during a proposed unanimously voted to support the networking tour of East Africa next Integrated Prawn Project without any February is the Rufiji Delta. MAP will then conditions except the monitoring be able to report in more detail about these program organized by the environmental developments and the counter-strategies gurus. The Integrated Prawn Project was that are being proposed by the local NGOs approved to develop 6,000 hectares of and communities living in the region. ponds and a hatchery on Bwejuu Island, as described in the Environmental Impact Assessment.”

“We did what it took to convey to the relevant ministries that sustainable prawn aquaculture could be undertaken in Tanzania,” he continued. “The This piece is based on the website Government of Tanzania was set back by of the Mangrove Action Project malicious critics from environmental organizations and some NGOs. In spite of strong opposition from the donor

24 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Mozambique Fisheries co-management All together

As the experiences from Mozambique show, fisheries management regimes and institutional arrangements can work

ue to financial problems and the • Direcco Nacional da Pesca (DNP), lack of marine/biological dealing with legal aspects, mostly Dinvestigation, very little is known dealing with industrial fisheries; about the potential of marine resources accessible to artisanal fisheries in • IDPPE, whose objectives are to Mozambique. Furthermore, systems to improve knowledge about monitor and evaluate the fisheries, to small-scale fisheries and identify assess the stocks and impact of fishing development programmes; effort, are weak. Since Mozambique’s independence in 1975, the control of • IIP, for biological research on the fishing activities in the small-scale fishery resource; became the responsibility of the Administraco Maritima-ADMAR. • The Servicos Provinciais de Administraco Pesqueira (SPAP), the During the 1980s, the strategy for state institutions in charge of developing small-scale fisheries in monitoring and control at the Mozambique was based on the provincial level, in co-ordination Combinados Pesqueiros, a with the Administraco Maritima quasi-government company that which is the only institution with supplied fishing inputs and services to actual field representation in all artisanal fishermen and marketed their the coastal districts. surplus production. In 1987, Mozambique launched a Structural Adjustment The Fisheries Master Plan approved by Programme (SAP) and started a new the Mozambique government in October process that tried to create more incentives 1994 sets the priorities and strategies of and facilities to enhance the role of the development to be pursued in the next private sector in the development of the years. In relation to management of national economy. As a result, a small-scale fisheries, the Master Plan privatization process of the Combinados’ emphasizes the involvement of fishermen assets and activities began. in setting up and enforcing the management regimes. The institutional set-up of the fisheries sector changed after the SAP and the The implementation strategy towards Institute for Small Scale Fisheries promoting co-management arrangements Development (IDPPE) came into existence, implies that the first step should be to with the responsibility to promote research the existing management small-scale fisheries development in regimes, focusing on the traditional Mozambique. systems in place to manage the fishery. In this respect, baseline data, as well as As part of global political changes, a new biological, socioeconomic, technological structure for the fisheries administration and other information, must be collected. was established in 1994. The institutions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Management committee Fisheries (MAP) involved in fisheries From 1 January 1997, the Regulamento de management (and which advises and Pesca Maritima came into force. This gives recommendations to the MAP), are regulation sets forward a fisheries the following: management committee, Comisso de

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 25 Administraco Pesqueira (CAP) that includes fishermen per km. The breakdown of fishermen representatives from artisanal fishing units by fishing gear used is as as well as semi-industrial and industrial follows: sectors.

This committee is an advisory body that Type of gear Share (%)

Mozambique Mozambique will meet four times a year to recommend management measures for the national Beach Seines 71.2 fisheries. Gill-net 17.5 Hand-lines 10.4 The CAP has an advisory role to the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, dealing with conservation, fisheries The fishery is based on exploitation of management and regulation. small pelagics, mostly from the Clupeidae and Engraulidae families, and, to a lesser More specifically, it focuses on extent, higher-value demersals. Drying determining: and salting-drying are the most common fish processing methods in the area and • fisheries quotas; seem to be quite appropriate, given the lack of cold storage facilities and the low • fishing closure periods; purchasing power of the inland populations. Smoking is less developed • maximum number of licences for and the market for the product is mostly the various fisheries; in the more coastal part of the province. There is a relatively small market for good • value of fisheries licences; and quality fresh fish in Nampula.

• definition of protected areas. With support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Although many issues still need to be the OPEC Fund for International addressed regarding the functioning of Development, the Institute for Small-scale the CAP, and the legal and institutional Fisheries Development in Mozambique aspects of co-management, the (IDPPE) has been implementing, since committee provides a framework for 1995, a six-year project in the area. The further development of co-management project was established with the overall arrangements in Mozambique. objective of improving the level of income, employment and food security of about The small-scale fishery in the Angoche 9,300 fishermen and their families living and Moma districts, in Mozambique’s in the two districts. This objective was northern province of Nampula, is sought to be achieved through integrated characterized by a low diversity of fishing interventions in the following areas: techniques, with seven per cent of the fishing units using beach seines. Drift • artisanal fisheries development; gill-nets and hand-lines are also used. • establishment of financial services; The fleet is almost totally non-motorized, and paddles and sails being the normal ways of propulsion. This high concentration of • institutional strengthening. beach seines, often made of small-mesh nets, leads to an intensive exploitation of Under the artisanal fisheries component, coastal fish stocks. several activities were foreseen. The knowledge of fisheries resource accessible An artisanal fisheries survey, carried out to small-scale fisheries in Mozambique is by IDPPE in 1994, recorded a total number very limited. of 1,460 boats and 12,160 fishermen for the two districts. The area is characterized No reliable data by a very high concentration of The only studies done till recently focused fishermen, with an average of one beach on the stocks exploited by industrial and seine every 140 m of coast and around 90 semi-industrial fleets and there was no

26 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Mozambique reliable data on small-scale fisheries bottom-set gill-nets for medium- and production. The need to emphasize the large-size fish, fish aggregating devices study and management of the fish (FADs) and improved beach seines. The resource appeared clear. experimental fishing takes place with an improved sailing boat provided by the programme to improve the project and also based on agreements with knowledge of fisheries resources interested fishermen. Aexploited by artisanal fishermen in the project area was initiated in 1996. At the time of the project start-up, there The core of the programme consisted of a was virtually no management of the catch assessment survey. The system was artisanal fisheries in Mozambique. Aware designed by IIP (the Fisheries Research of this situation, and of the lack of financial Institute) with some technical assistance means to implement more classical from the Norwegian government aid fisheries regulation mechanisms, the agency, NORAD. Implementation occurs in government decided to encourage the close collaboration between IIP and IDPPE. development of co-management systems. Data collection is done by the project This policy was made official in the extension workers. Complementary Fisheries Master Plan. biological studies, on some of the main commercial species, have just been The activities of this component of the initiated, in collaboration with the Faculty project started with the undertaking of a of Science of the Eduardo Mondlane study under an ICLARM/North Sea University. Centre-supported programme, to assess traditional fisheries management Some other activities under the fisheries practices in the project area and the development component are aimed at potential to promote fisheries supporting the diversification of fishing co-management there. The main techniques and practices, and promoting conclusion was that the situation seemed co-management initiatives to allow for to be favourable to develop schemes that better and sustainable use of the would involve fishermen and resources. administration in managing fisheries resources. The main recommendations for Experimental fishing activities also began short-term action were: in 1996 and are focused on fishing trials of different types of gears, e.g. improved • the creation of local drifting gill-nets for small pelagics, co-management committees various types of longlines, improved composed of representatives of the

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 27 Mozambique Mozambique

administration and fishermen, and fishermen representatives. These where fishery regulation issues activities have contributed towards the would be discussed and actions to establishment of co-management systems be taken agreed upon, on a in Moma and Angoche. In addition to the consensual basis; and co-management committee, local fisheries management committees (similar to the • implementation of a mechanism to Beach Village Committees in Malawi) control access to fishery resources have been created. During the last few in the project area. months, structures of this type have been made official in three fishing centres. The ollowing this, an informal fishermen of Quelelene Island have been co-management committee playing a leading role in this process. Fcomprising representatives of ADMAR, IDPPE, IIP and fishermen, has met The control of access to fishing ground a few times in Angoche. appeal-s to be the key issue in the implementation of co-management During these meetings, issues were raised systems. Fishermen of Quelelene Island in relation to the need to control proposed to restrict the access to their area fishermen and the shrimp industrial to fishermen registered in the island. They trawlers, and the use of mosquito nets at would themselves compromise by not the cod end on beach seines. going fishing in other areas.

Project technical staff (including a team of After some discussions with the project 10 fishery extension workers) has been team and ADMAR, this decision, on an working to sensitize fishermen on the experimental basis, for one year, was need to preserve fish resources. Study made official through a note from ADMAR tours for fishermen and representatives in September 1997. To date, the measure of the fisheries administration have been has been respected by the majority of organized to Inhassoro and Malawi to fishermen. Another key issue to be build awareness on the key issues of addressed is the stabilization of the resource management and the need to number of beach seines operating in the develop participatory fisheries project area. A significant reduction is management schemes, A training course unlikely to happen in the short term. covering basic theoretical concepts arid practical experiences on fisheries Regulatory measures co-management has been organized in Although there are regulatory measures Angoche, for IDPPE extension workers on minimum mesh size for the beach

28 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Mozmabique seines, enforcement is quite non-existent has established the Fisheries Management and, had there been any, it would have Committee, a consultative forum that had profound social consequences. advises the Ministry of Agriculture on fisheries management matters. This he project is working on a proposal committee, composed of fishing industry to amend current regulations for representatives, fisheries research Tminimum mesh size for beach institutes and fisheries administrators, seines from 38mm to 12mm. The measure meet at least four times a year to jointly would be more acceptable to fishermen, as discuss and address fisheries it would allow the catch of anchovies and management problems, and reach a other small pelagics, while permitting the consensus on the actions that need to be escape of juveniles and larvae of taken to solve them. commercially valuable species. Through the local fisheries management Artisanal fishermen’s representatives committees, there will be a chance to have been invited to these meetings, but enforce such measure. the experience so far shows that the main concerns have been usually biased The present Maritime Fisheries towards problems that affect the shrimp Regulation constitutes a constraint to the fishing industry, since it involves bigger development of small-scale fisheries in players and stronger interests for the areas were artisanal fisheries are in direct country, since shrimp remains the most competition with industrial and important export commodity. In addition semi-industrial shrimp trawlers. to this, to date, no provisions are in place According to this regulation, trawlers are to integrate local fisheries management allowed to operate as close as one mile initiatives-for instance, the Moma and from the coast, so condemning the gill-net Angoche experiences-into this national and longline fishermen to operate very framework. close from the shore or take the risk of losing their gear. The destruction caused Control of resources by trawlers on the substrata and the fish Thus, the consultancy being prepared stocks close to the coast, is quite likely with the support of [he project will be a going to prejudice a sustainable use of the crucial development. It will help address resource not only for the artisanal, but also issues related to the award of legal status for the industrial fishery. to the local fisheries co-management committees. It will also contribute The project is also seeking to modify towards some devolution of power to current marine fisheries regulations so fishing communities on the matter of that industrial and semi-industrial shrimp exploitation and control of fisheries trawlers should not be allowed to operate resources and for the establishment of at less than 3 miles from the shore, to more fisheries co-management systems in prevent conflicts between these fleets and Mozambique. artisanal fishermen, and to reserve sufficient space for artisanal fisheries development in the open sea, at least on an experimental basis, for the Angoche and Moma districts.

Although the establishment of co-management systems has been regarded as a priority and the way forward to address problems related to the use of fisheries resources in the Fisheries Master Plan, legal and institutional frameworks to encourage This article has been written by Rui these types of developments are Falcao, Cassimo Marojo and Simeo completely lacking in Mozambique. Lopes of IDPPE, Mozambique

The current maritime fisheries regulation that has been in force since January 1997,

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 29 Community-based fishery management

India Fishing by turns

The paadu system of fishery management used in certain fishing villages of Tamil Nadu, India is unique

he Pichavaram mangrove forest, follow the paadu system of management. located in the coastal districts of One of the main aspects of this TCodulore and Thanjore in Tamil management system is related to the place Nadu, India is of the estuarine type. This and period of using stake-nets. The forest is surrounded by four main fishing stake-net is normally used to catch prawns villages, namely, Killai, Thandavarayan by putting it across the tidal creeks, Cholagan Pettai (T.S.Pettai), channels and other large canals, Kodiyampalayam and Palayaru. Nearly particularly during the low tide when the 60 per cent of the fishermen from these prawns move towards the sea. In order to hamlets are completely dependent on the evenly share the resources, certain mangroves for their livelihood. The regulations are followed. remaining 40 per cent utilize fishery resources of both the continental waters Villagers should engage in fishing only in and the mangrove wetlands. areas of the backwater earmarked for them. Fishermen from other villages From time immemorial, the fishermen of should not enter into areas earmarked for Tamil Nadu have been following a others, even if they catch less of prawn and traditional system of fishery fish in their allotted areas. The areas management in the backwaters and earmarked for a particular village are estuaries. This system of management is subdivided into smaller areas with locally called paadu or ‘rotation’ system. different names and the village fishermen In the Pichavaram area, this traditional are divided into different groups. Each system is called vunuvalai kattit (vunu = group should fish in all the selected areas stake; valai = net; kattu = regulation). This on a rotation basis. is mainly followed to manage fishery resources in the backwaters connected to Each fishing village in the Pichavaram the mangroves. In the Pichavaram area has its own traditional system of mangrove waters, the intensity of fishing fishery management. This can be activities is mainly related to seasons. illustrated by the following example. Killai village is one of the main villages Fishing during the summer season that depends on the mangrove fisheries. (mid-February to mid-October) is called The fishing population of this village is kodainaal fishing (kodai = summer; naul = distributed in seven hamlets. days) and fishing during the north-east monsoon season (mid-October to All the fishermen from these seven mid-February) is called vaadainaal fishing hamlets are grouped together and divided (vaadai = north; naal = days). The summer into six groups of approximately 60 to 80 season is the lean season for fishing in the fishermen. Each group is called a kattu. In mangrove backwaters. During that time, the mangrove backwaters, five fishing the catch per unit effort is low, while the areas have been earmarked for Killai fishery abounds during the monsoon fishing village. season. Moving around In the traditional system of fishery Of the six groups of fishermen, the first management, fishing with any gear other five will fish in five different places than stake-net is restricted. To fish with together as one group, moving from one vunuvalai, fishermen have to strictly place to another. The sixth group will not

