Report Calls for Global Network of "National Sea Parks"

A global system of "national parks of the sea" might be the only way to help preserve many species of fish threatened by overfishing and other stresses, according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute.

The report, "Oceans in Peril: Protecting Marine Biodiversity," calls for a new, ecosystem-based approach toward preserving threatened marine life and marine habitats, as opposed to current efforts that focus on protecting individual species. It also recommends more proactive measures to reduce the impacts of pollution and carbon dioxide-driven changes to global temperatures and ocean chemistry.

"The oceans cannot save themselves," says Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute. "Collective commitments to thriving ecosystems are needed to save overfished species from being systematically depleted from compromised habitats."

Seventy-six percent of global fish stocks are either fully- or over-exploited, according to Worldwatch.

"Oceans in Peril" says threats to natural fisheries include bottom trawling, which causes massive damage to corals and other habitats as heavy nets are dragged across the sea floor; bycatch, in which other animals -- including seabirds, turtles and marine mammals -- are hurt or killed during commercial fishing operations; environmentally costly fish farming; and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.

While fish farms supplement natural fish stocks, the report notes, the intensive systems often require greater inputs of fishmeal than they produce in edible fish. Producing farmed salmon, for example, takes between 2 1/2 to 5 times each salmon's weight in fishmeal. And ranch-raised tuna consumes nearly 20 times as much wild fish in the form of fishmeal as it puts out in tuna.

Worldwide, illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing is believed to account for up to one-fifth of all commercially caught fish, with revenues of $4 billion to $9 billion annually. The report's authors point out that fishing operations often move from industrialized nations where fish stocks are declining and fishing is more restricted to waters around developing countries where regulations are weaker or non-existent. Such trends threaten both a developing country's fish stocks and native fishing communities.

Report authors and environmental experts Michelle Allsopp, Richard Page, Paul Johnston and David Santillo say these and other damaging marine trends could be reversed by establishing a well designed, global network of marine reserves. They point to the success of such reserves at regional levels, including the Soufriere Marine Management Area in St. Lucia in the Caribbean, where average catches per fishing trip outside the reserve increased from 46 to 90 percent after five years.

While there is currently no international system in place to establish a global network of reserves, the authors suggest a new agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to put such a system in place. They also recommend that negotiations on fish and fish products be shifted from the World Trade Organization to a multilateral group not controlled by commercial interests and trade groups.

"Current presumptions that favor freedom to fish and freedom of the seas will need to be replaced with the new concept of freedom for the seas," they write.

The Worldwatch Institute, "SOS for Fading Ocean Life." URL: (http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5360)