How to save the ocean - Prospect · PROSPECT SEPTEMBER 2015 3 Contents 09 Keeping illegal catch out of shops Andrew Opie 10 Policing the sea Modern enforcement Dan Schaeffer 12 Oceans

SEPTEMBER 2015

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How to save the oceanClosing off the high seasjosÉ marÍa figueres

Chile’s planjay elwes

The legacy we wantdona bertarelli

PROSPECT SEPTEMBER 2015 3

Contents

09 Keeping illegal catch out of shops Andrew Opie

10 Policing the sea Modern enforcement Dan Schaeffer

12 Oceans in peril What’s happening to the sea—in numbers

14 The next steps How to stop illegal fishing Jay Elwes

15 Our ocean legacy There is progress—but it is slow Dona Bertarelli

The effects of climate change and environmental degradation tend to be regarded by governments and policymakers as being connected with pollution of the

atmosphere and degradation of the land. But as one expert put it to me recently, imagine looking at the earth from space and saying it doesn’t really matter what we do to the blue bit. The world’s oceans—which are regarded by experts as a single, connected entity and are often referred to as a singular ocean—are undergoing profound change and the well-being of the planet and the stability of its climate are intimately bound up with their condition. Any debate over the long-term outlook for the world’s climate must involve an appraisal of the health of the ocean—and even the most cursory appraisal of the condition of the seas gives cause for profound concern.

One of the greatest problems is overfishing, where fishing fleets extract fish from the sea at a faster rate than the species can reproduce. The results of overfishing can be catastrophic. As Matt Rand from the Pew Charitable Trusts points out in these pages, since 1990 there has

04 The science of decline How we damage the oceans Alex Rogers

06 Time to close off the high seas? International treaties might do it José María Figueres

been a 90 per cent decline in the numbers of some of the larger predatory fish, including tuna, sharks and marlins. The removal of top predators of this sort can cause the collapse of entire ecosystems, in some cases so severe that they cannot be reversed.

The idea that areas of the ocean once teeming with life should become dead gives a deep sense of desolation. But there is a practical dimension to the stripping-back of the ocean’s wildlife. Seafood is a crucial part of the diet of millions of people. If fishing continues to denude the sea, a vital part of the world’s food supply will be diminished.

The introduction of Marine Protected Areas, where activity is controlled and in some cases even prohibited, has been encouraging but inadequate. There are not enough of them. Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement from 1992, governments agreed that by 2020, 10 per cent of the ocean would be protected. The current amount is 3.4 per cent. Dan Laffoley, Marine Vice Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Commission on Protected Areas, wants to

see that number at 30 per cent.Protected areas alone are not a solution

to the problem—illegal and unregulated fishing will simply carry on elsewhere. The crucial combination is to create protected areas on the one hand, and improve the activities of fishing fleets more broadly on the other. This will require large-scale efforts by governments, who will need to monitor closely their own ports and fishing industries. There is also a drive by a British team of scientists to set up a system to allow fishing vessels to be monitored by satellite. Governments are taking an interest in this system, which is called “Catapult.”

Are governments doing enough? “The right things are starting to be discussed,” says Laffoley. “But we need to act.” The scientific analysis of the state of the ocean by Alex Rogers (p4) reinforces this point.

On p14, Heraldo Muñoz, the Chilean Foreign Minister looks ahead to the Our Ocean conference, which this year will be hosted by Chile. “We expect to have... announcements and commitments,” he says. It is to be hoped that governments and international agencies can act—and act fast—to halt the decline of the ocean.Jay Elwes, Deputy Editor, Prospect

Act—and act fast

Cover image: © Christian Aslund/Greenpeace

PROSPECT SEPTEMBER 20154

Discarded fish: “In wild capture fisheries, up to 10kg of unwanted fish can be caught for every 1kg of the target fish species”

than of the deep seabed. Yet scientists are starting to understand

how important the ocean is as a part of the Earth’s complex environmental systems. The ocean not only supplies us with food independently of any human cultivation, but also plays a crucial role in the regulation of atmospheric gases, global temperatures, major bio-geochemical cycles and it also soaks up large amounts of manmade pollutants. It is also the medium for the transport of the goods of global trade and contains a large proportion of future oil and gas reserves—should we decide to use them.

There is currently great interest in the development of maritime economic

activity, with a focus on new methods of aquaculture, deep-ocean mining and exploitation of the genetic resources within the great diversity of ocean life. We are on the brink of a new industrial revolution in the oceans. But unhappily, this comes at a time when the seas are showing signs of widespread degradation, and a corresponding decline in the services that marine ecosystems are able to provide for humankind.