30 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 India

go stake-net fishing on that day but go to the groups or kattus, following requests fishing individually instead. and also to ensure that all the groups are balanced in number. ach group’s members go out together with their nets and canoes The vunuvali kattu system evolved thus: Eto their respective grounds and Earlier, when the population was small place the stake-nets across the canal in and the number of families few, there single or double rows, depending upon were more fishing areas. Vunuvalai the availability of the prawn catch. In the requires more labour, nets and canoes. To end, all the catches are put together and ensure these inputs, family members who, divided equally among all the members earlier, went individually to some selected engaged in fishing on that day. On the grounds for fishing, were grouped next day, the sixth group can go fishing in together. the first ground, and the first group in the second ground, while the second group In this method, those who reached the goes to third ground, and so on. The fifth fishing ground first could occupy the group rests on that day and engages in entire ground and block access to all the other individual fishing activities. fishes and prawns, while those who reached a little later would have lost their Thus, every group covers all the five catch. Also, those families which were places in five days and rests on the sixth larger in size could dominate the village day, and the rotation starts again on the and effortlessly occupy the good fertile seventh day. Each group thus fishes in an grounds, without permitting other allotted area once in seven days. This is weaker groups to come in. mainly to avoid overcrowding of the area where fish and prawns are available in The paadu system large quantities. This system of fishery To avoid these two problems, the villagers management not only helps in avoiding came to agree on a paadu system through overexploitation but also provides an which, on a particular day, one family opportunity for equal sharing of the goes to one place and another family goes fishery resources among the fishermen. to another place. On the next day, the first family goes to the second place with their The other fishing villages also have their family members. In the course of time, the own paadu system and each village original strength of each family increased respects the paadu system of the other through new linkages via marriage. The villages. Every year, the fishermen village population was grouped on the conduct meetings to admit new members basis of vagaiyaras (families).

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 31 India

ue to declining fish resources as reasons: Ray fish fishing needs vast areas a result of siltation of many to operate and thus hampers other Dfertile grounds and the reduction fishermen from fishing. Ray fish fishing in the flow of fresh and sea water, the takes longer, around 12 hours-fishermen Killai fishermen used to go to the have to keep their nets in the water Colerone river mouth, namely, Palayar, undisturbed throughout the night. This to fish during the summer (when the too prevents other fishermen free access to catch in the backwater is generally the area. It is to avoid this and also to give reduced) as well as in the backwaters, and a chance to others that ray fish fishing was return to their home village when the banned at the community level. north-east monsoon started. In the course of time, some of the fisher families who Another method of traditional fishery had migrated did not want to return to management is migration of fishermen to Killai. But they found difficulties in different places. During the summer, the taking part in the paadu system, since fishery resources in the backwaters most of the demarcated areas were too far decline. The quantity of fish available then away. So they wanted separate areas for is normally not enough for all the their stake-net operations. This matter fishermen living around the backwaters. was discussed in the Killai village So, many of the fishermen do not go to the panchayat (local council) and the claim of backwaters to fish during that season but the Palayar fishermen was accepted. instead go to the sea. This reduces the population pressure on fishery resources Finally, Killai had to part with two paadus, in the backwaters. During the monsoon with the condition that they must be used season, the fishery resource in the only by the Palayar fishermen who backwaters increases and so most of the’ migrated from Killai and not by others fishermen fish in the backwaters. This also who migrated from other fishing villages. prevents the overexploitation of the Later, this condition was ignored and fishery resources of the mangrove these places began to be used even by backwaters. those who had migrated from other villages. Migratory fishermen Interestingly, though the migration of the There are also other traditional methods fishermen during different seasons of fishery management. Fishing for ray reduces population pressure on fishery fish in the Coleron estuarine area using resources, it increases the dependency of gill-nets has been banned by the local the migratory fishermen on forest fishing community for the following resources, particularly fuelwood. During

32 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 India the summer, fishermen from Killai village while other communities have also migrate to the seashore and develop entered the mangrove backwaters. As a settlements, which, being on the seashore, result of declining fishery resources and have no suitable land for growing any tree the heterogeneous nature of the species that can be utilized as fuelwood. communities utilizing fishery resources, They thus have to depend on the the management of the fishery has become mangrove forest. complicated.

or a long time, the fishermen of According to the elderly local fishermen, Pichavaram mangrove backwaters at one time, the Pichavaram mangrove Fenjoyed fishing in the backwaters forest was very thick and trees were very without any external disturbance and, at tall. Each trunk of the Avitennia tree, the same time, they managed the fishery particularly of Avicennia officinalis resources at the community level by (karungkandal), was so huge that a single self-regulation. In recent times, apart from person could not put his arms around a the traditional fishermen, other tree. Now, according to these elderly communities, such as Vedar, Vanniyars fishermen, [he forest cover has and Scheduled Castes, have also started diminished to less than a quarter, and the fishing in the mangrove backwaters. The tree density has been greatly reduced. fishing methods that these non-traditional They also say that now they see only fishermen follow are destructive to both shrubs, not big trees. fishery and forestry resources of the Pichavaram mangroves. The ‘bunding’ Several reasons are offered to explain the method of fishing followed by the Vedars degradation of the Pichavaram mangrove prevents free flushing of the mangrove forest. According to the local people, until forest floor and even causes stagnation of 1972, the Department of Forest followed tidal water and thus affects the the coop system for tree-felling. They say biophysical conditions of the mangrove that five coops were conducted between forest. 1952 and 1972 in various areas of the Pichavaram mangrove forest. Only local Due to the development of aquaculture people took the contract for felling the farms in the region around mangroves, trees. In this system of tree-felling, the the demand for prawn seeds increased contractor should cut the matured and sharply over the last five years. The cost dead trees about 1.5 feet above the ground for each seed is between Rs O.50 and Rs l level within the area specified. .00 and this attracts the non-traditional fishermen, particularly Vanniyars, to catch The area covered by one coop was about only prawn seeds in the backwaters. This 30 acres and, altogether, seven coops were goes against the wishes of the traditional given for felling. Thus, the total area in fishermen who never exploit prawn seeds, which felling was permitted was about since they know that this will affect future 210 acres. The labour charge for felling the fishery resources. They asked the trees was Rs 2 per tonne, while Vanniyars to desist from catching transportation by boat cost another Rs 2 juveniles. But the Vanniyars refused to per tonne. In all the coops, felling was obey, emboldened by their majority status carried out over the 20 years between 1952 in the population. This led to communal and 1972. The coop system has since been clashes between the two groups and abandoned. ultimately paved the way for the Vanniyars to stop fishing the juvenile Rampant felling prawns. According to local people, the contractors used to remove all the trees, irrespective In recent times, according to the of age, ignoring norms and conditions. fishermen, fishery resources have slowly They also removed more than they were begun declining, due to siltation of the permitted. The villagers say that, after the backwaters and creeks, and reduction in felling, not a single tree has grown in these fresh water supply, and also due to the areas. The villagers also say that in certain closing or silting of river mouths during areas, land has been converted into the summer season. At the same time, the farming land and is now being used for fishermen population has increased, the cultivation of groundnut.

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 33 India

ince 1972, the trees of the The elderly fishermen of the area fully Pichavaram mangrove forest were understand the importance of mangroves Sfelled on a large scale mainly for for fishery resources, protection against festivals, marriages and cremations. This cyclones and soil erosion, etc., but do not mass felling of trees was carried out with have any idea on conservation. Most of the the knowledge of the forest officials. elderly fisherwomen were not aware of During the festival season, the Forest the importance of mangrove forests, but Department used to publicly announce were willing to accept the truth. At the that villagers were allowed to fell trees for same time, they have the feeling that festive reasons. This resulted in cutting wood for fuel is harmless to the unrestricted felling of trees during forest. The youth among the fishers know festivals. During weddings, invitations the importance of the mangrove trees but were given to the local forest officials by also lack any idea on how to conserve the head of the family, and consent for them. felling trees obtained. These practices, however, stopped about ten years ago. All of them, however, blamed the Forest Department officials for giving The mangrove forests of the Pichavaram permission to cut the trees under the coop area have also been degraded by the system, and for illegal felling in the past. collection of firewood for domestic But they also said that the forest officials purpose. But during the last five or seven are now strict in protecting the forest. years, local people say, collection of firewood has reduced, mainly due to strict enforcement of laws by the Forest Department. However, informal surveys reveal a continuous removal of large trees and twigs from the mangroves for domestic use.

All the local people believe that the mangroves are not degraded by grazing. This article has been written by S. In fact, some of them say that grazing Subramanian of the Fisherfolk actually helps the mangrove trees to grow Organization for Advancement, since the cattle plough the ground with Chennai, India their hooves, apart from providing organic manure in the form of urine and dung.

34 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Viewpoint International agreements Needed: a jump-start

The Year of the Ocean in 1998 provides NGOs a good opportunity to make sure that the UN Agreement and the FAO Code actually take off

he UN Agreement on Straddling Agreement and the FAO Code will help Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory identify the points for intervention where TFish Stocks (UN Agreement) and NGO action is likely to have the greatest the FAO’s Code of Conduct for impact. With the large number of Responsible Fisheries (FAO Code), both obstacles to implementation, it will be adopted in 1995, have great potential to important to select a few key goals, whose help reverse the world the world crisis in achievement will reflect lasting changes. fisheries. The UN Agreement, a legally binding treaty, covers many commercially Priorities will vary among NGOs, but there important fish populations. The FAO Code are likely to be many shared concerns, is voluntary, but covers a wide range of such as encouraging governments to fisheries issues. ratify the UN Agreement and produce plans for implementing both the But will the UN Agreement and the FAO Agreement and the FAO Code, including Code bring about real change? Or will goals against which progress can be they fulfil the predictions of those who measured. With clearly defined priorities argue that the environmental ‘negotiation and a focused approach, NGOs can achieve mania’ of the early 1990s produced a large much, even with limited resources. amount of UN documentation but few results? NGOs, which played an important Thus far, 39 states have signed the UN part in negotiations of both the UN Agreement, while only 16 have ratified or Agreement and the FAO Code, can help acceded to it. Only when 30 states ratify or answer those questions. accede to the UN Agreement will it enter into force. This has to be the priority, but The Year of the Ocean in 1998 provides a another concern is ensuring that the states particularly good opportunity for NGO which have the greatest impact on action on fisheries. At the international fisheries abide by the UN Agreement. The level, there will be many opportunities to state of fisheries will not be improved if highlight key issues-the commercial EXPO only countries which represent a fraction 98 in Portugal, for instance, and several of the overall tonnage, or which land a FAO meetings, including a session of the small percentage of the overall catch, subcommittee on fish trade of FAO’s become parties to the UN Agreement. It is Committee on Fisheries (COFI), as well as worth noting that many of major-catch consultations on issues such as the countries are developing countries, yet management of fisheries capacity and much of the catch is exported to by-catch. However, the most important developed countries. part will be to ‘bring home’ the UN Agreement and FAO Code at the regional Legally binding and national levels, where an enormous The FAO Compliance Agreement designed amount of work remains to be done. to prevent vessel re-flagging as a means to avoid complying with rules on fisheries Many NGOs have begun to voice demands conservation and management, is a for change in the Year of the Ocean. legally binding agreement which is Preparing in advance will help produce complementary to the FAO Code. It has tangible results in 1998. An analysis of the been accepted by only 10 states and problems that are blocking rapid and entities (including the EU), yet requires effective implementation of the UN that 25 states or entities accept it in order

