Constantine Alexander's blog

Joining Forces to Save the Seas: Unprecedented Partnership Has Potential to Transform Ocean Governance and Leverage Billions of Dollars for Ocean Health

Statement from Conservation International on the Global Partnership for Oceans announced by World Bank President Robert Zoellick 

 Following a presentation from World Bank President Robert Zoellick at The Economist World Ocean Summit in Singapore today, Conservation International announced its enthusiastic support of the Global Partnership for Oceans. The partnership, according to Zoellick, will be coalition of governments, international organizations, civil society groups and private interests, joining together to confront widely documented problems of over-fishing, pollution, habitat loss and climate change.

"The bottom line is our lives depend on oceans, but we need to better understand them. We need to adequately value oceans and the benefits they provide, and act on this knowledge. If we don't do this, we and future generations of people will be hurt," said Conservation International Chairman and CEO Peter Seligmann. "I commend Robert Zoellick and the World Bank on taking a critical step to catalyze the funding required by governments, businesses and civil society to secure ocean health for us and our children."

Conservation International has already demonstrated a successful ocean conservation model in the field with its Seascape approach, which aims to establish responsible governance and recovering ocean health at a large scale (hundreds of thousands or millions of square kilometers) through collaboration among governments of bordering nations, stakeholder groups and partner organizations.

"This partnership is timely because oceans are under threat and have not been properly managed. Demand for seafood and other benefits from the oceans are growing while marine ecosystems are declining in health," said Sebastian Troëng, Vice President of Marine Conservation at Conservation International. "Conservation International has talented staff and strong partnerships around the globe, but no organization has the ability to singlehandedly resolve the challenges facing the world’s oceans. Working with the World Bank in this Partnership, we bring together governments, businesses, financial institutions and local communities to support healthy and productive oceans in a way we could not have done alone."

Over the past decade, Conservation International has catalyzed the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape (a collaboration between Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador); the Papuan Bird's Head Seascape (Indonesia); the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape (Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia); and the Abrolhos Seascape (Brazil).

"When the governance situation changes and countries establish marine protected areas, an average there is a 21 percent increase in the diversity, and a 28 percent increase in the size of the organisms inside the reserves relative to unprotected areas nearby," added Troeng. "Those same reserves have seen the tons of fish per square kilometer increase 446 percent on average. And research has shown that communities using marine protected areas have greater incomes, more diversified livelihoods and greater environmental awareness than nearby communities that do not have marine protected areas."

Conservation International is joined in this partnership by a number of developed and developing countries and country groupings, including island nations; non-government organizations and advocacy bodies like Environmental Defense Fund, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), National Geographic Society, The Nature Conservancy, Oceana, Rare and World Wildlife Fund (WWF); science bodies like the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); industry groups like National Fisheries Institute, and the World Ocean Council whose members rely on sustainable seafood supplies or are dependent on ocean resources; international organizations including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The Global Environment Facility, Global Ocean Forum, GRID Arendal (Norway), the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and the World Bank Group.

 

New Study Evaluates 15 Fisheries in the U.S. and British Columbia Before and After Catch Shares

Credit:Christopher Costello and Steven Gaines of the University of California at Santa Barbara and John Lynham of the University of Hawaii.

A new study published in the journal Marine Policy finds that reforming how fisheries are managed can successfully restore and maintain healthy fish populations and benefit both fishermen and fishing-dependent communities.  The study evaluated 15 fisheries in the U.S. and British Columbia before and after adopting "catch shares” — a type of fishery management increasingly common worldwide.

Catch shares, the study found, delivers “clear gains in environmental performance (and) major economic improvements” as well as dramatic improvements in safety for fishermen.  The improvements were found across a range of fisheries in the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico and extended to fishermen from both small and large vessels, using a diversity of gears and targeting a variety of fish.  In contrast, the study found that these same fisheries performed poorly under traditional fishery management in virtually all areas.

• Download Study - Assessing Catch Shares Effects

Relevant Articles:

• Oregon's Commercial Fishermen Weather a Season of Change and See a Brighter Future
• New fishery-management regime pays off with less waste
• Geoff Bettencourt: New rules are saving fish and helping fishers

 

World Ocean Council launches “Smart Ocean / Smart Industries”

The UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) is to host an initial workshop for the new “Smart Ocean / Smart Industries” program developed by the World Ocean Council (WOC).