Of all human activity, fishing has the greatest direct effect on the oceans. We fish across all latitudes, including into the Arctic and Antarctic seas, and the deepest fisheries go to a depth of 2,000m. The over-exploitation

The science of decline

The world’s oceans comprise 1.3bn cubic kilometres of water and has a mean depth of around 4,000m. The Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific, drops down to 11,000m

(6.8 miles). Fewer people have been to such a depth (three) than have walked on the moon (12) and we have better maps of Mars

How we are damaging the oceans Alex Rogers

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HOW TO SAVE THE OCEANPROSPECT SEPTEMBER 2015 5

of marine fish stocks is a well-known and understood problem. It arises from overcapacity in fishing fleets and the poor management of fisheries where quotas, if set at all, are too high, and often exceed the recommendations of scientists. Bad subsidies such as cheap fuel also contribute to the problem. The World Bank has recently published a report entitled “Sunken Billions Revisted,” in which it estimates that the world loses $83bn every year through the mismanagement of fish stocks.

The illegal tradeIllegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is another significant problem encouraged by poor international cooperation. It is estimated that one in five fish caught is caught illegally. Because many of the fish species targeted play important roles in marine ecosystems, either as top predators, suppressing the abundance of their prey, or as important food for predators, depletion of stocks means changes in marine ecosystems. This can make them less productive and less resilient to shocks from environmental changes of the sort that are associated with rising CO2 emissions and other human activities.

Bycatch is the name given to fish that are caught but not wanted, and in wild capture fisheries this can reach 10kg for every 1kg of the target fish species caught. It is one of the prime drivers in the growing threat of extinction for many ocean predators such as seabirds, whales and sharks. Some forms of fishing are damaging to the ecosystem in other ways. Bottom trawling, especially of deep-sea ecosystems which show low natural levels of disturbance, can destroy coral reefs and coral gardens. Trawling also flattens the seabed and resuspends sediments, reshaping the sea floor and making it less suitable for marine life. Overall, these mechanical impacts reduce the abundance and diversity of life on the seabed. In the worst cases they leave behind deserts where previously coral allowed the existence of a host of other animals, providing an important habitat for the early life stages of some fish.

PollutionPollution remains largely out of sight and out of mind but is pervasive. Nutrient enrichment of the coastal ocean, mainly caused by the run off of agricultural fertilisers into rivers, leads to a great increase in microbial activity in the water. This uses up the oxygen in the water and in severe cases, such as in the Baltic Sea and the northern Gulf of Mexico, dead zones can arise in which animals are suffocated in anoxic waters depleted of

oxygen. These dead zones have spread, with numbers doubling nearly every decade since the 1960s and have now been reported in more than 400 areas.

There have been fewer oil spills over recent years but the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates that accidental release can damage the ocean and people’s livelihoods. The exploitation of oil and gas reserves in the Arctic or in the deep sea brings new risks, especially as these parts of the ocean may be more vulnerable to the impacts of spills than temperate or tropical ecosystems.

Heavy metals and organic chemicals also end up in the ocean. These chemicals can be concentrated in food chains with predators accumulating particularly high concentrations. Orca in the North Pacific

have accumulated high concentrations of chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are used widely in industry as flame retardants. These chemicals affect the physiology of animals in subtle ways, damaging the immune system, and affecting reproductive and developmental physiology. PCBs were banned by the US in 1979 and replaced by polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) but now these have also been found to have toxic effects and as a result are also being phased out. And now a cocktail of new chemicals including sunscreens, perfumes, pharmaceuticals and even recreational drugs are ending up in the ocean. There is little understanding of what the effects of this might be.

Then there is plastic litter. It has been estimated that somewhere between 4.8 and 12.7m tonnes of plastic enters the ocean each year (based on 2010 figures). Walking on the beach, or even sailing across the Pacific Ocean, will reveal this problem, in the form of scattered plastic bottles, plastic bags, packaging materials and pieces of fishing line or nets. This plastic is a hazard to marine life, especially animals such as turtles, which mistake it for their prey—jellyfish—and ingest it. The plastic becomes degraded and is ground up into small, microplastic particles of less than one centimetre in length.

In 2011 we were sampling remote underwater mountains in the southern Indian Ocean at depths down to 1.5km, looking at the impacts of deep-sea fishing. On returning to the UK, it was found that

our sediment samples and even the corals we had sampled with a deep-sea robot contained microplastic samples. These were in such a high concentration that it was subsequently estimated that the deep sea is a major repository for this material. Microplastics can be ground up into such small particles that they are ingested by zooplankton: crustaceans, molluscs and jellyfish.

Climate changeThe ocean is also becoming increasingly affected by climate change. Human CO2 emissions cause global warming, and the ocean is absorbing a large proportion of this additional heat. The effects are far reaching, with marine life already showing dramatic shifts in distribution to the north or south (depending on hemisphere), changes in the timing of events such as reproduction, and also in the structure of entire biological communities.

Perhaps the most dramatic impact seen is that of mass bleaching in reef-forming corals. When water temperatures exceed a physiological threshold the coral start to eject symbiotic photosynthesising microorganisms called dinoflagellates that live in their tissues. As a result the corals bleach white, the colour of their calcareous skeletons. The corals depend on the dinoflagellates for their energy and nutrients and without them they will eventually die.

