Greed and waste lay at the heart of fishing tragedy

by Rachel Wells

"There goes the neighbourhood!"

First it was cod. Then salmon. Now turbot (also known as halibut). Soon, the media will prophesy the doom of yet another marine species that has been exploited to the brink of extinction. You can count on it, thanks to the credit card mentality of the fishing industry: take the maximum number of fish, while hopefully leaving just enough behind to continue the existence of the species. Unfortunately, the fish that are being left behind are the young ones who, when it comes to "continuing the species", don't really know what they are doing. Consider the discoveries of Dr. Ed Trippel's research for the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans St. Andrew's Biological Station: the biggest fish he observed produced about 3 million eggs (compared with only about 73,000 by the smaller, younger fish), which were fertilized at a rate of 83 per cent (compared with 27 per cent), and which hatched at a rate of 62 per cent (compared with 13 per cent).

In 1992, many of the world's commercially valuable species were either fully fished, over-fished, or recovering from having been over-fished. And the issue isn't even entirely one of exploiting the "valuable" species. Between 18 million and 40 million tonnes of fish are wasted each year as "by-catch"; unwanted fish whose dead and dying bodies are discarded for the crime of having been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and being the wrong species or size. This amounts to about one third of all fish caught.

The fact is that fish are wild animals, not the property of any one country to be bought and sold. The industry is going to have to realize that fish are not an infinitely renewable resource. Foresight must be used if future generations will be able to admire and appreciate the diversity of species that exists today. It is important that people respect the balance of life that exists in the wild, and that we do what we can to protect delicate and threatened ecosystems.

In the midst of the current arguments over who "owns" the fish, and what country is given the right to tell another when, where, and how much to fish, we should realize that the fish don't care whose nets pull them out of their natural habitat. Dead is dead, and just because we land-dwellers cannot see the underwater devastation doesn't mean that it is any less real. And while Spanish and Portuguese fishermen are protesting that Canada can't tell them when to stop fishing, they ought to stop and think that maybe the turbot already have.

What YOU can do
Swear off fish once and for all. Even farmed fish involve environmental damage through pollution, habitat loss and the risk of genetically altered fish escaping and breeding with wild fish.

Lifelines – May/June '95 Lifelines

Update (Feb 2008): This page by FishWatch says that turbot is recovering, but a chart at the bottom clearly showing the drop off in biomass over the years.