By Rajabu Juma Rajabu – Art in Tanzania internship

Environmental Advocacy Program

SUSTAINABLE FISHING

The overexploitation of lakes, Rivers, Seas, and oceans is leaving them without fish. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) confirms this in one of its latest reports. It calls for a sustainable fishing model to ensure the survival of species and the long-term viability of fishing activities. Sustainable Fishing contributes to protecting marine fauna and conserving the Oceans and Seas.

Sustainable fishing is harvested at a rate that does not cause fish populations to decline over time due to fishing practices. Sustainability in Fisheries combines theoretical discipline, such as the population dynamics of fisheries, with practical strategies, such as avoiding overfishing through techniques such as individual fishing quotas, curtailing destructive and illegal fishing practices by lobbying for appropriate laws and policies, setting up protected areas, restoring collapsed fisheries, incorporating all externalities involved in harvesting marine ecosystems into fishery economies, educating stakeholders and the wider public, and developing independent certification programs.

Sustainable Fishing means leaving enough fish in the ocean, respecting habitats, and ensuring people who depend on fishing can maintain their livelihoods. It also means ensuring that fish harvesting is not fully exploited by keeping fish stocks for future generations.

SUSTAINABLE FISHING PRACTICES:

There are ways to fish sustainably, allowing us to enjoy seafood while ensuring that populations remain for the future. In many indigenous cultures, people have practised sustainable fishing for thousands of years. Today’s sustainable fishing practices reflect some lessons learned from these cultures.

Due to issues such as overfishing, global fish stocks are currently in trouble. It has been estimated that approximately 70% of Fisheries worldwide have been overexploited or have already collapsed. So, how can we remedy this challenging situation and help our global fish stocks rebound?

We can remedy this challenge by adopting sustainable practices that you can use when fishing at your favourite local fishing holes. These include:

1. Hook and lining (Pole Catching). This fishing technique involves using a pole with a single line and multiple hooks. This allows fishermen to release bycatch quickly.
2. Harpooning: Fishermen use hand-thrown harpoons or barbs fired from a gun to catch large fish like Swordfish with little bycatch.
3. Traps: This fishing technique involves guiding fish into boxed or reef nets near the water surface, allowing the fish to be tipped into a holding tank. Wire mesh traps on the bottom can also be used sustainably if they are not dragged a long way along the ocean floor.
4. Longlining: This technique uses a very long central fishing line with many smaller lines of baited hooks. If these longlines are placed deep in the water and if special circle hooks are used, they significantly reduce the number of bycatch incidents.
5. Gillnetting/ Drifting: A massive curtain of net that is suspended using floats or anchored using weights. The netting is essentially invisible, so fish swim into the net and get their gills caught.
6. Trawling: Imagine a huge net being dragged behind a boat. The boat hopes to catch large schools of fish within the net and tire them out, forcing them into the back of the net. This practice can be done on the bottom of the ocean or in mid-water.

• Trolling. You have probably seen this one along the coastline, where a boat has multiple lines being dragged behind it. This is a sustainable approach to open-water fishing because fish are brought to the ship soon after being caught and released, resulting in less stress compared to other methods. It has minimal bycatch and a sustainable approach.

ADVANTAGES OF SUSTAINABLE FISHING:

Sustainable fishing is a more artisanal and small-scale method with social, economic, and environmental benefits, some of which are based on the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. Some of these are summarized below:

• Protect Marine Fauna.

Sustainable fishing respects marine ecosystems and adapts to the reproductive rate of fish to maintain balance and ensure the survival of all species. Fishing must be conducted at a level that ensures it can continue indefinitely, allowing fish populations to remain productive and healthy.

• Avoid waste

In sustainable fishing, bycatch is utilised, for example, to produce fish meal, thereby minimising food waste. Fishing activity must be managed carefully so that other species and habitats within the ecosystem remain healthy.

• Contribute to food security.

Sustainable small-scale Fisheries account for about 66% of all catches destined directly for human consumption, which enables the protection of full exploitation of fish resources.

• Reduce pollution.

Sustainable fishing generates less waste, minimises energy consumption, and reduces the use of chemicals that harm the ozone layer and the entire fish ecosystem.

• Certifies the sustainability of the catches.