This mass coral bleaching was first detected in the late-1970s and in 1997/1998 a single mass bleaching event, driven by the combination of a major El Niño weather event with global warming killed 16 per cent of the world’s coral reefs. The incidence of these events has risen and through this year and the next coral reefs will suffer from another very large mass bleaching.

Increasing atmospheric CO2 has another effect on the ocean: acidification. When CO2 dissolves in seawater it forms carbonic acid which alters the carbonate chemistry of seawater, reducing the availability of calcium carbonate to marine life. Animals like corals, shellfish and many species of plankton use calcium carbonate to build their skeletons. A reduction of the concentration of this material in seawater slows their growth and weakens their skeletons. As a result of mass bleaching and acidification, coral reefs are now the most threatened ecosystems on Earth.

Acidification also affects other aspects of the biology of marine life. It interferes with the sense of smell of some marine animals so they cannot find their habitats, prey or detect predators. A warmer ocean influences the metabolism of marine life, so fish grow to smaller sizes.

“The World Bank recently estimated that we lose $83bn a year through the mismanagement of fish stocks”

HOW TO SAVE THE OCEAN PROSPECT SEPTEMBER 20156

Time to close the high seas?

These problems are daunting. However, modern science and technology have delivered the solutions to some. It is also worth considering that the oceans have not suffered the large-scale extinctions that many terrestrial ecosystems have undergone since human civilisation became industrialised, as it has taken longer for humans to dominate the sea than the land. We have a narrow window of time in which to act while the ocean is still in a resilient condition, with much of its biodiversity still present.

The causes of overfishing and the destructive effects of fishing are well understood. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) clearly states that fisheries should be sustainable and that they should not cause long-term damage to the ecosystems in which they take place. The problem is one of implementation. There is a lack of transparency in how fisheries are managed and how they are financed. There is fragmentation in the institutional framework set up to manage the ocean.

Effective monitoring, control and surveillance are required to stamp out illegal fishing. More effective oversight of fisheries management bodies is needed, including a reform mechanism that targets organisations that are not improving marine sustainability with sufficient speed.

Protection of marine biodiversity requires that the most destructive fishing

methods be eliminated. Marine protected areas are important as they maintain the natural structure of marine ecosystems, including the age and size structure of fish populations. This prevents the structural simplification of marine ecosystems, as well as their capacity to absorb shocks. It also protects fish populations from the genetic selection exerted by fishing which tends to drive fish to mature earlier, at a smaller size and thus for stocks to become less productive.

Enforcement is now being tackled through port inspections of vessels and market-based measures including the tracking of catches from capture to supermarket to make sure they are legitimate. There are also the more conventional fisheries patrols and onboard observers.

Problems of marine pollution originate on land. For many new chemicals that we use, there is a lack of scientific understanding

of the effects on marine life. This demands further investment in scientific investigation of the toxicology of such materials, paid for by manufacturers with an independent party undertaking the testing.

States should be made responsible for monitoring and reporting the impacts of river runoff in their coastal waters, driving improvements required to reduce the

occurrence of dead zones in coastal waters. CO2 emissions are rising at a rate that

is unprecedented for hundreds of millions of years. It is notable that almost all of the great extinctions of past oceans have been associated with a major disturbance in the global carbon cycle. The current and future effects on the ocean have been poorly considered at an international level but are extremely serious.

Even within the span of the rest of this century, whether humankind follows the current trajectory of CO2 emissions or whether emissions are cut drastically to limit climate change to a rise of 2 degrees Celsius in global temperatures will make a dramatic difference to the health of the oceans. If CO2 emissions continue unchecked, more marine ecosystems will be severely damaged or lost. There is also likely to be a dangerous feedback mechanism, as the ocean’s capacity to absorb atmospheric CO2 decreases.

This is a global emergency. It requires an immediate response by the international community to reduce CO2 emissions to avoid warming above the 2 degrees Celsius level. If this is not achieved and if the international community fails to address the threat posed to the health of our seas, then sea life—and the health of all the planet—will suffer. The effects of doing nothing now may prove irreversible.Alex Rogers is a professor of conservation biology at the University of Oxford

Those who can, steal. We must act now José María Figueres

By 2020, one of two things will have happened. Either we will have taken steps to halt and reverse the declining health of the world’s oceans, or we will be

forced into a drastic effort to salvage what we can of the sea’s dwindling marine life, which could require closing much of it to human activity. That’s the stark choice put forward by the Global Ocean Commission, an organisation based at Somerville College, Oxford. I am a co-chair of the commission and follow the situation closely; at this stage, both outcomes are possible.

