St. John's Evening Telegram
WWF takes up bycatch cause
September 20, 2005
By TARA BRADBURY MULLOWNEY
Despite the East Coast fishing industry‚s repeated calls for action to be taken to curb foreign overfishing on the Grand Banks, many Canadians feel the federal government, and the international organization that governs stocks in the area ˜ the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) ˜ have failed in that regard.
Now, a prominent environmental group has come up with its own plan of attack.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada will release its report, Bycatch on the High Seas: A Review of the Effectiveness of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), and launch a national public awareness campaign today.
That campaign will include print, radio and television advertisements and meetings with members of the fishing industry, unions, companies and universities.
Reduction
WWF Canada‚s first goal is to reduce the bycatch in the Grand Banks, outside Canada‚s 200-mile limit, by 80 per cent. Within the next 45 years, it hopes to see fish stocks in the area return to biomass levels last recorded in 1950.
The organization wants the federal government and other NAFO member nations to take a number of steps, including addressing fishing overcapacity, improving technology, protecting known sensitive fish habitats and pursuing fisheries certification as an industry incentive for those who adhere to best practices.
According to the WWF, every year, tens of thousands of tonnes of depleted groundfish stocks banned from commercial use are taken as bycatch ˜ often caught by accident in fishing nets and gear intended for other species ˜ on the Grand Banks.
„Post-moratorium, bycatch rates were probably pretty reasonable ˜ around 170 tonnes for a couple of years, and then it started doubling and doubling again,‰ said Bob Rangeley, marine program director for the WWF‚s Atlantic region.
„In 2003, it was as bad as 5,400 tonnes ˜ about 90 per cent of the population (of cod stocks in the area) was taken out by bycatch. Recovery (of fish stocks) just isn‚t possible with anywhere near those levels of bycatch.‰
The WWF says only 15 per cent of the 2003 bycatch was caught by Canadian fishermen, with the majority taken by fishermen from countries including Portugal, Spain and Russia.
Rangeley said his organization is aware that there are problems with the accurate reporting of bycatch ˜ „even what is reported is not sustainable, and we know those are underestimates,‰ he said ˜ and that a lot of it is not taken entirely by mistake.
„We know a lot of this is not accidental bycatch,‰ he said. „There‚s a real profit motive to targeting bycatch. In fact, we‚ve heard from a number of sources that these fisheries wouldn‚t be viable without the bycatch, so species that are in danger and at risk are subsidizing fishermen, essentially.‰
NAFO rules are extremely weak in this area, Rangeley contends.
He said 1,250 kilograms of bycatch per boat is allowed at one time.
„If you exceed that, you‚re supposed to move five kilometres and then you can catch it again, catch it again, catch it again,‰ he said.
„That‚s just one fishing boat. If you‚ve got a dozen out there, it has a significant impact.‰
NAFO consists of 12 member countries ˜ plus a handful of countries from the European Union that counts as one NAFO member ˜ that are pursuing commercial fisheries just outside the 200-mile limit on the nose and tail of the Grand Banks. The organization sets total allowable catch limits and allocates quotas to its members.
However, if a contracting member disagrees with its quota, it can take advantage of an objection procedure and set its own quota.
Arlin Hackman, WWF Canada‚s chief conservation officer, said it is imperative that NAFO‚s rules be changed.
„NAFO has to join the modern world of ecosystem-based management,‰ he said. „Whether it‚s the reform of NAFO or replacing NAFO, something has to look different in the governance and management of those fisheries.‰
Hackman said the WWF is not convinced that any reforms to NAFO will be enough to solve the bycatch problem.
He is, however, optimistic that his organization‚s plan of attack is not too late.
„We‚re a hopeful, (positive) organization, and we‚ve actually seen things that have been pulled back from the brink in other areas of conservation and nature, but it does take all areas of civil society working towards it in order to make it happen.
„If we could, as a global organization, find an alliance with leadership companies or individuals, even within the fishing industries, and go jointly to individual member nations, we might start to get somewhere.‰