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 35 to become legally operational. FAO has Agreement. The first of such reviews was developed guidelines for conducted at its 51st and 52nd Sessions in implementation of the FAO Code, but 1996 and 1997 via reports submitted by the there has been an unwillingness by Secretary-General to the General member states to fully endorse and take Assembly. Viewpoint Viewpoint action on them. Perhaps because the UN Agreement has ntil now, governments and not yet entered into force, there has been industry have been able to get very little progress to report, unlike 1995, Uaway with progressive sounding when the UN Agreement was opened for statements in international meetings and signature. The lackluster debate may also in the media, but the time for that should signal a sentiment amongst governments be past. It is through regional, national that, for the moment, merely adopting the and local implementation that the UN UN Agreement was a great enough Agreement and the FAO Code will be achievement. translated into practice, where their effectiveness wilt be measured and where At the most recent UNGA oceans debate in provisions such as Art. 5 (g) of the UN November 1997; one of the two reports Agreement, which requires states to which was submitted by the protect biodiversity in the marine Secretary-General was on developments environment, can be given some relating to the conservation and substance. management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks and the status We are at the beginning of a long process and implementation of the UN Agreement. that will require much greater efforts than The other was a consolidated report on the the negotiations of the two instruments, issues of large-scale pelagic drift-net but time is short. The latest report from fishing; unauthorized fishing in zones of FAO on the state of world fisheries national jurisdiction; and fisheries confirms that unless effective action is by-catch and discards. taken, overfishing will get worse. FAO’s analysis of 200 top marine fisheries warns As called for under the UN Agreement, the of a rapid increase in fishing pressure. In report on the status of implementation of 1994, about 35 per cent of these fisheries the UN Agreement will be submitted were in a phase with declining landings, biennially hereafter (with the next report 25 per cent in a phase with a high level of to be produced at the 54th Session in 1999), exploitation, 40 per cent were still alternating with the consolidated report developing, and none of them were mentioned above (which will be undeveloped. According to the FAO, even submitted later this year at the 53rd if effective management were introduced Session). immediately for depleted fisheries, productions would only achieve gradual NGOs accredited with the Economic and growth. Social Council are invited to submit contributions for consideration in this By-catch remains a major problem. FAO year’s report of the Secretary-General by estimates that discarding could amount the end of June. While it is unfortunate to around one-third of total reported that both reports will not be issued annual production of marine capture annually, these reports provide a useful fisheries, including a large proportion of lobbying tool to spotlight successes and juvenile fish. Coastal fish habitats are failures of governments on key oceans being degraded in many parts of the issues, as well as a means by which NGOs world. FAO notes that recovery times will can effectively contribute to a process be particularly long for stocks that require which is often seen as ‘beyond the reach’ both a reduction in fishing effort and of NGOs. improved environmental conditions. Wide-ranging reform As the body that oversees matters Regional fisheries organizations and pertaining to oceans and the law of the arrangements, including those organized sea, the UN General Assembly is under the auspices of the FAO, will have to responsible for reviewing the UN undertake a wide-ranging reform process

36 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Viewpoint to change their rules and institutional One of the key provisions of the UN structures to make it possible for them to Agreement is Article 12, which requires implement the UN Agreement and the FAO regional fisheries organizations and Code. This will no doubt be a arrangements to allow non-governmental time-consuming process, which makes it organizations (which includes extremely important that the regional fishworkers’ organizations) access to bodies put themselves on track for reform meetings, subject to certain conditions. as soon as possible. The procedures for this shall not be unduly restrictive." t is now two years since the adoption of both the FAO Code and the UN Current procedures vary, but most IAgreement and there is little practical regional fisheries organizations and evidence that regional organizations have arrangements apply archaic rules, recognized their role in the process of allowing only very limited participation implementation of these instruments. The by NGOs. Changing this would have an provisions of the UN Agreement are enormous impact-increasing public clearly applicable to all regional scrutiny through active NGO participation organizations. There is little hope if would probably revolutionize the way regional organizations continue with their many of these bodies operate at the business-as-usual approach of collecting, moment. analyzing and exchanging information on stocks, and establishing management The most intractable problem around measures, while ignoring the need for which most environmental negotiations better co-operation on fish stocks, revolve concerns financing, recently the assisting with monitoring and subject of much discussion at the UN enforcement and public accountability. General Assembly. Special Session to evaluate implementation of Agenda 21. Discussions in organizations, such as the Convention for the Conservation of Financial aid Antarctic Marine Living Resources Failure to resolve the financing issue (CCAMLR) and the General Fisheries should not be allowed to impede the entry Council for the Mediterranean (GFCM), into force of the UN Agreement, either by have been very discouraging. In 1995, developed or developing countries. FAO’s Committee on Fisheries discussed Realistically, the issue of financial the role of regional fisheries bodies, assistance will not be resolved at one or emphasizing the key role they have to two meeting sessions, but rather through play. The spotlight is now on these bodies. a series of evolving measures adopted

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 37 over time. Some international institutions contribution to make to improve fisheries are already exploring ways of providing conservation and management, but it is assistance for fisheries conservation and questionable whether the discussion of management, which is a positive step. fisheries in the CSD adds any value, unless the CSD succeeds in defining a clear niche Viewpoint Viewpoint Very little work has been done on Part vii role. of the UN Agreement which deals with the requirements of developing countries, in It is not an option to allow the UN particular, the least developed countries Agreement and the FAO Code to fail. and small island developing states. This Something must be done to ‘jump-start’ is an area where innovative thinking from the two instruments. The Year of the NGOs could advance implementation of Ocean in 1998 provides a great the UN Agreement. Interesting provisions opportunity to change direction in include Art. 26.1, which requires states to fisheries. If the many highly effective and co-operate to establish special funds to committed NGOs that work on fisheries assist developing countries. take concerted action, focused on a few key priorities, they might well succeed in The UN Agreement requires the turning the current tide. Instead of Secretary-General to convene a remaining in limbo, the UN Agreement conference four years after the entry into and FAO Code could become effective force of the UN Agreement to assess its mechanisms for changing fisheries effectiveness, and propose measures to conservation and management globally. improve the conservation and management of highly migratory and straddling fish stocks that the Agreement deals with. This will provide an opportunity to address some outstanding issues. Reviews of the UN Agreement by UNGA should prepare for the Review Conference.

The UN Agreement and the FAO Code still leave many issues unresolved. For instance, only some parts of the UN Agreement apply in areas of national jurisdiction. Hot issues, such as excess fleet capacity, inappropriate subsidies and other trade-related issues, will require further international co-operation to be resolved.

What role do institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have to play? Other questions that have been raised include what role regional trade forums should have and how the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures should be applied. Developing countries, concerned about deteriorating terms of trade, are following these discussions closely. This piece has been written by Joy The roles of treaties and bodies such as Hyvarinen, Elizabeth Wall and the Convention on Biological Diversity Indrani Lutchman, who work on (CBD) and the Commission on Sustainable fisheries issues. Development (CSD) will need clarification. The CBD might have a

38 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Report Book launch What’s the catch?

The launch of A Livelihood from Fishing at London’s historic Billingsgate fish market was an occasion for same concerned reflection

espite the early hour and fishers, fish traders, processors, retailers morning chill, about 80 people and consumers. Over the last few years, Dturned up for the launch of Alain the public have been led to believe that the Le Sann’s book, A Livelihood from Fishing, sole cause of diminishing fish stocks is at London’s Billingsgate Market on 29 “too many fishermen catching too few January. Comprising a cross-section of the fish”. The blame for overfishing has been fishing community, participants included laid unfairly on fishermen. Consumers, Members of Parliament, fish traders, retailers and traders must also recognize fishermen, environmentalists, academics, their responsibilities. NGO representatives and other interest groups. The book launch was intended to highlight the interdependence amongst Billingsgate Fish Market, and the early fish as food, as an important commodity start, were chosen because Billingsgate is for trade, and as a source of livelihood. synonymous with the fishing industry in Given that irresponsible and ill-informed the UK: the name ‘Billingsgate’ has been consumption and inconsiderate and associated with fish marketing over short-term marketing practices are centuries. For almost as long as there has driving fish stocks to extinction, the battle been human settlement in the London for sustainability is as likely to be won in area, there has being a fish market there. the market as on the high seas. For the organizers of the book launch, a historical Today it is the UK’s largest inland fish and interesting venue such as Billingsgate market, being served from almost every would attract the various actors and port in the UK. International trade is also interest groups, and facilitate dialogue at increasingly important to Billingsgate: of a neutral and interesting venue its annual sales of 20,000-30,000 tonnes of fish and fish products, around 30 per cent The beginning of 1998 also seemed to be a is imported from more than 40 countries particularly appropriate time to be across five continents. Fish in fresh, focusing on such issues: 1998 has been frozen, salted, dried, smoked and a variety designated the International Year of the of processed forms are traded through the Oceans by the United Nations General market. Assembly. Moreover, during the first six months of 1998, the UK government has However, the rise of the supermarkets and the Presidency of the European Union (EU) the vertical integration of the fishing at a time when fisheries are very much on industry have undermined the the national, regional and international importance of Billingsgate. In the UK, agenda. between 60 and 80 per cent of the fresh and frozen fish consumed is retailed through Limited access the main supermarkets. Hundreds of The EU is undertaking a review of its small traders have been put out of Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), and ‘up business, and trading activities now for grabs’ are areas which, up to now, have bypass Billingsgate. been protected for inshore and local fisheries by limited access under the Billingsgate market was also chosen for jurisdiction of the coastal state (mainly the the book launch as it provides an 6- and 12-mile zones). These restrictions important link in the chain between may be lifted in line with Articles 2 and 38

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 39 Report Report

of the Treaty of Rome, which define fish a small fishing community in Southern stocks in EU waters as a common resource Spain. He noted, “Today, this community where vessels of all member states are has become a tourist suburb. Completely entitled to freedom of access. The outputs deculturalized, it has lost its traditions and of this review, therefore, have the original people have been driven out far-reaching implications for coastal state by the new owners of the villas. The loss control and inshore fisheries (within the of fishing traditions in many parts of the 6-and 12-mile zones). world is a very real threat to fishing people. Three-quarters of them come from The UK Presidency also falls at a time the South, and it is they who produce 50 when the issue of coherence is receiving per cent of the fish that ends up on our greater attention. Under the Maastricht plates. They also create a further 100 Treaty, the EU has a legal obligation to million or so shore-based jobs, so the loss ensure that its various policies (CAP, CFP, of these fishing traditions will have a Trade, Development, Co-operation, etc.) major impact.” are coherent with each other. Fisheries agreements have come in for much To those of us who work in Intermediate criticism because of the negative impact Technology, the issue of sustainable they are said to have on the sustainable livelihoods is of key importance. Creating development of local fisheries in the third a livelihood from fishing is as much about countries concerned. The UK making ends meet, as it is about turning Government, as President of the Council an honest penny. As this book of Development Ministers and Council of emphasizes, earning a living or creating Fisheries Ministers, is responsible for livelihoods from fishing is far more than a initiating a review of the EU’s fisheries commercial activity. It is a way of life with agreements (to be carried out by June cultural traditions, involving traditional 1999), and for establishing a Fisheries and knowledge and expertise, and requiring Development Co-operation working an understanding of the environment and group to examine the coherence issues the need to maintain an ecological between fisheries agreements under balance. negotiation and the policy objectives for Development Co-operation. Fundamental concept This, concept of livelihoods, combining At the Billingsgate book launch, Chris traditional ways of life with modem Underhill welcomed the guests and made economic activities, is fundamental to an introductory speech which drew on Intermediate Technology’s work and his personal experience of growing up in beliefs. It is a central pillar of the

40 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Report organization and one which was industry, and possibly legislation as well, established by our founder Fritz do to support consumers who would wish Schumacher. His ‘Small is Beautiful’ to contribute to the position outlined in philosophy is very much alive today, the book?” despite those who like to contradict us by saying ‘Big is Better’! Our answer to them On the issue of the review and possible is that powerful factory ships owned by a reform of the CFP, Austin Mitchell, MP for few large companies and employing only Great Grimsby and a great supporter and a few fishermen is not the answer. advocate of fishworkers’ rights in the UK, highlighted the importance of coastal state f we are going to sustain our fish management and giving fishermen stocks in ways which ensure the greater responsibility as key stakeholders Icontinued supply of fish to provide in fisheries: “We need a policy of coastal livelihoods and to feed future generations, state management, a greater role for the then fisheries must maintain their close nation state-the only guarantor of its own links with the people of the sea. fish stocks, and their guardian for the next Sustainable fishing must, apart from generation. We also need community conserving fish stocks, involve viable control of fisheries, so that those people fishing communities and the sustaining of who are fishing locally can protect the livelihoods in those communities. This is stocks and can play a part in management. a central theme of this important book, We need some system of management and central to our work at Intermediate which makes the fisherman a stakeholder Technology. in the industry, instead of a predator and a looter. We need to make the fishermen Both Chris Underhill and Brian O’Riordan stakeholders in the stocks, so that they (IT’s Fisheries Specialist) emphasized that become responsible for the management conserving fish stocks and sustaining and understand the need for fisheries for future generations is as much conservation.” about sustaining livelihoods and economic activities in coastal “What we need to do,” he continued, “is communities with access to few other work towards greater coastal state control resources, as it is about protecting the and local control by the local producer environment and preserving fish stocks. organizations. We need coastal state Biological sustainability is of little value to control because only the nation state has human society if it is isolated from social any interest in conserving the fish stocks and economic sustainability. Economic and making laws. What the Common development, when divorced from Fisheries Policy produces by making fish human development and ecological a common resource to which all members sustainability, invariably leads to greater have equal access, is a competitive inequality and poverty. situation of ‘open slather’ and that can’t go on. Disappointingly, the issues of fish marketing were only briefly touched on, Co-fishing despite many of the participants Andrew George, MP for St. Ives in representing the wholesale and retail fish Cornwall (a community with old fishing trade. Thoby Young, Director of the Fresh traditions and a high degree of Food Company, commented that dependency on fishing), supported this consumers all over the UK would like to view, but took it a step further by know where the fish they are buying-in advocating co-fishing and the supermarkets or on the slab-comes co-management and calling for the from, and how they can tell that it is from protection of coastal waters within the a sustainable source: “No such system, as 6-and 12-mile limits: “Community fishing far as I am aware, exists. Indeed, the only does exist in this country, and I think that fish mark that is widely recognised in the it is something that we need to protect-We UK would be the Scottish Salmon mark, need to protect the work of the Sea and, as far as I understand, farmed salmon Fisheries Committees, and we need to is itself a very damaging product protect the (6-12 mile) fishing limits and environmentally, as a result of hi-tech the fish stocks which occur within those methods. So, what can the fishing limits. Sustainable fisheries is certainly an

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 41 expression which has got very common from now until 2002 in getting the CFP currency today, and needs to, as it is the right. However, the most important word only basis for the future: we need to that I haven’t heard today is the whole