We have a moral duty to act. But before action can be taken a change has to come at a global scale. Governments, business leaders and the international community must heed the warnings of

scientists. If they do not, and nothing is done, then we will continue onwards to clearly sign-posted disaster. The current plunder of the high seas threatens to become the last great buffalo hunt, a free-for-all ending in irreversible loss of iconic

species. Except this time we cannot plead ignorance. Political developments make me cautiously optimistic that this issue is gaining prominence in the international arena, not least at the United Nations and G7. But rescuing the ocean will take much more than well-meaning international agreements: action will also be needed.

On 19th June, the 193 member states of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to draft an international treaty on control of the high seas: the 64 per cent of the ocean that lies beyond the jurisdiction of any state. An agreement to reach an agreement may not sound much like progress, but it is the culmination of nine years of fraught negotiations, and marks the first time that UN member states have considered how to protect marine life, rather than how to manage its removal. If adopted, the treaty will make

“The plunder of the high seas threatens to become the last great buffalo hunt. But this time we cannot plead ignorance”


A damaged coral reef in Indonesia: coral can be damaged by bottom trawling, microplastics and bleaching due to temperature changes

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it possible to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) in the high seas. The Global Ocean Commission campaigned for this global treaty, which will be the first for the ocean in over 20 years. We will push for it to be adopted on schedule, between 2018 and 2020.

The governance of the high seas can best be compared to that of a failed state. Anarchy prevails, and those who can, steal. Governance is, at best, weak and fragmented, and at worst, entirely absent, with no international body responsible for regulating the use of resources. The implementation and enforcement of agreed commitments is inadequate, and coordination across sectors—fishing, transport, mining—is virtually non-existent. Only 0.79 per cent of the high seas falls within designated protected areas, compared with 12.7 per cent of land. How has two thirds of the surface of the planet descended into such a state of lawlessness?

Most people will only ever see the high seas through an aeroplane window, if at all, but we will all suffer the consequences of their deterioration. The high seas are responsible for half of the ocean’s biological productivity, home to the great whales, sharks and the tiny plankton that sustain food chains and provide vital functions like carbon absorption. If the impact of overfishing and marine pollution, as well as the acidification, warming and deoxygenation that come from climate change, leave the high seas unable to fulfil these essential functions, the results will be disastrous. Marine life will die out. The sea will lose its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Destructive pirate fishing, and the uncontrolled dumping of plastics and other waste, is not a victimless crime. Industrial high-seas fishing fleets, most of which receive generous public subsidies from the world’s richest nations, deplete the fish stocks that are targeted by smaller fishers nearer to shore. This is already exacerbating poverty, malnutrition and instability in some of the world’s most vulnerable coastal and island communities, notably in west Africa, a region that loses $1.3bn of fish to illegal fishers every year. Evidence also points to links between these unscrupulous fishing operators and other even more sinister crimes, including drug smuggling and slavery.

This sorry situation has come about through a combination of apathy, neglect and opportunism. When the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)—the “Constitution for the Ocean”—was adopted in 1982, the high seas were protected by inaccessibility, and left essentially ungoverned by the convention. Today, there is virtually nowhere that industrial fishing vessels

cannot reach, offshore oil and gas drilling is extending further and deeper every year, and deep sea mineral extraction is becoming increasingly attractive for resource companies. The freedom of the high seas, guaranteed by UNCLOS, is being exploited by those with the money and technology to do so, but with little concern for the future.

International law and governance lag decades behind the scientific understanding of the importance of the high seas. It is time to catch up. The UN’s June treaty resolution was a good start, but much more is needed to combat the many drivers of ocean decline. There are two further seminal international agreements that are scheduled for later this year. The first will be the commitment by all states to a new set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to replace the now expired Millennium Development Goals—this will take place at a UN Summit in September. Unlike their predecessors, the SDGs will be universal rather than focused only on poorer regions, and—presuming the latest draft survives the

final negotiations—will include a goal to: “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.” Specific targets, to be hit by 2020, include ending overfishing, illegal fishing and destructive fishing practices; conserving at least 10 per cent of marine and coastal areas; prohibiting “certain forms” of subsidies that contribute to overcapacity; and eliminating all subsidies that contribute to illegal fishing.

These pledges, though welcome, will require major interventions and coordination among nations, international agencies and the private sector. Successfully banning the deeply unjust fishing subsidies (primarily awarded by rich countries including the US, EU, China and Japan) that artificially boost fishing overcapacity by about $30bn a year, will be a complex affair that will meet staunch opposition. On the high seas, where two-thirds of fish come from dangerously depleted stocks, the vast majority of fishing is carried out by just 10 states, all of which heavily subsidise their fleets. This issue has languished unresolved at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for decades, but I detected a glimmer of hope when I

attended WTO meetings in June. When trade ministers meet in Nairobi later this year, they could back the UN’s new goals, which would leave the way open for the WTO to abolish these harmful fisheries subsidies.

