Transcript Marine Resources And Fishing in The South China Sea

Marine Resources
And Fishing in The South China Sea
“Fish are wildlife, and they are the only wildlife we
continue to hunt on a large scale…” Carl Safina
Fisheries:
 concentrations of particular aquatic species
suitable for commercial harvesting in a given
ocean area or inland body of water (lakes,
rivers, reservoirs, ponds)
 the third major food producing system after
cropland and grazing land
Miller (2003): Chapter 16
 Marine resources:
 provide 20% of all the animal protein
we eat
 ~1/3 of world fish harvest: used as
animal feed, fish meal, oils
 60% of fish consumption: by the
developing world
 In Asia, 1 billion people rely on fish as their
primary source of protein.
 Fishing employs ~200 million people
worldwide
Fishery Terminologies
 Aquaculture: farmed or cultured fish
 Capture fisheries: wild-caught fish
 fish from the sea (marine)
 from inland bodies of water, such as
lakes and ponds (inland)
 Stock: the population of a species that is
exploitable
Fishery Terminologies
“Fish” is a broad term that encompasses:
 Finfish: the true fish, which are further divided into:
 demersal fish: live on or near the seabed (e.g.
cod, flatfishes)
 pelagic fish: live in the water column (e.g.
tuna, salmon, anchovy)
Finfish make up the majority of world fish catches.
 Shellfish: includes crustaceans (shrimps, crabs)
and molluscs (squid, octopus, clams, mussels)
Also, smaller scale fisheries based on:
 Echinoderms (sea urchins, sea cucumbers)
 Jellyfish
World’s Commercial Fishing Industry
Dominated by industrial fishing fleets using
 Satellite positioning equipment
 Sonar
 Huge nets
 Spotter planes
 Factory ships (that can process and freeze
catches)
Sources of Annual Commercial Catch

~55%: ocean
 ~99% of this catch from plankton-rich
coastal waters (but, coastal pollution!)

~33%: aquaculture
 raising marine and freshwater fish in ponds
and underwater cages

~12%: inland freshwater fishing (lakes, rivers,
reservoirs, ponds)
Total Fish Production
Global capture fisheries and aquaculture production
(2000; U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)):
 1997: 122 million tonnes
 1998: 117 million tonnes (because of El Niño effects on
some major marine capture fisheries)
 1999: production recovered to an estimated 125 million
tonnes.
Capture fisheries have peaked and remained stable
 extra 20 million tonnes over the last decade was
mainly from aquaculture
World Total Fish Production
Million Tonnes
Aquaculture
Capture
Fisheries
Capture Fisheries Production
There was a time when the oceans and fisheries
resources were considered to be so vast that they
could not be damaged or depleted by Man.
 1950-1970s: capture fisheries increased by 6% per
year
 1970-1980s: average increase was only 2% per year
 In 1990s: rate of increase in fisheries production was
almost zero
Fish Utilization
80
4
60
3
40
2
20
1
0
1950
1960
1970
1980
Food
0
Feed
1990
Population
2.0
40
Fish utilization
(million tonnes)
Source: FAO (2000)
Population
(billions)
5
World excluding China
China
30
1.5
20
1.0
10
0.5
0
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
0
Population
(billions)
Fish utilization
(million tonnes)
100
Fishing Trends
This levelling off of total world catch follows the
general trend of the world’s fishing areas – apparently
have reached maximum fishing potential,
i.e. fish stocks are fully exploited.
Recent global patterns of fish production owes much to
the activities of China
 China’s fish production now (in weight)
= 32% of the world total
Capture Fisheries Production
Norway
2.9
Thailand
2.9
India
3.2
Chile
3.3
3.7
Indonesia
4.3
Peru
4.5
Russia
4.7
United States
6.3
Japan
17.2
China
0
5
10
15
Top producer countries of marine and inland
capture fisheries in 1998
(Data: FAO 2000)
20
Status of Fisheries Resources
There is a large amount of evidence that many marine
resources have been overfished.
 Overfishing: the taking of so many fish that too little
breeding stock are left to maintain numbers
 Prolonged overfishing: leading to commercial
extinction of a fish stock (e.g. Newfoundland Cod)
(when the population of a species declines to the point
at which it is no longer profitable to hunt for them)
 As one species becomes overfished, we simply move
on to another species and overfish that as well