Report Report establish a policy which gives fishermen question of subsidiarity. Getting down to themselves a sense of stake, a the local fishermen, getting those people responsibility, if you like, in the future out of Brussels down at that level... I am management of the industry. very concerned that we get the scientists and the fishermen, the inspectors, the ertainly, we need to protect this enforcers and the rest of them together, where it does still exist in Britain, actually in the individual fisheries. Taking Cand it certainly exists in my area up the point of technology, there is no way as ‘co-fishing’. Fishermen go out as we can stop the fishermen from using ‘co-fleets’ in the way that you (Chris modern technology. What we have got to Underhill) were describing in the do is stop it wiping out the stocks.” Mediterranean, working together and recognizing the need to give the stock a On the international dimensions of the rest in that area, arid to take responsibility CFP, Roger Barton, a Billingsgate trader, for the management of it." noted that “charity begins at home”, and that we should protect our (UK) waters Charles Secrett of Friends of the Earth from foreign interests. David Godbold, a also supported this view of Thames fisherman, further noted that co-management, but pointed out that, in “exclusive rights of the users” was an the case of Europe, “there is an impossible important issue and that small-scale match between a political arrangement fisheries, such as the one he operates in, is that can not deliver the social and being overwhelmed by ‘nomadic fishing’. environmental objectives that everyone According to him, “This is undertaken by sees as essential to resolving the crises. large scale fishing vessels which Two solutions that have been proffered circumnavigate the British Isles under all are, on the one hand, local control over types of flags taking the communities’ fish resources, and, on the other, livelihoods away. I have been fishing for measures to use appropriate technology 35 years and nomadic fishing is a huge to harvest those resources. But how can problem.” these objectives be realized under the Common Fisheries Policy, where there is The EU’s fisheries agreements also came in a mismatch between a political for some criticism. According to Austin arrangement and its inability to deliver Mitchell, developing country fisheries are what everyone accepts is needed? now “threatened by the industrialized world’s obsession with commercial If you can’t change it, the consequence is fisheries. In Europe, we are actually that you either carry on with it or you making that situation worse. The fishing somehow find a way of escaping it. There agreements signed by the EEC with is a political dimension to this that is so several developing countries, particularly fundamental, and because it is so in Africa, are used to subsidize the fundamental, it makes it so difficult to European fishing industry, and do not aid deal with. It seems to. us that it’s only by making a common alliance between environmental organizations, fishing A Livelihood from Fishing industries and the communities in which they live and work, and politicians who A report from the Billingsgate Book launch is are prepared to ban this other agenda, available from Brian O’Riordan, Intermediate that we have the only chance of reforming Technology, Schumacher Centre for the policy." Technology and Development, Bourton Hall, Bourton on Dunsmore, Warks CV23 9QZ., UK Commander Rankin of the Parliamentary Copies of Alain le Sann’s book. A Livelihood Maritime Group agreed that the CFP from Fishing, are available from IT Publications needs reforming, but “it is not realistic to at a cost of £10.29. Contact Guy Bentham by talk about getting out of the EU-it might email: [email protected], fax: ++44 171 be possible but it isn’t going to happen. 436 2013, or by writing to IT Publications, What is important is that we really work 103-105 Southampton Row, London WC1B4HH.

42 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Report

development in those countries Andrew George noted, “Under the EU, we concerned. Big vessels, particularly still do have an opportunity to influence Spanish vessels, are going in and and try to improve opportunities for decimating their stocks under these people in other parts of the world. agreements.” Particularly for the Senegalese, for example, through the EU, we actually have uan Dunn of RSPB (Bird Life the opportunity to re-define the International) was impressed by the expression ‘charity begins at home.’ Ehuge amount of fish on the market Charity begins at home, but it doesn’t end from overseas fisheries: “In fact, about 50 there, and we need to be working both per cent of the fish that we eat in the UK within Britain and internationally to now comes from abroad. A very high ensure that we promote the message that proportion of this is brought in by the Intermediate Technology has very aptly bilateral fishing agreements mentioned, presented to us today.” which represent, in a sense, quota hopping on an international scale. They Rene-Pierre Chever, representing Alain are also causing a huge amount of Le Sann and the NGO Peche et environmental damage to the coastal Developpement, took this issue a step environment. Could I ask Brian further. Quoting from Alain Le Sann, he O’Riordan what progress is being made said, “What is needed today is a more towards a Code of Conduct for global approach to fisheries, an approach Responsible Fisheries?” which addresses quality of life and working conditions, as well as the Brian O’Riordan replied that he felt that protection of the marine environment and the proposed FAO Code of Conduct coastal areas. A purely economic seemed like “a voice crying in the approach will not safeguard our fisheries, wilderness! When it comes to fishing when the environment is being destroyed agreements, for some reason, these are and young people are leaving the sector. viewed as commercial arrangements between governments (and not subject to Increasing support any code). What I don’t understand is how Rather than increasing support to the governments can get away with entering sector, we need to find ways of into so-called commercial arrangements, reallocating it to encourage more which effectively subsidize their own responsible fisheries which employ more fishing fleets to fish in other people’s fishermen. It is totally wrong for waters, and which, as you say, are a kind European tax payers to be financing such of quota hopping.” plundering operations, as the Senegalese

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 43 are having to put up with in their pelagic fisheries, or that the Argentineans are having to put up with in their hake

Report Report fishery.”

Translation power He further noted that “the considerable work we put into writing this book could never have the impact it may yield, had it not been translated into English. We would like to thank Intermediate Technology very much for this. The essence of the book is that there is an essential humanism embodied in the culture and way of life of people who live from fishing. This is something that has got to be asserted in such a book which can be read widely.”

This report has been filed by Brian Q’Riordan of intermediate Technology, UK and a member of ICSF.

44 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Analysis Aquaculture Engineering the Blue Revolution

It is doubtful whether intensive aquaculture or genetic engineering is the answer to the crisis in the world’s fisheries

he 1990s may well be remembered cent, while fish has become expensive as the decade when crisis first hit even for the middle classes in India. Tglobal fisheries. For the 200 million people, mainly from developing The average fish consumption in the countries, who depend on diverse North is triple that of the South, even thriving aquatic ecosystems for their though fish constitutes a more important livelihoods, the consequences have been part of the diet in many areas in the South, most severe. Since the 1950s, the world’s particularly Asia. For example, in fishing fleet has been growing, reaching a Bangladesh, where fish accounts for more peak between 1970 and 1989, when fleets than half of the animal protein intake, the grew at twice the rate of fish landings. average annual per capita intake is 7.2 kg, in contrast to the United Kingdom and Corporate-ridden and stimulated by United States, where fish accounts, international development agencies and respectively, for around 10 per cent and banks, the industrialization of fisheries six per cent of the animal protein intake, and the race for the last fish, have led to annual per capita consumption is close to global problems of overcapacity and over 20 kg. In the long term, both in the North investment. Each year, the governments and South, the intensification of fishing of the world subsidize the global fleet by activities results in small-scale, inshore US$ 54 billion to obtain catches to the value fishermen being pushed aside. of US$ 79 billion. Ever more sophisticated technology is carried by larger vessels and Although global fish catches have steadily bigger fleets producing more waste. The increased since the 1950s, to 116 million Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) tonnes in 1996, there are numerous signs of the United Nations has calculated that that this trend is unsustainable. According close to one-fifth of the world’s marine to the FAO, in 1994, 35 per cent of fishing fish catches are discarded back into the grounds were overexploited or depleted, sea. while 25 per cent were fully exploited and only 40 per cent allowed for an increase in As fish become scarcer, prices increase capture under current exploitation and the international fish market expands patterns. As the FAO itself puts it, “The to new grounds. Fish production in the ever-growing total tonnage of world Southern countries has skyrocketed with fishery production gives a misleading foreign exchange earnings from their fish vision of the state of world fishery increasing from US$ 9 billion in 1983 to US$ resources and a false sense of security.” 17 billion in 1993. While both states and small-scale fishermen in the South may Something fishy temporarily benefit from higher prices, There is no shortage of indications that the poor and the not-so-poor consumers something fishy is indeed happening to in the South gradually lose their access to our oceans. Just a couple of examples may a traditionally cheap protein, as fish help to give an idea of the depth of the literally travels North, either by boat or problem. Worldwide, only the Western plane. Exports increase more than Pacific still keeps healthy tuna resources, production and internal fish consumption while Greenpeace reports that “scientists decreases. In the period 1978-1988, estimate that overfishing has reduced African per capita supply decreased by 2.9 Southern bluefin to only 2-5 per cent of its per cent and, in South America, by 7.9 per original population levels.” Almost all

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 45 groundfish stocks seem to be heavily have been doing it for millennia. The fished or overfished-in just 10 years, the harvest of wild fish and other aquatic world catch of groundfish species has produce such as crabs and frogs, collected been halved. from rice paddies after the first heavy

Analysis Analysis rains, continues to be key for food security t had traditionally been considered and animal protein intake for many that the likelihood of fishing any farming communities in lowland areas of Ispecies to extinction was remote. Asia. Aquaculture, however, starts when Nevertheless, in 1996, the IUCN included human action controls or enhances the about 100 species of marine fish in its Red rearing of fish, crustaceans or mollusc. List of endangered species. Besides The raising of carp within complex several species of tuna, this includes agricultural rice systems in China is sharks and more than 30 species of sea perhaps as old as rice culture itself. Rice horse. farmers in Kerala, India, have for centuries managed a polyculture system based on The evidence is so large, and the rotational cultivation of rice and shrimp implications so deep (not only for the called chemmeen kettu. Equally, 300 years world’s peoples, but also for the fish ago, the Japanese learnt to favour the processing industry) that the problem has growing of seaweed for their diet. now been widely acknowledged. However, more than stressing the need to These low-external input aquaculture change fishing strategy, those who systems, which are often referred to as created the problem in the first place, ‘extensive aquaculture’ by the formal such as the World Bank, the FAO and the sector, do not compete with other uses of agri-food industry, are keen to promote the aquatic environment, but rather aquaculture as a new industrial sector. In complement them by helping to close the words of Ismael Serageldin, Chair of nutrient cycles. For example, in many the Consultative Group on International countries, particularly in Asia, farmers Agricultural Research (CGIAR), “On land, have developed systems in which we have learned to produce food by wastes-poultry, animal and plant cultivation. But in the sea, we still act as wastes-are thrown into fish ponds to hunters and gatherers.” encourage the growth of organisms which fish feed upon. Wastes are then returned To raise the sense of urgency, we are to the field as fertilizer. The main fish again reminded about the need to feed a species in these systems are carp and, growing world population. The FAO more recently, tilapia. These systems still projects that, by 2010, there will be a thrive today through local initiative and shortfall of 16 million tonnes in the NGO rural development programmes. supply of fish and fishery products to Rice farmers are continuously adapting meet demand. As the North Atlantic fish culture to their needs, such as pest and Salmon Conservation Organization weed control. (NASCO) says, “By the year 2025, the demand will have increased from 100 Farmers’ innovations have helped million to 165 million tonnes.” enhance nutrition and increased income. In Indonesia, fish can help raise incomes The crisis is also recognized by industry, from paddies, because fish income does as mentioned by Aquaculture Production not have to be shared with the landlord. Technology, a specialized Israeli The results of the introduction of fish in company: “The only way to bridge the complex agricultural systems may be gap between reduced capture fisheries spectacular even from a purely economic output and increased world demand is point of view. through aquaculture.” A closer look at the proposed solution of aquaculture Malawian experience raises doubts as to its long-term viability. Malawian farmers have been able to It is noticeable that to convince society of totally transform their farm management the importance of learning to cultivate through aquaculture in the marginal fish, the promoters of aquaculture have wetlands, associated with vegetable their best arguments in the experience of cropping. After seven years, these farmers farming communities worldwide, who came to earn more from the gardens and

46 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Analysis ponds than from their croplands and this growth may look, it reflects mostly the homestead, and it has been calculated activity of a single country, China. that, for every dollar invested in the wetlands, seven were generated. The Asian developing countries are the centres importance of such aquaculture for food of production and, in 1995, China alone security is reflected in the fact that 85 per accounted for 63 per cent of total world cent of aquacultural production in the aquaculture. The other main producers South is consumed locally. are India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh and Taiwan. he new prophets of aquaculture Among developed countries, Japan and intend to reproduce the Green the US are the main producers, followed by TRevolution production model in France, Italy and Norway. aquaculture. Industry, multilateral development banks and UN agencies The species produced vary according to proclaim it as the ‘Blue Revolution.’ the kind of water and the regions. Although occasionally referring to the Worldwide, the bulk of the production is benefits of traditional aquacultural still from low-value freshwater species practices, what they propose is entirely that are raised in integrated agricultural different: the monocropping of systems: carp and, to a lesser extent, high-value species to supply international tilapia. The farming of this latter species markets. Will a model based on the Green has recently expanded very quickly in Revolution that failed to meet the needs of Asia and Africa. the resource-poor and increased genetic erosion in agriculture, do any better Aquaculture species underwater? In 1992, worldwide production of tilapia reached 473,000 tonnes, mainly from Though half of marine aquacultural China, Indonesia, the Philippines and production is actually made up of marine Egypt. The production of various carp algae and seaweed, mainly kelp, this species is higher still. In 1995, worldwide article focuses exclusively on fin fish. In production of the silver grass and the last 10 years, aquaculture production common carp was 6.7 million tonnes. has more than doubled, to one-fifth of Although carp are also important in some total world fish production. Given that European countries, particularly one-third of all fish catches are turned into Hungary, developed countries tend to fish oil and fishmeal, aquaculture cultivate more value-added fish species in provides a quarter of the fish used for their freshwaters. In the US, the main direct human consumption. Impressive as species is catfish, while trout is