Dealing with subsidies will help, but the real task is to close our seas, ports and markets to pirate fishing vessels. There has already been some progress in this area, made by regional fishing organisations, by many states (notably the US and EU member states), and by agencies like Interpol. But illegal fishing remains a crime that all too often does pay, and far too seldom results in punishment. Globally, illegal fishing takes 20 per cent of the ocean fish catch, a number that remains stubbornly high, and coordinated global action will be required to meet the target of ending illegal fishing by 2020. Fortunately there is already the 2009 Port State Measures Agreement, which, once implemented, will see ports closed to pirate fishers—25 states must ratify the agreement before it can come into force. Eleven have already done so, and a further 17 have initiated the process.

The second international agreement expected this year is the climate change deal, which will be negotiated in Paris in December. While the terms of this accord are far from certain, judging by the most recent International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the ocean will feature prominently in discussions.

In the course of the coming five years, the practical, measurable outcomes of these international goals and treaties will determine whether sufficient action has been taken to avoid closing the high seas to fishing. The Global Ocean Commission is hopeful that it will not come to that, but will not hesitate to call for such extreme measures if required. Our oceans are too precious not to save.

The human and financial consequences of declaring the high seas a protected area would be negligible, and would be more than compensated for by the resulting benefits to fishing in coastal zones, which employs and feeds far more people. Putting this further into perspective, a recent report estimates the value of carbon storage by the high seas at between $74bn and $222bn per year, easily dwarfing the $16bn generated by high seas fisheries.

The second half of 2015 will be complex—but crucial. The threats are well known, and the solutions are on the table; political leaders must take this opportunity, and secure a future in which the seas survive, to the benefit of us all.José María Figueres is the former President of Costa Rica and co-chair of the Global Ocean Commission

“On the high seas, where two-thirds of fish come from dangerously depleted stocks, the vast majority of fishing is carried out by just 10 states”


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and international levels is critical. At European level, this was recognised in 2008 with the introduction of the European Union’s Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Regulation. This aims to ensure that only legally caught seafood products that comply with strict rules are sold in the European Union. Exclusion from the EU is a harsh penalty for any country’s fishing industry because it is the world’s largest market for fish and fishery products.

However, more needs to be done and the overall responsibility for tackling illegal practices ultimately must lie with governments. Retailers’ efforts need to be supported by more government action at a national and international level through a number of measures.

We are proposing:

• A global record of fishing vessels using International Maritime Organisation numbers as unique vessel identifiers

Government action is needed Andrew Opie

As retailers we want our consumers to enjoy seafood products from around the world—but not at any price. The British Retail Consortium

is committed to the aims of eradicating illegal fishing, preventing ecological destruction and avoiding unethical labour practices in our seafood supply chains.

Collapsing fish stocks can have a direct economic impact upon communities, particularly coastal towns and villages that rely on fishing, and the cost to the global economy is between $10bn and $23.5bn per year.

Considering the challenge of feeding a rapidly expanding world population (expected to reach nine billion by 2050),

the consequences of depleting fish stocks become alarming. Coupled with the horrifying evidence of ecological destruction and the continued savage ill-treatment of workers, it’s clear why retailers take illegal fishing so seriously.

The retail industry has a role to play in combating illegal fishing and this is why, in 2015, the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the Environmental Justice Foundation and the World Wide Fund for Nature developed a free guidance document offering advice on practical actions to prevent illegally-caught fishery products from entering supply chains in the United Kingdom. British retailers are using their expertise to influence global sourcing for the benefit of all and the BRC is strongly encouraging seafood companies abroad to adopt these principles.

Preventing illegal fishing won’t be achieved by one country or industry alone. Coordinated action at national, European

How business can helpMV Rena runs aground off the coast of Tauranga, New Zealand, in 2011, spilling 300 containers and hundreds of tonnes of oil into the ocean


It’s all about enforcement Dan Schaeffer

Enforcement is critical to the successful protection of marine reserves. Without it, conservation measures, no matter how well-thought out, are of no use.

The term “enforcement” conjures up images of patrol craft stopping and boarding a vessel—of police leading to fines, confiscation or, incarceration.

But this is not a cost effective or long-term solution to the problem of illegal fishing in remote marine areas or on the high seas. Patrol vessels and aircraft are expensive and in the rare instance when an illegal fishing vessel is intercepted, the costs of the adjudication proceedings incurred by the prosecuting government can be substantial. An alternative to this traditional view of enforcement must be found—enforcement must evolve. The starting point is to decide whether the

aim of enforcement action is to prosecute violators or prevent illegal fishing.

Prosecution requires evidence collection and legal representation capable of presenting a case in the jurisdiction in question. When a vessel is seized, the government becomes responsible for the vessel, cargo and crew, which leads to substantial further costs. In 2013 the seizure of a fishing vessel caught illegally using high seas driftnets in the North Pacific cost the United States over $2m.

Prevention is significantly less expensive than legal proceedings, but would require a tougher legal regime that allowed action, but without the need to intercept fishing vessels or conduct complex adjudication procedures.