International standards, such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard, determine whether a fishery is sustainable and well-managed. MSC-certified fisheries must comply with relevant laws and be able to adapt to changing environmental circumstances.

OVERFISHING;

Catching so many fish at a time can result in immediate payoff for fishermen. Fishing with this consistency leads to few fish of each species left in the sea or ocean. If the fish population is small, it cannot be easily replenished through reproduction. Taking wildlife from the sea faster than the population can reproduce and keep up is known as overfishing.

OVERFISHING: Catching too many fish at once so the breeding population becomes too depleted to recover. Overfishing often goes hand in hand with wasteful types of commercial fishing that haul in massive amounts of unwanted fish or other animals, which are discarded.

CAUSE OF OVERFISHING:

1. Poor Fisheries Management. This occurs when fisheries organisations are unstable in formulating and monitoring the rules and regulations governing fishing practices. This situation will enable fisheries to harvest at their maximum ability.
2. Unsustainable fishing refers to the practice of catching or harvesting fish without considering the needs of future generations. For example, the current generation exploits fish stocks only for their own needs.
3. Illegal and Unregulated Fishing Activities. This occurs when fishers illegally harvest fish populations without submitting any reports to the government. In addition, fishers harvest resources in open-access areas due to weak government and Fisheries regulations.
4. Bycatch. The incident of catching non-targeted species, such as dolphins, Marine turtles, and seabirds, also resulted in overfishing because these non-targeted species may be depleting and destroying their populations through reproduction.

• Overcapacity. When fishing vessels of all sizes enter water bodies such as oceans or seas, many with increasing capacity and efficiency to catch and carry out more fish will result in overfishing. This is because the vessels can harvest more fish than the stock available in their habitat.

IMPACT OR EFFECTS OF OVERFISHING:

• Ghost fishing.

This occurs when lost or discarded fishing gear no longer under a fisherman’s control continues to trap and kill fish, crustaceans, marine mammals, sea turtles, and sea birds. Derelict fishing nets and traps can continue to catch fish for years after they are lost beneath the water surface or become depleted.

• Fish depletion.

Overfishing can occur in water bodies of any size, such as lakes, seas, ponds, rivers, or oceans, and can result in resource or stock depletion, reduced biological growth rates, and low biomass levels, leading to depleted or fully exploited fish populations.

• Ecosystem destruction.

Excessive overfishing in water bodies will result in the destruction of marine ecosystems, including fish habitats near shorelines and in the deep sea, as well as the disruption of fish reproduction. When more fish are taken out of the ocean or sea, it creates an imbalance that can erode the food web and lead to the loss of other marine life, including vulnerable species such as sea turtles and corals.

• Decreasing food and economic security.

Demand for fish continues to increase worldwide, which means more businesses and jobs are becoming dependent on dwindling stocks. When fish disappear, so do jobs, and coastal economies are driven by exploitation and environmental degradation.

SOLUTIONS OF OVERFISHING

• Catching control

There is still little control countries have over their fishermen. There needs to be control so the Fisheries know whether an endangered species of fish is caught. The control could be done before and after the fishing so the controller could see the catch.

• Protect some Marine areas.

We must understand the natural habitats of some endangered fish species and protect the associated areas. By protecting these areas, fisheries will be prevented from fishing. Protecting some marine regions will help the water ecosystem recover by giving it time to heal.

• Fish farming.

Another way to increase fish stocks or populations without harming water ecosystems is to farm fish (Aquaculture). We create another small ecosystem that will not hamper another ecosystem. By feeding and taking care of our fish, they will breed and create more fish stocks.

• Fishing licence.

This involves providing fishing licenses to fishermen, similar to a license for the gear owner, and permits for those who engage in fishing. This will help monitor fishers who harvest resources illegally without permission and make overfishing more manageable.

• Public education provided.

The government must utilise its Fisheries extension to educate fishermen on the importance of maximum sustainable yield and encourage them to practise sustainable fishing to maintain continuous fish stock reproduction for future generations.

• Seasonal fishing. The government should implement rules and regulations for fishing conducted at a specific time period. This will help by giving fish stocks more time to reproduce and grow in a healthy state, thereby remedying the fish depletion problem to the maximum.