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 47 appreciated in the us, Europe and Japan. the sea bottom or throughout the water Brackish waters, a mixture of sweet and column, and a proliferation of unicellular marine water with intermediate salinity, algae, some of which may be toxic. are found in such places as mangroves, Compounding these problems is

Analysis Analysis estuaries, lagoons and swamps. pollution by pesticides and antibiotics, used intensively when animals are raised hey account for 7.1 per cent of fish in such high densities. The result is a aquacultural output, centred on serious loss of local biodiversity. This has Thigh-value species. In developing particularly occurred in sheltered waters, countries, there has been a wide such as with salmon in Norwegian and expansion of export-oriented shrimp Chilean fjords, with the raising of oysters aquaculture, while in and mussels in lagoons and estuaries, and European-Mediterranean countries, with the raising of shrimp in ponds. these areas hold the production of oyster and high-valued carnivorous marine fin When aquaculture employs the fish species, such as striped sea bream construction of special installations, such and sea bass. If traditional integrated as ponds, the impacts are even more aquaculture activities in Asia are left pervasive. The most extended example of aside, in the North and South, intensive aquaculture, and that which has aquaculture is focused on high-value been promoted most aggressively by species (molluscs, crustaceans, marine international development banks and fish and salmon) that together account for institutions is shrimp aquaculture. 31.5 per cent of world production, equal Farming shrimp and prawn, or ‘pink to 61 per cent of the total market value. It gold’, for the lucrative markets in the is these areas where the promoters of the North, is the most prominent example of Blue Revolution have invested their the social and environmental resources. consequences of intensive aquaculture practised on a big scale. It has grown The most serious impact of the Blue quickly in Southeast Asia, Ecuador and Revolution aquaculture is that, rather Central America. In 1990, Asia alone than increasing global catches, it may accounted for 80 per cent of the world very well lead to lower total productivity total, covering 820,000 hectares, which of our seas. Most intensive aquaculture produced 556,000 tonnes. Principal operations take place in shallow waters, markets remain Japan, the US and Europe, which compete with other possible uses. with a total market value of nearly US$ 7 Plentiful sunlight and nutrients in these billion. zones contribute to the position of shallows as the world’s most diverse and Shrimp culture is one of the main causes productive types of marine ecosystems, of the destruction of mangroves. In including sea grasses in temperate zones, Thailand, 40 per cent have been destroyed and mangroves and coral reefs in tropical and the clearing for pond construction is areas. Such systems harbour the juvenile only one part of the story. Although there stages of most fish species, including are hatcheries for shrimp larvae, when this oceanic fish, which sustain both supply is not sufficient, larvae are fished traditional and industrialized fishing from wild mangrove systems using activities. fine-mesh nets that also sieve out big quantities of other marine organisms. The intensive, high-density cultivation of fish and shellfish has environmental Problems with aquaculture effects similar to those of intensive Shrimp aquaculture is not only conducted breeding of livestock or poultry. First and in mangroves, but also on agriculture most evident is the accumulation of lands close to water bodies. Besides the organic matter, both in the form of displacement of farmers and rice culture, unconsumed feed and faeces. When the high needs of fresh and salt water lead aquaculture activities are conducted to a drying of underground water sources, directly in the marine or brackish with a subsequent penetration of saline environment, this accumulation may water. Such deterioration means that the well lead to a process of eutrophication, average life of aquaculture farms is only with associated depletion of oxygen near three to five years before being

48 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Analysis

abandoned, leaving behind salted, from intensive aquaculture forces polluted land of no further agricultural operators to change their locations. Both use. factors have made the sector the domain of capital-intensive operators who do not ehind these environmental costs, need to bear the costs of environmental there is the social price that local degradation, that is, investors who are Bcommunities pay by losing access able to put their returns into other sectors, to both aquatic and mangrove resources. or companies able to find new sites for In Bangladesh, for example, shrimp their operations. farmers have priority in leasing land, which has deprived local people of their Dazzling export figures hide enormous rights to common land and public water costs for the countries that export shrimp. bodies. Government regulations to The annual profits from these operations encourage export often worsen the in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India, are problem. In the Philippines, fishers’ believed to cross millions of rupees. unions have protested that bays where However, according to the Third World they fish have been obstructed by fish Network, the negative impacts on local pens. Despite this, it is still local fishers communities and the environment far who provide most of the fish that is locally outweigh any production gains, when consumed. viewed in a wider perspective. Indeed, a coalition of Indian NGOs has challenged The instability inherent in such intensive the right of the shrimp industry to destroy farming systems results in local the rights to livelihood of millions of communities being unable to participate. coastal people. Their actions led the In the words of Roger S.V. Pullin, the Supreme Court of India to dismantle Director of the Inland Aquatic Resource existing installations and to ban new Systems Program of ICLARM, “For operations. stand-alone fish farms, a farmer might expect a total loss or at least serious loss of Inbreeding profits at least once in 10 years and Aquaculture has relied on fish stocks from perhaps, on average, twice in 10 years. a narrow centre of origin, with subsequent This would mean bankruptcy for some inbreeding causing impaired genetic commercial operators, and performance. A classic example is that of life-threatening situations for some the cultivation of tilapia in Southeast Asia. resource-poor farmers in developing As Pullin explains, “Some fish were regions.” Later, the inevitable collected from open waters in Egypt in environmental degradation resulting 1962 and shipped to Japan. Some of their

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 49 descendants were shipped to Thailand in potential effects on wild populations 1965 and they produced a strain that has which are often impossible to predict. It is been widely fanned since then. A few fish well known that many native populations of this strain were shipped to the of Atlantic salmon in Norway are Philippines in 1972 and their descendants threatened with extinction, from a Passages Passages have since been farmed there.” parasite introduced through genetically resistant salmon populations from the n spite of the selection efforts by Baltic Sea. The most severe case of Filipino farmers, in 1989, their tilapia extinction caused by an introduced IA turned out to be less efficient than species may be the case of the Nile perch, new founder stocks collected from the which led to the loss of nearly 200 unique wild in Egypt. As a solution to this species of cichilds in Lake Victoria. problem, ICLARM launched a programme in the mid-1980s to develop genetic Perhaps the most pervasive effect of the resources for tilapia that has led to the Blue Revolution is that the rise in creation of the ‘super-tilapia’, using production of carnivorous fish Egypt’s wild populations. (accounting for all the luxury fish raised) and shrimp has translated into a large Genetically impoverished stocks would demand for fishmeal, which has to be only be a problem for aquaculturists if it obtained from wild fisheries. Worldwide were not that there is no way to avoid the a third of fish catches are devoted to escape of cultured fish into the fishmeal. surrounding environment. This may come as a consequence of bad weather, The rise of, particularly, shrimp floods, broken equipment, etc. In fact, fish production, has introduced new fisheries of cultured origin are sometimes even to tropical countries where they were purposely used to re-stock native virtually unknown previously. In populations. Thailand, this has already been translated into ‘biomass fishing’. Whereas earlier, the To understand the impact of such escapes sea bottom was trawled for shrimp, with and releases, it is necessary to take into the rest of the species discarded or sold in account the fact that, particularly in local markets, now it is done to extract freshwater hydrological systems, anything that can be turned into fishmeal. populations have adapted to their environment through particular genetic However, many of these species have combinations. If large enough numbers of been part of the traditional food of coastal introduced fish inter-breed with wild communities. As a result of these populations of the same or related destructive practices, people are deprived species, these particular combinations of of cheap protein. In Indonesia, demand environmental adaptation are lost. Small, for prawn feed is making unaffordable wild populations are particularly previously inexpensive and locally susceptible to this kind of genetic available products such as sardines. In contamination. Malaysia, the same phenomenon has resulted in a shortage of fish for the salted A good illustration of the scale of escape fish industry. in aquaculture systems is salmon. Adult salmon are raised in giant cages floating No trickle-down benefits in the sea, close to the coast. In 1995, the With local communities marginalized, number of salmon known to have unable to participate in the system, and escaped from Norwegian salmon farms weighed down by environmental increased to almost 650,000, from 570,000 consequences, intensive aquaculture is of in 1994, and, the same year, the no benefit. There is little evidence either to proportion of fish of farmed origin in suggest trickle-down benefits from export samples from the coastal fisheries was 42 earnings. From a national perspective, the per cent. In the Magagudavic River, Blue Revolution results in a transfer of Canada, 1995 estimates of salmon caught cheap protein from the South into less being of farmed origin were as high as 90 abundant, more expensive protein to be percent. Even if there is no inter-breeding exported to the North. The economic and or released fish are sterile, there are other monetary crisis in Southeast Asia shows

50 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Analysis that relying on currency and external It comes down to a question of faith in markets, rather than ensuring internal technology, but before engaging in it, production for food security, may be a countries should ask themselves whether dangerous gamble. genetic engineering in aquaculture provides a solution to the real problems. n January 1996, for the first time in history, genetically engineered Failure to address key questions such as Isalmon was grown in a commercial the environmental stress on marine hatchery in Loach Fyne, Scotland. ecosystems with their resulting impoverishment, and the progressive The ‘AquAvantage Bred Salmon’ were marginalization of coastal communities genetically engineered for accelerated from economic and nutritional livelihood, growth rate with a technology developed may result in gene technology by a research team from Memorial compounding the existing crisis. University, Newfoundland, Canada. The technology transfer was mediated by the Behind the promises of the technology, Boston-based firm, A / F Protein. fish genetic engineering is so far very inefficient and random. The most The application of genetic engineering to frequently used methodology consists of fish started in 1982, with the familiar inoculating the desired genes egg by egg, moral justification of the need to feed a or embryo by embryo. The idea is that the future world population. As NASCO puts gene will be incorporated into the egg’s it, “The predicted demand for aquatic genome and then expressed in the organisms from a rapidly increasing transgenic adult. world population will require increasing use of biotechnology in aquaculture.” Tedious work Injecting fish eggs one by one is tedious Developing countries are encouraged to and requires skilled operators. The get on the bandwagon as soon as possible. efficiency is low, with the average number “The ability to produce transgenic fish of transgenic fish obtained from and shellfish in culture, which grow faster inoculated eggs usually ranging between and to a larger size with more efficient 0-13 per cent of those that survive. Much utilization of nutrients, is of particular of current research effort is devoted to value to developing countries, not only as developing techniques that allow a source of food, but also as export large-scale transfer of genes into fish. products,” states a World Bank Teams around the world are busy trying Discussion Paper on Marine to develop more efficient mass Biotechnology and Developing Countries. transformation’ methods, such as

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 51 Analysis Analysis

electroporation, particle bombardment, salmon and trout. Overtime, and in order the use of liposomes and sperm cell to avoid the sensitivities of consumers vectors, so far with little success. scientists have increasingly used gene constructs containing only fish genes. he reality of fish genetic engineering today is more a It is Canadian scientists who have Tquestion of luck and tricks than a achieved the most dramatic results with comprehensive understanding of the transgenic salmon growing up to 10 times processes involved. Added to this, even faster than control groups. This was done NASCO acknowledges that many by adding the growth hormone gene of a genetically modified fish are highly chinook salmon, controlled by an ocean inbred. flounder antifreeze gene promoter. It is these fish that have been exported to Although there is much basic research to Scotland. be resolved, scientific teams have embraced applied research, and have not Transgenic salmon disregarded patents in the process. A further gene construct, based on the Increasing the economic appeal of Pacific sockeye salmon, created transgenic aquaculture has provided the motivation salmon that were, on average, more than to focus on three lines of research into 11 times heavier than non-transgenic faster-growing, freeze-resistant and controls, with one individual an disease-resistant fish. extraordinary 37 times larger.

