Just wondering if any of you guys have read following article, it is from web page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4181652.stmsource: bbc web site, August 24, 2005
New plan targets illegal fishing
by Richard Black
BBC News website environment correspondent
A coalition of environmental and development agencies has launched a new
programme which aims to stem the loss of fish stocks worldwide.
The Profish programme will compile a global list of illegal fishing vessels,
promote sustainable aquaculture and help protect marine reserves.
It could also reduce the extent of legal fishing by European boats in
African waters.
Profish was launched at the Fish for All Summit in Abuja, Nigeria.
Costly haul
There are no reliable global estimates either for the economic value of
illegal fishing, or for the amount of environmental damage it does.
Small-scale fishing is causing extensive ecological damage, by harming coral
reefs and spawning grounds.
Warren Evans, World Bank
But there is general agreement at government level that it is a serious
issue, which is why the Council of the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) adopted in 2001 the International Plan of Action to
Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing.
The logic behind Profish is that information is key to reducing the impact
and extent of illegal activities.
"There has been considerable work over the last few years to track illegal
fishing," the World Bank's Director of Environment Warren Evans told the BBC
News website.
"Although large vessels receive a lot of attention, in fact small-scale
operations at local level are causing extensive ecological damage, by
harming coral reefs, spawning grounds and so on; basically these boats
exploit every stock they can."
Illegal list
The process of compiling the rogues' register will be led by IUCN, the World
Conservation Union, which joins the World Bank, FAO, and other conservation
bodies in launching Profish, with an initial investment of just over US$1m
from Iceland, France, Norway, Finland and the World Bank's development
facility.
Profish will also develop a "small-scale fisheries toolkit", which will show
fishing communities how to manage stocks in a sustainable yet profitable
way.
It also aims to develop estimates of "resource rent loss" for developing
countries - the amounts of money they are losing by not managing fisheries
for sustained production.
Dwindling resource
Fish provides 22% of the protein intake in sub-Saharan Africa. This share,
however, can exceed 50% in the poorest countries ..."
WorldFish Center
Fish is a vital food in many parts of Africa, and in other developing
countries, supplying protein and micronutrients such as zinc, calcium and
vitamin A.
But at the opening of the Abuja conference, held under the auspices of the
New Partnership for African Development (Nepad), the research organisation
WorldFish Center warned that stocks in Africa are being depleted rapidly,
with the availability of fish as a food within the continent declining.
A 20% increase in fish farming, it said, would be needed to maintain
consumption at current levels.
Challenging subsidies?
Among environment and development groups, there is concern at the quantities
of fish which vessels from developed nations, especially those belonging to
the European Union, are catching legally in African coastal waters.
Off the coast of west Africa, the annual catch of EU boats increased 20-fold
between 1950 and 2001, alongside rising levels of subsidy from European
governments.
"Profish may be relevant to this issue," acknowledged Warren Evans.
"It may be that European nations will have to look at their levels of
subsidy."
The first tranche of Profish activities, including the database of illegal
vessels, should be up and running within three years.
Author
Topic: A day of observing the First Nation Fishery (Read 16335 times)