Some of these regimes already

exist. The global community has long recognised the threat of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and has taken steps to end it. Much of the global effort has focused on international and regional regulations that provide a mechanism to combat illegal fishing, such as the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement, the development of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations and Port State Control measures. The US, European Union and others have developed legislation that punishes vessels that engage in illegal fishing. These instruments could be an additional tool to punish illicit behaviour and act as a deterrent.

One particularly strong rule is the EU’s IUU Regulation, which entered into force in 2010. This measure prevents access to the EU market if a country cannot certify that fish caught by its flagged vessels is legally caught. When the European Commission determines that a flag state cannot certify fisheries products as legally caught, the first step is a warning. If flag states then take sufficient action they are readmitted to the EU’s markets. If not their fisheries products can be banned from the EU.

Policing the sea

• A system of monitoring, control and surveillance enforced across flag, coastal, port and processing states

• Promoting the use of risk-based analysis

• Encouraging states to ratify and implement the Port State Measures Agreement

• Promoting information-sharing between port states, flag states, coastal states, market states and other actors

• Standardising and improving port controls to reduce the risk of illegal fisheries products entering the EU

While the EU’s IUU regulation has been a major step forward in the fight to reduce

illegal fishing, it will only be truly effective if each EU country, including Britain, ensures effective implementation of its provisions. The greater the collaboration between everyone concerned, the lower the risk of IUU fish products getting into supply chains and ultimately onto supermarket shelves.Andrew Opie is Director of Food and Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium

A model for success?Mike Mitchell, Director for Corporate Social Responsibility at Young’s, Britain’s largest seafood company, says that modern fisheries management gives cause for hope. We only need to look at the North Atlantic, he says.

The Second World War prevented fishing in the North Atlantic and fish stocks swelled. “After the war, there was a gold rush,” says Mitchell. “At that time there was very little structural governance of fisheries and fisheries science was in its infancy.” By the 1970s, those fish populations were beginning to be depleted. In 1976 there

came the first common fisheries policy, which recognised the need to manage fish stocks and introduced European quotas.

“The industry was so large that it was fishing harder and harder for smaller return—this is where the concept of overfishing was born, in the North Atlantic,” says Mitchell. “There are some very stark examples of overfishing,” he says. “They tend to be the larger fish which grow slowly and mature late,” for example shark. “The concept that we would sell shark for human food is anathema.”

In the North Atlantic now, says Mitchell, “we have stocks in recovery and an exceptionally large biomass of cod,” even in the North Sea. This recovery has been driven

by changes in the seafood industry, new regulation and the European Union target to manage fish stocks. While Mitchell grants that targets pose “some problems,” he says it is “hard to argue against the concept of managing fish stocks to their maximum sustainable yield.” Better technology to allow the monitoring of fishing fleets has helped, along with labelling that allows consumers to buy responsibly.

The waters that surround Britain, some of which it shares with Russia, Norway, the Faroe Islands and more, have been a huge conservation challenge. “If you can do it in the North Atlantic,” says Mitchell, “you can do it anywhere.” Interview by Prospect staff

“Police action that leads to illegal fishing being penalised through fines or incarceration is not cost effective”

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Since the introduction of this rule, the EU has issued warnings to over 15 nations about illegal fishing. Most have responded by working with the EU to clamp down on illegal fishing. European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, noted that: “By using our market weight, the EU is getting important players on board. Both Korea and the Philippines have taken responsible action, amended their legal systems and switched to a proactive approach against illegal fishing.”

The legal regime to underpin enforcement efforts such as this will in part rely on a system of detection methods,

where vessels can be identified remotely. For remote marine areas, including the

Pitcairn Islands, another significant step would be the designation of Exclusive Economic Zones (areas in which a country has rights over the exploitation of resources) as marine reserves.

The zones surrounding these remote regions already have in place a form of legal control on fishing activity. These mechanisms are reliant upon boarding and inspecting vessels, which puts a great burden on resources. The burden of enforcement would be greatly alleviated if the presence of a fishing vessel without authorisation alone constituted a violation.

The ability to document a violation by mere presence could significantly increase protection with minimal costs.

No longer is it necessary to board a vessel to prosecute—and no longer is presence defined by physical means alone. Through the range of existing and evolving international, regional and national legal mechanisms, enforcement can be achieved without the need for vessels, aircraft and lengthy and expensive adjudication procedures. The concept of enforcement has evolved. For the health of the seas it must continue to do so.Dan Schaeffer is former head of fisheries enforcement for the US Coast Guard

Pitcairn Island: “For remote marine areas, a significant step would be the designation of Exclusive Economic Zones as marine reserves”

Oceans in peril

Sources: United Nations, World Wide Fund for Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network

Marine protected areas as recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Critical habitats already destroyed

Top 4 fisheries highest discard ratiosby weightKg discarded per kg landed

14.71Trinidadian shrimp trawl

12.01Indonesian

shrimp trawl

11.10Australian Northern

prawn trawl

10.96Sri Lanken

shrimp trawl

30%of seagrass beds

35%mangroves

19%coral reefs

Only 2.8% of the ocean is under some form of protection

Unintended “bycatch” may account foran estimated

4 out of 10marine creatures caught

57% of the world’s fish supply is already “fully exploited”—it is being fished at the highest possible sustainable level