Feed accounts for roughly half the However such top growers paid their operating costs in fish farming: Growth price by showing cranial deformities an rates, and food conversion efficiency of opercular overgrowth. At the age of one cultured fish species, are of utmost year, the deformities became more severe interest to aquaculturists. The first and were followed by death. fast-growing transgenic fish, a common carp incorporating a mouse promoter The Canadian team is also researching the gene linked to a human growth hormone production of freeze-tolerant fish. The gene, was developed in China in 1986. cultivation of salmon, for example, is limited to certain latitudes, because if Scientific teams from the US have since water drops below zero degrees Celsius, genetically engineered carp and catfish, the salmon’s cells freeze and the fish dies. while British and Cuban groups have centred their efforts on tilapia and However, some demersal fish species Canadian scientists have focused on thrive in waters under ice, such as the

52 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 ocean pout, thanks to a protein that prevents their blood freezing. Canadian Financing the Blue scientists had the idea to isolate the Revolution antifreeze protein gene from a winter flounder and insert it into the salmon’s The growth of intensive aquaculture in genome. developing countries, including shrimp aquaculture, has been stimulated by an esults proved disappointing, with intensification of loans from multilateral aid the salmon producing only one agencies. From 1988 to 1993, a third of the Rper cent of the protein level money committed to fisheries consisted of aid naturally found in the flounder. It was to aquaculture. while doing this experimentation that, by chance, scientists discovered that the The Ecologist reports that, in 1991, World Bank antifreeze protein gene promoter (WB) loans for aquaculture included US$ 420 activated growth hormone expression. million to India, US$ 386 million to China, and US$ 267 million to Argentina. Though the With fish under high-density cultivation negative effects of intensive aquaculture have being particularly prone to sickness, the become increasingly evident, there has been interest in disease resistance is little change in Word Bank policy. In May 1997, understandable. the WB approved a US$ 40 million loan to the Government of Mexico to help finance an For viral infections, there have been aquaculture development project to intensively several approaches to disease resistance. grow shrimp, tilapia, scallop and abalone. The One of them has been the use of antisense objective is to increase Mexico’s 15 per cent technology, which a Japanese team has aquaculture contribution to total fisheries used to genetically engineer trout production. The Bank has drawn criticism for resistance to the necrosis blood virus. only consulting local people, after the plans were already drawn up, when little could be Several approaches have also been changed. undertaken to fight other infections. Canadian teams working on salmon are In 1997, the bank also approved a US$ 120 targeting a trout gene as a bacterial million loan for livestock and aquaculture inhibitor. Another approach, undertaken development in the Heilongjiang Province of by a team working in New Zealand, is to China, the aim being to expand fish production insert the genes, encoding for biologically by constructing 584 hectares of new ponds, active peptides from frog skin. rehabilitating 237 hectares of existing ponds and restocking a 12,000-hectare natural lake. Although these represent the main areas of research, other points have caught the scientists’ attention. A Japanese team is Superficial knowledge attempting to develop a gene to make Our knowledge of marine ecosystems freshwater fish tolerant to salt and vice remains superficial and knowledge of versa. both short- and long-term effects of .transgenic fish is necessarily poor and Another line of research relates to genes schematic. One certainty we have is that involved with skin pigmentation, with the transgenic fish will escape into the rivers economic motivation for tailoring fish and oceans in the same way that their colour to culinary and ornamental tastes. non-transgenic relatives do. In the case of fast-growing fish, their effects on wild Compared with plant research, transgenic populations and ecosystems would fish research is still in its infancy and, to a depend on whether these fish grow faster large extent, carried out by public research because they eat more or because they are centres or institutes that have established more efficient. In the first case, they would large teams which cross national borders present more competition to wild stock. and have close working relationships with The increased size at a given stage in its their counterparts. It is yet to be seen life cycle could result in transgenic fish whether these relations will survive if competing with other species of the technologies are introduced on a ecosystem or in its predators not being commercial scale. able to feed from it.

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 53 Analysis Analysis

The case of the freeze-resistant salmon comes to mind is that of impoverished would allow this species to colonize marine ecosystems producing large entirely new ecosystems, where they amounts of ‘designer’ fish, under the could compete with the existing control of corporations able to invest in carnivorous species. Such a scenario and maintain, such systems. In this brave leaves open the possibility for thriving new world, cultivating the aquatic and invading large areas, a situation that environment would be a task of industry, would be compounded if the genetic and the role of people would be reduced character was transmitted to wild salmon to workers and quiet consumers of more populations. A similar story of species or less sophisticated fish protein. This advantage disrupting the natural balance industrialization of the aquatic would be the danger with disease environment is, in fact, the very core of resistance. The Blue Revolution.

lthough, in the long term, the Growing population aquaculture industry would be It is certainly true that the world will have Aaffected by such interactions, the to feed a growing population, but it is even fishing sector would be the first one to more urgent that it starts feeding its note the impact of the release of current population and does it in a way transgenic fish into the environment. To that does not pre-empt capacity to prevent these problems, scientists argue continue in future. Instead of trying to that it is possible to design transgenic fish resolve existing problems by developing which are unable to reproduce, a claim new answers that will invariably lead that is far from proven. Even if such more problems, a better solution would be modifications were achieved, they could to solve existing problems and look into alter the behaviour of the transgenic fish, the available alternative that can nurture with a resulting impact on wild the base of life: diversity. populations or ecosystems. The point is not whether such risks are acceptable, but The initial step towards this objective is to if they are needed at all. Proponents of the review fisheries management. After Blue Revolution technology, who taking into account both the degree of continuously remind us of the need to exploitation of our seas and oceans and its feed the world, will affirm that we need direct and indirect impacts, it seems clear to bear the risk. But where is all this that, under current fisheries practices, the leading to? present total catch is unsustainable. Two questions then come to mind. Would it be If the trends of overfishing, intensive possible to maintain current harvest levels aquaculture and genetic engineering are in a sustainable way? And would it be taken to their extreme, the image that possible then to even increase it?

54 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Analysis The answers to these questions depend on lending millions to industry to keep the who you ask. The FAO maintains that North supplied with luxury fish. Existing marine captures may be sustainably integrated aquaculture systems provide a increased by 20 million tonnes, if a prosperous alternative to the Blue number of conditions are met, namely, Revolution, which could be successfully that degraded resources are rehabilitated, enhanced in the future. underdeveloped resources are exploited avoiding overfishing, and discards are reduced. Other voices propose a radical change in the very heart of fisheries management, including its underlying assumptions.

ccording to this approach, the main objective of fisheries Amanagement should be the protection of marine resources against the causes that lead to their overexploitation. In the long term, such a change would not necessarily mean a decrease of the harvest. In the waters of the EU, it would be possible to obtain a level of catch similar or even larger than the ever-dwindling amounts that the EU member states overfish year after year, if proposed management practices were adopted.

An approach that is concerned with maintenance, over mere conservation, could be defined as a harnessing approach, such as has been the root of the way many coastal communities have managed their fishing grounds for millennia.

Having been plundered for all they are worth, the world’s oceans have become impoverished, drained of the rich biodiversity that once fed so many. For an industry desperately seeking to secure supply for continuing demand, the short-term fix of the Blue Revolution is an attractive one, if not the only solution to industry’s own survival. Supplying prawns to restaurant tables in Rome, Washington or Tokyo may bring in ready cash, but it is devastating for aquatic ecosystems and the millions of people who depend on them for their livelihood.

Both intensive aquaculture and genetically engineered fish are the last-gasp efforts of a dying industry trying This article, part of ongoing work by to sustain itself, and should be clearly seen Anna-Rosa Martinez, first appeared as short-sighted in approach. The sorriest in Seedling, the quarterly newsletter players in all this are the international of the Genetic Resources Action banks and institutions, who, instead of International (GRAIN) supporting the sustainable fishing practices of the South, are, instead,

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 55 56 Document SAMUDRA MAY1998 Document WTO Symposium Does trade always make the grade?

Given the variety and complexity of fish resources and markets worldwide, it is not possible to generalize about the virtues of global trade

bout a third of the global fish This is assuming that the latter has healthy production is believed to enter fish stocks that are acceptable to the Ainternational trade and, in value former. In several African countries, for terms, it amounts to US$ 52 billion. example, fish can not move from one According to the FAO Yearbook of Fishery country to another due to high tariff Statistics, the developing countries barriers. If such barriers could be reduced, increased their share of international trade there could be greater intra-regional trade in fish and fish products from 44 per cent which, in addition to reducing pressures in 1985 to 46 per cent in 1995 (declining on national waters, will also generate new from 51 per cent in 1994). In the same employment opportunities and benefit period, the share of tow-income fish consumers. food-deficit countries (LIFDCs) increased from 14 per cent to 19 per cent. Similarly, it is important to reduce import tariffs on processed fish especially from Trade in fish and fish products is a developing countries, so as to promote significant activity for employment, export of processed fish that could income and foreign exchange for LIFDCs, provide employment and income which account for over 90 per cent of the opportunities in many developing global population of fishworkers. Most of countries. Right now, the tariffs prevailing these fishworkers are in the artisanal on processed fish in the European Union sector and are dependent on fisheries for (EU) and the United States are very much their life and livelihood. The significance on the higher side and act as a barrier to of international trade in fish and fish trade for several developing countries. products is further enhanced by the fact that the net foreign exchange earning from There are several instances of sanitary and seafood exports is one of the highest for phytosanitary measures and technical these countries. barriers to trade being used in a discriminatory manner against fish Although the fish caught by artisanal exports originating especially from fishers is primarily for the domestic developing countries. Certification market, the income earned from exports is programmes now contemplated by significant for their livelihood. The access non-state parties, to unilaterally define to international market for fishworkers and apply criteria for sustainable fishing from the artisanal sector is, however, practices from a Northern perspective, hampered by tariff and non-tariff barriers. could further act as non-tariff barriers for exports from the developing countries. They also have to compete with the operations of large-scale and distant water Private initiatives fleets which have an unfair advantage The private eco-labelling initiatives over the artisanal sector because of several intended to circumvent state machineries subsidies that are both hidden and open. and now being developed under the auspices of the UK-based Marine The pressures on the marine resources of Stewardship Council, could be to the one country in a particular region could be disadvantage of fisheries in developing relieved if resources could move into the countries, including artisanal fisheries processing and retailing sectors of that that produce fish for export to developed country from another in the same region. countries. Such initiatives can neither

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 57 Document Document

prevent overfishing nor contribute to different. The actual situation, however, is effective management of fisheries, not clearly known and needs to be especially the highly diverse artisanal studied. fisheries in the developing countries. Second, it is based on the assumption that hese initiatives could also result in fish stocks are generally depleted. While fishers in developing countries this may globally be true, the situation Tlosing their autonomy with could be different in several countries, respect to the patterns of harvesting and especially in the Indian Ocean region were disposal of their catch in the export resources may not be overfished. market. Moreover, such attempts to have an elegant and universal definition of Although the quantum of subsidies given sustainability is next to impossible, given to the harvesting sector is not really the diversity of fisheries and the state of known in the case of developing poor knowledge in many parts of the countries, it could be safely assumed that world about the impact of fisheries on most of the subsidies given to the various stocks. harvesting sector goes to large-scale fleets that may not be economically viable It is generally argued that subsidies given without the aid of these subsidies. to the fisheries sector encourage movement of capital into a sector that is The extent of subsidies to these fleets, already overcapitalized; that they mainly in the form of concessional credit promote overfishing and that they for construction of fishing vessels and fuel represent misallocation of government subsidies, poses an unfair threat, in the financial resources. While this argument form of competition for space and for applies significantly to the fisheries of resources, to the artisanal sector. developed countries, especially to the distant-water fleet of EU, it has the Several examples following shortcomings in the context of There are several examples of such developing countries: subsidized fleets overfishing especially ground stocks in different parts of the First, it is based on the assumption that world (e.g. Thailand, Senegal, Ghana, and subsidies in fisheries sector are going South Africa). The subsidies to the primarily to harvesting and not to the large-scale fleets distort trade. The processing or marketing sectors. While products from the artisanal fisheries this may be the case in many developed sector would have to compete with the countries, the situation that prevails in products from the large-scale sector in the many developing countries may be international export market.

58 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 RDocument The artisanal sector is often at a production, and face competition not only disadvantage because of its inability to from destructive trawling operations but compete with the subsidized fleets of also from brackish water aquaculture large-scale fisheries which, because of operations. Many of the environmental these subsidies, are in a better position to and natural resources costs of shrimp sell at a cheaper price in the international aquaculture operations are borne by market. society, and amount to hidden subsidies to the aquaculture industry. oreover, the externalities of indiscriminate large-scale As a result of these hidden subsidies Mfishing operations are borne by including, for example, unpriced use of the society at large, and this also acts as a land, water and ecologically sensitive hidden subsidy to the large-scale sector, ecosystems (mangroves and wetlands), thus further distorting trade. the aquaculture industry can sell shrimp at a cheaper price in the international The operation of distant-water fleets in market and discriminate against those third countries under fisheries artisanal fishers, who use passive and agreements-which essentially is export of environment-friendly fishing techniques. subsidized fishing capacity-often clashes with the export potential of fish and fish In capture fisheries, however, subsidies products of developing countries. This is may be required to create an incentive for because of the impact of distant-water fishers to shift to more resource-friendly fleet on the fisheries of third countries, in fish harvesting methods. Subsidies may terms of competition for space arid for also be required to develop fisheries for resources, structurally similar to the certain underexploited stocks, so that impact of large-scale fisheries on artisanal pressure on certain overexploited stocks fisheries. This, in turn, negatively affects could be removed. There are also certain the livelihood interests of coastal fishing social situations where subsidies are communities. warranted in fisheries, as, for instance, to help the coastal population to overcome The subsidized distant water fleet in the the vagaries of a civil war (for example, in waters of third countries have been Mozambique) or famine (for example, in criticized for causing negative impacts on Senegal). the resources of the developing countries and for distorting trade. In Mauritania, for Considering the poor opportunity cost of example, it has been pointed out that the labour in fisheries in many developing operations of foreign fishing vessels under countries, fishery resources play an fisheries agreements, including those with important role in alleviating rural the EU and the Peoples Republic of China, poverty. Fish is not only a source of food, have overfished the local cephalopod but also an important source of livelihood. stocks. Further, the highly efficient and Therefore, the sustainable utilization of locally beneficial domestic cephalopod fishery resources should be in the best fleet, using primarily artisanal interests of governments and fishing technologies, is put at a disadvantaged communities, who are primarily position. dependent on fisheries for their life and livelihood. This, however, is not the case Moreover, the tariffs imposed on the in most LIFDCs. export of processed fish and shellfish to discourage landing, processing and Enormous pressure exporting from developing countries Trade in fish and fish products seems to where the fish is actually harvested, put an enormous pressure on fisheries deprives developing countries of resources and their utilization in a enhancing employment opportunities in sustainable manner. This is particularly so the labour-intensive fish processing in the case of international trade in industry. This deprives especially LIFDCs sedentary and demersal stocks (for from crucial employment and income example, beche de mer, trochus, giant opportunities in the coastal areas. Many clams, lobster and shrimp). in several artisanal fisheries in the tropical belt are countries, for example, resources that dependent on high-priced shrimp have little or no domestic market but with

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 59 Document

good international demand have been resources like fish stocks, before arriving overfished. at any conclusion.

iberal trade regimes do seem to Unless efficient and purposive fisheries play a role in exacerbating management programmes are put in Loverfishing of some of the most place, it would be quite meaningless to vulnerable and valuable stocks. In the leave fish mainly to the dynamics of trade. absence of effective and enforced In countries with poor fisheries fisheries management systems, the management policies and programmes, market signals, especially those emitting perhaps the only way to protect the right from the export market, seem to have an to life and livelihood of economically overriding influence on resource disadvantaged coastal communities, is to exploitation. have some restrictions on trade until a proper management system is put in State policy, while efficient at the level of place. This would certainly help reap the promoting revenue-earning activities like benefit of a renewable resource to its production for the export market, is optimal best. woefully inadequate when it comes to revenue-expending activities, like fisheries management. This asymmetry needs to be addressed. There is surely a need to redirect present subsidy policies towards facilitating improved fisheries management and monitoring, control and surveillance systems.