Fisheries are also depleted by high levels of bycatch
(the non-target fish that are caught in nets and then
thrown back into the sea, usually dead or dying)
 Depleting marine biodiversity
 Does not provide food for people
 60% of the world’s important fish stocks: in “urgent
need of management”
Increasing Fishing Efforts
Despite warnings of a slow down in production rate of
marine capture fisheries in the 1970-1980s, the fishing
industry increased fishing efforts.
Boats became bigger, more powerful, and fishing
technology has improved.
Many fishing vessels are packed with high-tech fishfinding equipment:
 Echo-sounders
 Sonars
 Global positioning systems (GPS)
 Even spotter planes!
The Tragedy Of The Commons
Overuse of common-property or free-access
resources  environmental degradation
Such resources
 Owned by no one
 Or, owned jointly by everyone in the area
 Available to all users at little or no charge
Degradation of renewable free-access resources
 Tragedy of the Commons
User reasons:
“If I do not use this resource, someone else will. The
little bit I use or pollute is not enough to matter, and
such resources are renewable.”
Does this logic work?
Fish should be a renewable resource – as long as enough
fish are left annually to reproduce
 Ideally, an annual sustainable yield should therefore be
established for each species
 Difficult to estimate mobile aquatic populations
 Sustainable yields shift from year to year (climate
change, pollution, etc)
Traditionally, the seas were regarded as common property
and fishermen were free to go where they liked and to
catch as much as they could
 If they did not catch the fish, some one else will –
“Tragedy of the Commons”
Overcapacity of Fishing Industry
Too many boats fishing for a decreasing number of fish.
Today, the fishing industry is twice as large as
necessary. This overcapacity is global:
 Norway: 60% overcapacity
 Western Europe: 40% overcapacity
Fishery Management



Fishery regulations
Economic approaches
 Impose fees for harvesting fish and shellfish from
publicly owned and managed offshore waters
(money used for government fishery
management)
 Reduce or eliminate fishing subsidies
Reduce bycatch levels
 Using wider-mesh nets
 Enacting laws to prohibit throwing edible and
marketable fish back to sea
 Having observers on fishing vessels
Hong Kong Fisheries
Aberdeen, HK.
 ~ 5,000 fishing vessels
 11, 900 fishermen
working abroad in the
fishing industry
AFCD
 Fishing in Hong Kong has little or no restrictions
 HK waters are now heavily overfished
 In 2000: an estimated 157,000 tonnes of fish were
produced, with 90% of the catch coming from
waters outside Hong Kong
China’s Fisheries
China’s fisheries
 Have entered a period of rapid growth since 1985
 Average annual growth rate ~14%, much higher
than world average
However, problems now facing China are:
 Inshore fishery resources with the South China
Sea area: heavily exploited
 Water environments: deteriorating
 Aquaculture: serious fish diseases
 Fishing in offshore and long distant waters: has
been constrained due to new international marine
law
Sustaining Fisheries in S. China Sea
The South China Sea:
 One of the most productive regions in the world
 Produces on average ~10% of global fisheries catch
annually
China has adopted various measures to conserve such resources
and implement a sustainable marine development strategy:
 Various closed fishing seasons
 Closed fishing areas
 Marine sanctuaries set up
 Moratorium systems (fishing ban)
 Restricting size of net meshes
In 1979: fishing permit system introduced
Since 1995: a midsummer moratorium system
Fishing Moratorium
In 2003, fishing moratorium of the South China Sea
(fishing ban in the South China Sea area north of
27°N):
 June 1 to August 1
 All fishing operations in the South China Sea
suspended (except gill-netting, long-lining, hand-lining,
cage trapping)
 Some 1,400 HK fishing vessels affected
The ban was imposed to conserve fishery resources and
promoting sustainable development of the fishing
industry.