2.6bnpeople depend on the ocean as their primary source of protein

Source: UNEP-WCMC 2013

30% of global fish stocks are over exploited—fished above the level thought to be sustainable


Oceans in peril

Sources: United Nations, World Wide Fund for Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network

Marine protected areas as recognised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Critical habitats already destroyed

Top 4 fisheries highest discard ratiosby weightKg discarded per kg landed

14.71Trinidadian shrimp trawl

12.01Indonesian

shrimp trawl

11.10Australian Northern

prawn trawl

10.96Sri Lanken

shrimp trawl

30%of seagrass beds

35%mangroves

19%coral reefs

Only 2.8% of the ocean is under some form of protection

Unintended “bycatch” may account foran estimated

4 out of 10marine creatures caught

57% of the world’s fish supply is already “fully exploited”—it is being fished at the highest possible sustainable level

2.6bnpeople depend on the ocean as their primary source of protein

Source: UNEP-WCMC 2013

30% of global fish stocks are over exploited—fished above the level thought to be sustainable



Chinese vessels suspected of illegal fishing flee South Korean coastguards

monitoring system so that, like the larger trawlers, they will be remotely identifiable.

“This is a regulation that few countries in the world have put in place,” says Muñoz. “Through it, we are sending a very strong signal, indicating that Chile is combating [illegal] fishing on a national and international level.”

What happens when a vessel is spotted doing something illegal? Soule, a former US coastguard and former criminal intelligence officer at Interpol, is clear that the aim is compliance on the part of fishing fleets—“that doesn’t mean,” he says, “that someone needs to be rappelling out of a helicopter, which is really what everyone thinks about. We don’t have the resources to do that. And honestly it doesn’t need to work that way.”

Much more effective, and realistic, is to confront fishing companies and owners with evidence that their vessels have been acting illegally. This can be done through close cooperation with the world’s law enforcement systems and it is through them that suspicious behaviour can be addressed. More powers will be obtained under the Port State Measures Agreement, an international accord that will allow countries to deny port services to illegal fishing vessels. This means that a fishing boat may be prevented from unloading its catch, until eventually that vessel will be forced to return to their home port where it will be forced to pay a fine. The openness of the port services denial will pressurise large companies into compliance, as they will face acute embarrassment at being associated with illegal behaviour. Fines of this sort have already been levied and can run into the millions of dollars.

Matt Rand, Director of Global Ocean Legacy for the Pew Charitable Trusts, makes clear what is at stake. “Twenty-three billion dollars worth of seafood is stolen every year,” from the sea. “Up to one in five fish is taken from the sea illegally and global fisheries are already in a severe state of decline.” According to Rand, from the 1950s to the early 2000s, there was a loss of almost 90 per cent of some of the larger predatory fish from the world’s oceans, including sharks, tuna, swordfish, marlins and cod. The removal of this proportion of a top predator can lead to a complete collapse of the ocean’s ecosystem. Top predators restrict the numbers of prey species, and their absence can cause imbalances in the sea’s ecosystem which potentially result in what scientists term a “phase shift.” In this scenario, the ecosystem changes to a new

equilibrium, which is very hard to reverse. Marine Protected Areas will help to

stop this, by limiting the access of fishing fleets to waters at risk of overfishing. Chile’s Foreign Minister notes that “we have several of them” already and that “the focus of our efforts will now be centred in our oceanic islands.” These include some of the most remote Pacific islands of all, including Easter Island. The Chilean government and others are now intensely focused on developing the international legal framework capable of confronting the huge ecological challenges posed by the depletion of the seas.

“Last year in Washington I offered Chile to host the second Our Ocean Conference, giving continuity to the initiative started by US Secretary of State John Kerry,” says Heraldo Muñoz. The conference will take place in October and its main aim will be to encourage action including pollution, illegal fishing and acidification. The Chilean government also hopes that new Marine Protected Areas will be announced.

“We expect to have relevant announcements and commitments not only from governments,” says Muñoz, “but also from international agencies, philanthropists, private sector and civil society as well.”Jay Elwes is Deputy Editor of Prospect

The next steps

Anew system is being developed that will help international authorities monitor illegal fishing on the high seas. “Catapult” is part of Project Eyes on the Seas,

a joint effort between Pew Charitable Trusts and Satellite Applications Catapult, to develop technology to help monitor fishing activity. The system will allow satellite tracking of vessels which can be detected through their automatic identification system (AIS)—which all ships over a certain size are obliged to carry.

“The big picture here is the capability to do large data analytics and to bring together all the sources that exist to get a full picture of what is happening out there on the ocean,” says Brad Soule, senior fisheries analyst at Catapult.