Even if price distorting subsidies are removed in pursuit of liberalized trade regimes, it would still be difficult to say that this would automatically lead to less capital moving into the fisheries sector, This paper was submitted by ICSF to less fish being caught, and greater the WTO Symposium of adoption of sustainable fisheries Non-Governmental Organizations management systems. It can not be on Trade, Environment and generalized that trade in itself is good, as Sustainable Development Geneva, long as regulatory frameworks are absent Switzerland, 17-18 March 1998 or deficient. Studies need to be done to show the impact of trade on renewable

60 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Document Shrimp aquaculture Tread cautiously

At the FAO Technical Consultation on Policies for Sustainable Shrimp Culture, ICSF suggested 10 principles for sustainable shrimp aquaculture

t is now two years since the Code of social impact of bottom-trawling has been Conduct for Responsible Fisheries a matter of tremendous tension in the Iwas unanimously adopted by the FAO Asian region for at least 20 years, Conference and we would like to thank prompting several countries to create an FAO Fisheries Department for organizing exclusive zone in the coastal waters for this highly relevant Technical artisanal fishers. Indonesia even banned Consultation on Policies for Sustainable trawling in the 1980s. The plight of fishers Shrimp Culture. We are happy to be here is now complemented by the at this Consultation. The co-operation indiscriminate development of shrimp established with NGOs during the Code aquaculture. process thus continues into more specific areas now. Almost the entire production of shrimp from aquaculture is in developing The International Collective in Support of countries and, therefore, the negative Fishworkers (ICSF) works to defend the impacts of shrimp aquaculture are of right to life and livelihood of artisanal and particular concern to fishworker small-scale fishworkers, especially in the organizations in several Asian and Latin South. Although ICSF’s main area of work American countries. is related to marine fisheries, it is concerned about coastal aquaculture Fishworkers in countries like Bangladesh, because of the implications of such India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, developments for fishworkers and their Thailand, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and communities. Chile have expressed strong concern about the unregulated development and The implications of shrimp aquaculture mushrooming of shrimp farms in the for, and its impact on, artisanal coastal areas for at least five reasons. fishworkers were a major cause of concern at the South Asian Workshop and First, they fear that habitats and food Symposium on Fisheries and Coastal Area chain linkages, essential for healthy fish Management organized by ICSF in Madras stocks, are being destroyed as a result of from 26 September to 1 October 1996. mangrove clearance and the gleaning of Participants from Bangladesh, India and gravid females and post-larvae from Sri Lanka were serious in emphasizing the coastal waters-They protest the associated environmental, social and economic destruction of fish larvae, the loss of their impacts of shrimp aquaculture on rural nursery grounds, and declines in the communities in their countries. diversity of coastal species.

The main reason for the boom in shrimp Passive fishing disrupted aquaculture is a growing market for Second, they are incensed about shrimp in the North, in conjunction with interference in their fishing activities by stagnant or reduced supplies from shrimp aquaculture operations. Passive capture fisheries in the South. The wild fishing operations are often disrupted by stocks are already heavily overfished, as a onshore installations to pump sea water. result of unselective bottom-trawling in Turbidity resulting from shrimp farm the coastal waters and destructive fishing effluents, and noise pollution from sea of shrimp juveniles in lagoons and water pumps affect fishing grounds and backwaters. The negative ecological and disrupt fishing.

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 61 62 Document SAMUDRA MAY1998 Document hird, they resent the loss of ride roughshod over the long-term traditional access rights to the interests of fishing and other coastal Tcoastal commons. Access, both to communities. The expected rate of return the shore and to the fishing grounds, is on investment in shrimp aquaculture does increasingly obstructed by shrimp ponds, not take into consideration the true social, forcing fishworkers to take different, and economic and ecological costs. often much longer, routes to the fishing ground from their settlements. Further, Internalized costs fishworkers are also deprived of space to Once such costs are internalized, the dry fishing nets and to process their fish. economic rationale to pursue resource-intensive shrimp aquaculture Fourth, they protest the disruptions to development may cease to exist. Unless their community life and to their there is an effective regulatory regime non-fishing activities. There are instances based on sound principles, shrimp where drinking water sources have been aquaculture will continue to cause contaminated. Salination of the soil has problems. impacted negatively on subsistence farming, while common lands, used for Any definition of sustainable shrimp grazing cattle, collecting firewood and for aquaculture has to take into serious fulfilling other primary needs, have consideration ecological, economic and suddenly become inaccessible or social aspects. The following ten points degraded. These, in particular, have should be urgently taken up while increased the workload of women in the developing an effective monitoring and fishing communities. Off-season control system for shrimp aquaculture. employment opportunities for fishworkers in farming operations have 1.Recognize the right to life and livelihood of also declined. fishworkers.

Fifth, they apprehend the development of States should make every effort to ensure the fishmeal industry, since the demand that fishworkers are not adversely for fishmeal and fish oil may lead to affected by the development of shrimp fishing down the food chain, with adverse aquaculture industries. Their right to a consequences for fisheries, especially in secure and just livelihood and their access Asia. Fishmeal and fish oil are two of the to fishing grounds should be protected. In principal components of shrimp feed. this context, states should uphold Article Thailand, for example, reduces about 60 6.18 of the Code of Conduct for per cent of its total marine fish production Responsible Fisheries: into fishmeal, which has serious implications for the capture fisheries of 6.18. Recognizing the important con- the artisanal sector. Moreover, the water tributions of artisanal and small- discharged from fishmeal plants has scale fisheries to employment, polluted the shellfish grounds of artisanal income and food security, states fishers in many places in Peru and Chile. should appropriately protect the rights of fishers and fishworkers, While the disruptions to coastal fishing particularly those engaged in sub- activities and the inconveniences to sistence, small-scale and artisanal fishing communities are well known, no fisheries, to a secure and just serious attempts have been made to livelihood, as well as preferential systematically document the negative access, where appropriate, to tradi- impacts and to establish viable policies to tional fishing grounds and resour- remove such impacts in the long run. ces in the waters tinder their There are no effective regulations to national jurisdiction. manage shrimp aquaculture in a socially and ecologically responsible manner. 2.Implement Article 9 of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. The apparent potential for huge economic returns, in the short-run, including We are happy to notice the importance foreign exchange earnings, has led this consultation attaches to Article 9 of governments and business interests to the Code of Conduct for Responsible

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 63 Document

Fisheries. We would specifically urge this to undertake appropriate environ- consultation to attach special significance mental assessments and monitor- to the following paragraphs and to ing with the aim of minimizing incorporate them into regulatory adverse ecological changes and re- mechanisms: lated economic and social conse- quences resulting from water 9.1.1States should establish, maintain extraction, land use, discharge of and develop an appropriate legal effluents, use of drugs and chemi- and administrative framework cals, and other aquaculture ac- which facilitates the development tivities of responsible aquaculture. 3.Set up participatory regimes for aquaculture 9.1.2States should promote responsible regulation development and management of aquaculture, including an advance States should set up regulatory regimes evaluation of the effects of aquacul- for shrimp aquaculture with the ture development on genetic diver- participation of all stakeholders, sity and ecosystem integrity, based including fishworkers. Additionally, the on the best available scientific infor- practice in some countries, in relation to mation. salmon aquaculture, of prior notification of areas that could be brought under 9.1.3States should produce and regular- aquaculture operations subject to no ly update aquaculture develop- objection from the communities living in ment strategies and plans, as the vicinity of those areas, should be required, to ensure that aquacul- adopted in shrimp aquaculture. ture development is ecologically sustainable and to allow the ration- 4.Ensure legislative coherence and greater al use of resources shared by co-ordination among agencies aquaculture and other activities. States should provide a cohesive set of 9.1.4States should ensure that the legislation for the management of shrimp livelihood of local communities aquaculture and should ensure greater and their access to fishing grounds co-ordination among the departments of are not negatively affected by industry, finance, trade, agriculture, aquaculture developments. forestry, fisheries and other relevant departments at the national and local 9.1.5States should establish effective levels in planning, implementing and procedures specific to aquaculture

64 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Document monitoring of shrimp aquaculture Penal clauses should be introduced in activities. national legislation to ensure that the aquaculture industry pays for the 5.EstablishEnvironmental Assessment (EIA) damages it causes to the environment and procedures to the life and livelihood of fishworkers and other coastal communities. Before granting approval to shrimp aquaculture operations, States should 10.Minimize dependence on fishmeal and fish make mandatory environmental and oil as a source of feed social impact assessment procedures. EIAs must be prepared in the context of existing It may further be worthwhile to activities in the area and their likely discourage aquaculture practices burden on the ecosystem. All EIAs should dependent on fishmeal and fish oil that are account for the social, economic and manufactured from fish caught by ecological costs due to shrimp destructive fishing practices. Preference aquaculture. Further, there should be should be given to shrimp aquaculture provisions for a public review process. practices that depend on locally produced feed and which can be integrated into 6.Adopt a precautionary approach fishing and farming operations.

Given the extent of negative externalities Any form of aquaculture activity that from shrimp aquaculture and the poor leads to the destruction of mangroves and state of knowledge about the impacts of the associated destruction of fish larvae shrimp farming, it is important to apply a and their nursery grounds should be precautionary approach to shrimp prohibited. Interference by aquaculture aquaculture development. This should be activities in fishing operations and in done not only from an ecological point of accessing fishing grounds and coastal view, but also from an economic and commons should be completely stopped. social point. Any attempt at promoting All disruptions to community life in aquaculture should be made only after coastal areas should be prevented. A looking at its likely consequences for other precautionary approach should be sectors, especially marine capture adopted for shrimp aquaculture fisheries. development. Viable aquaculture regulatory bodies should be set up with 7.Introduce ecolabels in shrimp aquaculture the participation of all stakeholders, including fishworkers. Coastal states It may also be worthwhile to develop should uphold the interests, as well as the ecolabels to certify that a particular kind right to life and livelihood, of fishing of shrimp aquaculture operation has been communities. We hope this Consultation carried out in a responsible manner. This can contribute substantively to could be possible after developing a set of developing a purposive policy framework criteria for sustainable aquaculture in to address the negative impacts of shrimp consultation with all significant aquaculture, especially on Southern stakeholders, including fishworkers, artisanal and small-scale fishworkers. under the aegis of the state and/or non-state agencies.

8.Withdraw financial support to irresponsible aquaculture practices

Governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies should withdraw credit support to all forms of shrimp aquaculture that are This Submission of ICSF was mode to socially irresponsible and ecologically The FAO Technical Consultation on destructive. Policies for Sustainable Shrimp Culture, held at Bangkok, Thailand, 9.Implement compensation mechanisms from 8-12 December 1997

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 65 Multilateral Agreement on Investment No safe passage Analysis Analysis

The OECD’s proposals for a Multilateral Agreement on Investment spells danger for fisheries

n 1995, negotiations were concluded Agreement in December 1995, other in New York on the UN Agreement on representatives of many of these same Ithe Conservation and Management states were meeting for another series of of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly negotiations. These, however, were being Migratory Fish Stocks. Representatives of held in secret and by an ‘invitation only’ 139 states had been involved in the group, namely the members of the process, which resulted from the Organization for Economic Co-operation increasingly crisis-ridden state of many of and Development (OECD) and a few the world’s fisheries. The Agreement was hangers-on. an attempt to develop a management regime which would halt and, it was This select group began to hammer out a hoped (somewhat optimistically); reverse new international economic pact, known the dual trends of increasing fishing as the Multilateral Agreement on capacity and effort, on the one hand, and Investment (MAI), intended to promote decreasing resources, on the other. greater legal security and protection for investment as well as to ease the Articles in the Agreement dealt with: movement of capital (both money and production facilities) across borders by • the precautionary approach to limiting the power of governments to fisheries management; restrict and regulate foreign investment. In the words of the Preamble of the current • the duties of flag states and port draft text of the MAI, “agreement on the states in ensuring compliance with treatment to be accorded to investors and management measures; their investments will contribute to the efficient utilization of economic resources, • the need for states to co-operate in the creation of employment opportunities matters of compliance; and and the improvement of living standards.” • the special requirements of developing states and the need for These noble words belie the true intention co-operation with them. of the MAI, though, which is to force countries to grant extraordinary rights to A particularly important aspect of the last multinational corporations, enabling point was the acceptance of the need to them to move money and property freely “avoid adverse impacts on, and ensure across borders, virtually without let or access to, fisheries by subsistence, hindrance. The effect would be to small-scale and artisanal fishworkers” completely undermine the beneficial (Article 24.2(b)), as well as an agreement results of the UN Agreement mentioned to “assist developing states to enable above, as well as many other recent them to participate in high-seas fisheries international agreements which concern for [straddling and highly migratory] the environment, labour standards and stocks, including facilitating access to social policy. such fisheries” (Article 25.1(b)). International investment At about the same time as dignitaries By all accounts, the MAI, as it stands, from so many countries were solemnly would fundamentally alter the climate for putting their signatures to the UN international investment by preventing

66 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Analysis

governments from providing more signatories once the Agreement enters favourable conditions for their citizens into force. and domestic companies than for other investors. Perhaps the most audacious aspect of the MAI is that private investors and Among the major provisions are the corporations would be allowed to sue following: national governments in an international tribunal, rather than in that country’s • Countries would be required to domestic courts, though governments treat foreign investors no less would not be able to sue the investors favourably than domestic ones. before the same international tribunal. For instance, they could not Multinational corporations would maintain economic assistance essentially be given rights denied to programmes that benefit only national governments. domestic companies or place restrictions on what foreign Initially limited to the OECD countries, companies own. others would be invited to sign the MAI but only after the negotiations had been • Limits would be placed upon concluded. If the programme envisaged in performance requirements, which the MAI is carried through to its are laws that require investors to conclusion, the implications for fisheries meet certain conditions (minimum are profound. Yet, there has been no broad levels of domestic employment, public debate on the matter, as there was requirements to purchase goods in for the FAO Code of Conduct for that country or to hire a given level Responsible Fisheries or the UN of local personnel, restrictions on Agreement, or even the GATT negotiations. exports, etc.). The fishing industry in the OECD countries has not been consulted. While countries would be allowed to lodge reservations, specifying that No public participation particular articles of the MAI would not This lack of public participation is made apply to certain industries, such as fishing, more serious by the unusually long time it is not clear whether they would frame of the Agreement. If a country eventually have to be phased out, whether wishes to withdraw from the MAI once it they could be modified to reflect evolving has entered into force, it must wait five situations or whether new reservations years before giving notice to that effect. could be added later, as new industries or The provisions of the Agreement will, technologies develop. New reservations, nonetheless, continue to apply for a however, could not be lodged by existing period of 15 more years-Much can happen

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 67 Analysis Analysis

in 20 years-recall how the fishing support certain parts of the fisheries industry has changed since EEZs came sector, including unemployment and into widespread existence in 1977. reconversion schemes, shipbuilding and modernization support, fuel subsidies few examples of the possible and others. Could some of these implications of the MAI for programmes be deemed to be preferential Afisheries should show the treatment under the MAT and thus dangers. One of the most contentious banned? Could multinational aspects of fisheries management is the corporations, such as Pescanova, establish allocation of the total allowable catch a subsidiary in another country and (TAC). Most countries give preferential demand equal access to these access to their domestic fishermen, only programmes? allowing others in for those species which are not fully utilized. Would the MAI The lodging by the European Union (EU) allow such favouritism? If all foreign and several of its member states, of investors are to be treated at least as reservations to the MAI with respect to favourably as domestic companies, access to fish stocks, is eloquent testimony would it be possible for, say, a Canadian that these concerns are not mere company to establish a subsidiary in a conjecture. small island state in the Pacific and thus gain access to the rich tuna stocks there? International agreements Curiously, nowhere does the MAI make Governments and regional management any mention of any other international organizations usually set the TAC based agreement, treaty or convention relating upon some variant of Maximum to fisheries, such as the UN Convention on Sustainable Yield as a target. There are the Law of the Sea, the UN Agreement on many other possible targets, though, the Conservation and Management of based upon other biological or even Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly economic criteria. If, as a conservation Migratory Fish Stocks or any of the measure, a country wishes to maintain regional management bodies. In fact, fish stocks at somewhat greater among all the international bodies, only abundance, would it be at liberty to do so? the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is If quotas must be reduced to allow stocks mentioned as providing “obligations”, to grow, would a country be obliged to which can not be altered by the MAI. A reduce access for all sectors of the fleets to Preambular paragraph mentions Agenda the same extent? 21 and the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, but some Many countries have developed delegations object to making any extensive programmes of subsidies to reference of this nature.

68 SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Analysis Once the MAI has been finalized by the 29 OECD member states and a few others, it would be open for accession by other states. It is not clear under what conditions the acceding states could join and to what extent they could lodge their own reservations. Accession would have to be approved by those countries which already belong, so they would have an opportunity to put pressure on new members to keep their reservations to a minimum.

he negotiations for the MAI have not concluded, but in March, the TEuropean Parliament became the first democratic institution in the world to comment on the draft text. By an overwhelming majority, the Members rejected the philosophy of the MAI as it currently exists: they called upon the member states of the EU’ to “not accept the MAI as it stands”.

It now appears certain that the MAI will not be finalized and ready for signature before 1999: the United States and the EU have some significant disagreements to work out. It is even possible that the MAI will be stillborn, at least as a creation of the OECD.

However, it is clear that the ideas which it contains shall, indeed, see the light of day in one form or another, as they form a pervasive trend throughout major international financial instruments. For example, there are reports that the IMF may require similar types of concessions from countries which wish to receive financial aid.

This article has been written by CFFA Adviser, Helene Bours, in her personal capacity, and Michael Earle, Fisheries Adviser to the Green Group in the European Parliament.

SAMUDRA MAY 1998 69 ------

million Juvenile salmon From the hatchery and 2,000 tonnes of market-ready salmon from the fish farm. News Round-up Nutreco's annual revenues from fish farming and fish feed Caviar. anyone? Negotiations are likely Boo to taxes operations in Chile was to resume. reported to total about 300 million guilders In late January 1998, Fishermen in Greece In response to the (about US$145 million). Russian Fisheries Japanese decision, blockaded island fishing officials announced that ports in the South Korean officials Chile chided Russia would issue stated that their southeastern Aegean export certificates for fishermen would no Sea in protest against black caviar produced longer be required to new tax regulations that Meanwhile, the us in Azerbaijan, observe voluntary require fishermen to Department of Kazakhstan, and restricted areas agreed pay a value-add~ tax Commerce made a Turkmenistan. Under to outside Japan's (VAT) on their catches. preliminary the Convention on 12-nautical-mile This revision is part of antidumping International Trade in exclusive fishing zone. Greek efforts to align determination on Endangered Species of national laws with the salmon from Chile, with In late January 1998, European Community, hvo of the five eightSouth Korean fish and places fishermen in companiessurveyed t) trawlers protested the a different tax category assessed duties of 8.27 ~Q from farmers. Japanese decision by per cent and 3.31 per entering and fishing in a cent. The other three restricted area off the Oil spoils companiessurveyed Japanese island of were found to have dumping margins so Hokkaido. A ruptured oil pipeline, low that no retaliatory operated by Mobil At least five Japanese Corp. and serving the tariffs were levied. Fisheries Agency patrol More than35 additional Wild Fauna and Flora Qua lhoe terminal in boats have been sent to Akwa Ibom state, Chilean companies will (CITES):export monitor the South Nigeria, released about have the average certificates on sturgeon Korean trawlers. 40,000 barrels of light finding, 5.79 per cent, products (e.g. caviar) Japanese fishermen crude oil about three levied as an import duty will be required after 1 on their product. This is reported damage to miles offshore into April 1998. While gill-nets in restricted Nigerian coastal waters. substantially lower than Russia is a member of waters off Hokkaido Several small fishing the 42 per cent duty OTI'.S, Azerbaijan, sought by US salmon and suggested that villages have been Kazakhstan and farmers. Further South Korean vessels affected, with residents Turkmenistan are not. could be at fault. investigations will be However, Russia asserts conducted in Chile that it can Issue export Food alert before a decision on any certificates for CIS final duty is made in countries that are not late May. CITES members. Close on the heels of similar action by the Turning turtle Good riddance! European Union, the Food Inspection Agency of Canada placed Biologists and Early this year officials Bangladesh seafood on environmentalists in in Japan announced an 'import alert list'. Nicaragua have asked reporting fish mortality their unilateral decision Concerns had been for international and damage to fishing to terminate a 1965 raised after June 1997 EU support to protect one gear. fishery agreement with inspections of of Nicaragua's (and the South Korea in a year's Bangladeshi plants world's) most important time. Negotiations on a found that proper Dutch courage nesting beach for the new agreement to sanitation was olive ridley sea turtle, accommodate qUl.'Stionable for some Nutreco Holding NV, a Playa La Flot National intersecting exclusive Bangladeshi products. company from the Wildlife Refuge. The economic zones have TheCanadian alert Netherlands, has olive ridley is an becomestymied by requires that all announced acquiring a endangered species conflicting terntorial shipments be subject to Chilean hatchery and protected under the claims, with 10 rounds evaluation to detect any fish farm from Caican, Convention on of bilateral talks held improper condition. with the potential for 3.5 !nternational Trade in since May 1996. 7. SAMUDRA MAY 1998 Endangered Species caused at least us$32.3 two-month annual however, says its (CITFS) and several other million damage to 80 closure imposed from presence discourages international treaties. per cent of Hong Kong's 1995-1997. guerrilla actIvity in the Nicaragua is home to 1,500 fish farms. Gdza Strip. two critical nesting sites Holding hands for this species at Playa However, government The 1993 peace La Flor National officials estimate the A flurry (If co·operation. agreement between the Wildlife Refuge and PalestIne Liberation loss ilt only about Iran and Venezuela Chococente National us$10.3 million. About Organization and Israel have af;ree

SAMUDRA MAY tW8 71 The Fish, the Man and the Spirit

You strange. astonished looking. angel-faced, Dreary-mouthed. gaping wretches of the sea, Gulping salt-water everlastingly, Cold-blooded, though with red your blood be graced, And mute, though dwellers in the roaring wclSte; And you, all shapes beside. that fishy be- Some round, some fiat. some long. all devilry. Legless. unloving, infamously chaste; o scaly, slippery. wei, swift, staring wights. What is't ye do? What life lead? Eh. dull goggles? How do ye vary your vile days and nights? How pass yOUf Sundays? Are ye still but joggles In ceaseless wash? Still naught but gapes. and bites. And drinks, and stares, diversified with boggles.

A Fish Answers Amazing monster! that, for aught I know With the first sight of thee didst make our race For ever stare! 0 flat a.nd shocking face. Grimly divided from the breast below! Thou that on dry land horribly dost go With a split body and most ridiculous pace, Prong after prong, disgracer of all grace, Long-useless-finned, haired, upright, unwet, slow! a breather of unbrealhable, sword-sharp air, How canst exist? How bear thyseU, thou dry And dreary sloth? What particle canst thou share Of the only blessed life, the watery? I sometimes see of ye an actual pair Go by! linked fin by fin! most odiously.

The Fish Turns i1lto Q Mlln, Ilnd thell into a Spirit, alld Again Speaks Indulge, thy smiling scorn, if smiling still, a man! and loathe, but with a sort of love; For difference must its use by di£ference prove, And in sweet clang, the spheres with music lilL One of the spirits am I, that, at his will Live in whate'er has life - fish, eagle, dove­ No hate, no pride, beneath nought, nor above, A visitor of the rounds of God's sweet wiJl. Man's life is warm, glad, sad, 'twixt loves and graves Boundless in hope, honoured with pangs austere, Heaven-gazing; and his angel-Wings he craves: The fish is swift, small-needing.. vague vet clear. A cold, sweet, silver life, wrapped in round waves, Quickened with touches of transporting fear,

-Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) Published by 5ebasban Mathew lor IntemabonaJ CoIllclive II ~ 01 F"1Sh'NOlt8rs 27 College Road, Chsmai 600 006, India TeIephooe (91) 44-£127 5303 Facsrnile (91) 44-825 4457 E-mail:mdsaab060giasmdJ1.vsnl.nel.in

ICSF is an Inlemational NGO wormg 00 issues ht concem ICSf Brussels 0!f1Oll: flShwor!lBrs lhII WOI1d OYer. It is 65 Rue Gnltry, 8-1(100 Brussels, Belgiu'n i'I SIaIUS wiI'Ilhe Eo:mmlc and TeIeItJone (32)2 ·218 1538 FacsrniIll (32)2-217 8305 Social Col.niI of hi UN nl is E-mai: glletpOskypro..be on LO'S Speciallisl 01 Hen­ Ga.ernmenlaIlntemalional Of­ garizatioos.. It alsO has l..iaism Edited by StWs .,. 00. RegIstered n GenlML ICSf has oflices WI ...... """'" QIemaj. tn:lia and Brussels, Belgim. As aglobal f1lItMR 01 community organizers. leachers, lechniclans, re­ lDustnted by sean:hefs M:I saentists, lCSf'S James S. Jairal activities encompess mMitor­ Ing and research, exchange c.",,, I , and lIalfllng, campaigns and 'labadi Beach': walercolorby action, as well as communica· Michael Bortei·[)oI(u lions.SAMUDllA REPORT Invites contriJulions and responses. Photographs courtesy 01 Cooespondence should be ad­ Sebasllan Mathew, lntem1ediale lIdYlology, Irene Novaczak dressed to Ile Olemai oIIce. T AIarI Kemeve2, Maureen larUl, Bnbsh AIrways, J;vnes S Jaira~ IlllllI'

The opnons and poslIiOnS Additional news courtesyof upressed i'I tle II'ticIes are tlose of fie auhn conc:emed RelMrs, Mangrove ActkIn Prqect and do not necessartr repre­ """""""""""""""'" sent the oIIiaaI VIl!WS of ICSF Printed It SAIll.llRo\ IlEPOfll can now be ac­ Nagaraj and Company Pvt. ltd.. Chenoal cessed on CSF'S home page on !he World Wide Web at SAM\IO!IARIPORT No. 20 May 1998 hllp:ltwww.gml2000.co.ukflCSl FOR UMITtO CRCU\..ATlON ONLY ,. •