AIS was intended as a collision avoidance system and its use is required by the International Maritime Organisation. The signal emitted by the system from every vessel that carries it gives an identification tag, and details about direction and speed. Fishing vessels have traditionally been exempt from carrying AIS systems, as in the past a fishing boat’s position was regarded by owners as proprietary information.

But the European Union now insists on their use for fishing fleets and from next year, the US will also make their use mandatory. The signals emitted from these devices can be monitored by satellite and it is this that forms the basis of the Catapult system, which will allow an unprecedented breadth of oversight of precisely who is on the high seas and what they are doing there.

“Our goal will be to relay that to the people who can put that information to the best use,” says Soule.

“Very soon we will be signing a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom Space Agency, to implement its Catapult program,” says Heraldo Muñoz, the Chilean Foreign Minister. “The system will be implemented by the Chilean Navy.”

Chile’s coastline, nearly 6,500km long, presents a great challenge for authorities determined to stop illegal fishing. The government recently introduced regulations under which smaller vessels must carry a

Watching boats from outer space Jay Elwes

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What I have learned on the oceans Progress is happening—but it’s painfully slow Dona Bertarelli

The sounds that a racing sailboat makes at night when moving at speed are unnerving. Noise is a constant companion below deck: the crash of waves breaking on

the hull; the sheets cracking in the wind; the grinding of the boat against the water. On deck, the vast blackness that envelops the boat amplifies this unearthly soundscape and the apparent isolation from humanity. The effects of humanity, however, are all around.

As a sailor I am fortunate enough to have raced boats all over the ocean. The sea is my passion, and from the Pacific to the Atlantic I’ve been dismayed to witness its rapidly declining health.

Our oceans cover more than two-thirds of the planet and contain most of the Earth’s biodiversity, yet only a tiny fraction—less than 3 per cent—is protected, compared with 15 per cent of land.

Scientists confirm that in some parts of the ocean today, up to 90 per cent of large fish—such as nature’s equivalent of a high-

speed boat, the tuna—are gone. Many countries are taking steps to curb over- and illegal fishing, both by their fleets and in their waters, but progress is painfully slow. Experts warn that even 10 years from now, it will be too late to save many species and marine ecosystems from irreversible damage. Conservationists now see large-scale marine reserves, where no extractive activities are permitted, as an essential part of efforts to protect the ocean from the onslaught of our increasing impact on them.

Working with governments and communities reliant on a healthy ocean for their livelihoods, my family’s foundation has been privileged to help demonstrate the importance of these pockets of protection as breeding and feeding grounds for endangered and chronically over-harvested species.

We are proud to be leading a new kind of philanthropy which brings both business acumen and expertise to bear in developing solutions to the mounting pressures on global resources created by a combination of ever-surging demand and ever-more powerful extractive technologies.

In recent years, through our support of new research, we have been helping to show the scientific and conservation value of marine protected areas—first, following the creation by the British government in 2010

of the world’s largest marine reserve around the Chagos archipelago in the Indian Ocean, and then in Belize, following the protection of Turneffe Atoll in 2012.

But designating a marine reserve is only the start of the process. Designing and maintaining cost-effective monitoring and surveillance tools to help enforce marine protected areas is a vital component to their success across the globe. Working with US and UK-based specialists, we have piloted ground-breaking satellite-based initiatives to monitor suspected illegal fishing activity.

These technologies have evolved rapidly in recent years and are now able to analyse multiple sources of live data, which can be integrated with information about a vessel’s history, its ownership and its country of registration, to provide a dossier of up-to-the-minute data to alert officials to the movements of suspicious vessels.

For the past three years, the Pew Charitable Trusts' Global Ocean Legacy campaign, in collaboration with the Bertarelli Foundation, has worked with the Easter Island Rapa Nui community, some 2,500 miles off the coast of Chile, to promote conservation of their marine environment.

Easter Island’s waters are known to contain rare biodiversity, nutrient-rich waters, and geological hot spots with exceptional wildlife that thrives in extreme temperatures—in fact, more than 142 species that are found nowhere else on Earth have been identified here.

In recognition of this, and to highlight the importance of ocean protection, Chile is this year hosting the Our Ocean conference on 5th and 6th October in the coastal city of Valparaiso. Organised last June for the first time by US Secretary of State John Kerry, Our Ocean brings together world leaders, scientists, advocates, and the international policy and oceans community to determine paths forward for protecting the marine environment.

At last year’s event participants announced new partnerships and initiatives valued at over $1.8bn, as well as new commitments to protect more than three million square kilometres of ocean. This demonstrates how a combination of private philanthropy, science, technology and most important of all, community engagement, is slowly changing the narrative of decline in our oceans.Dona Bertarelli, Co-President of the Bertarelli Foundation

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Documents

How to save the ocean - Prospect · PROSPECT SEPTEMBER 2015 3 Contents 09 Keeping illegal catch out of shops Andrew Opie 10 Policing the sea Modern enforcement Dan Schaeffer 12 Oceans