The program involves companies from maritime industries working to expand and co-ordinate the collection of ocean and atmospheric information from ships and offshore structures. According to the WOC, the need to better understand and monitor the ocean and climate has never been greater, but government and scientific institutions have limited facilities and resources to obtain marine and atmospheric data.

Meanwhile, shipping, fisheries, offshore energy and other ocean industries operate thousands of vessels and platforms, providing tremendous potential for cost-effectively collecting ocean and climate data. The WOC program will establish the role of companies from a range of ocean industries in the systematic, regular, sustained and integrated collection and reporting of standardised oceanographic and atmospheric data.

This will provide critical information to scientific programs that improve the safety and sustainability of commercial activities at sea and contribute to maintaining and improving ocean health. Expanded information will help improve the modeling and predictability of weather, ocean conditions and climate change, and will support responsible use of ocean space and resources – with clear benefits for science, government, society, and business. The program is being developed in close collaboration with national and international ocean and climate observations programs, and with existing voluntary observation programs.

A WOC working group co-chaired by AP Moeller-Maersk and Transocean is beginning work to develop a comprehensive structure and process to scale up data collection from “smart” ships and platforms and expand the spatial and temporal extent of observations by leadership companies.

The IOC will host the initial WOC “Smart Ocean / Smart Industries” workshop in Paris on December 12-13. The meeting will convene industry, science and government representatives.

Constantine Alexander will be attending this workshop invited by the Global Oceans team and is looking forward to contributing to the achievement of its aims.

• Download WOC Concept Document
• Download WOC Workshop On Ocean And Climate Observations
• Download Workshop Agenda
• Download Workshop Participants List
• Download Workshop Practical Info
• Download Workshop Registration Form

Contact: Paul Holthus
Executive Director
WORLD OCEAN COUNCIL
3035 Hibiscus Drive, Suite 1, Honolulu, HI- 96815 USA  

 

WWF: Will European taxpayers’ money continue to be used to deplete fish stocks?

Fish Subsidy in Europe

The European Commission is about to release its proposal for a new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) for the period 2014-2020 (€ 6.7 billion). The proposal is part of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform package. Expectations are high as the current European Fisheries Fund (EFF) failed to help reduce the oversized EU fleet. 

 

“In times of financial austerity the last thing citizens should be expected to do is pay to keep an unprofitable fishing sector afloat that continues to overexploit scarce natural resources. Radical reform of Europe’s fisheries management and accompanying subsidies is the only way to make European fisheries sustainable and profitable again,” says Louize Hill, Head of Marine & Fisheries at WWF’s European Policy Office.

• Download WWF Analysis of the current EFF and a preliminary analysis of the future EMFF

 

 

West Coast Fishermen Adapt to Catch Shares and End Wasteful "Regulatory Discards"

Almost one year ago, the West Coast's largest commercial fishery by volume transitioned to a catch share management system. The new system:

• Enables fishermen operating in the multispecies groundfish trawl sector to fish when they want, rather than forcing them into a series of two-month "use it or lose it" fishing time-frames;
• Enables them to lease or trade quota for specific species and adapt their fishing practices to both market and weather conditions; and
• Ends the universally-despised "regulatory discards," which, under the previous management system, compelled fishermen to throw uncounted tons of perfectly good fish overboard, dead.

The Oregon Field Guide recently sent a reporter/videographer team on a fishing trip aboard the F/V Cape Windy, with Oregon fisherman Paul Kujala, to witness firsthand how the new system is affecting fishermen.

 

New online database of €1.1 billion in EU fisheries subsidies; concerns about declining data standards

Fishsubsidy.org, the transparency project which in 2009 launched an online database of EU fisheries subsidies from 1994 to 2006, has launched a new database of payments under the European Fisheries Fund, from 2007 to 2010. The fisheries subsidy database is online here.

 

However, the project’s co-founders have sounded a grave warning about the deteriorating quality of data released to the public, and the implications of this the waste, fraud and abuse of EU funds.

 

Nils Mulvad, the Danish data journalist and fishsubsidy.org co-founder who led the collection of data from the twenty seven EU member states said:

 

“It is really, really bad. Many governments don’t comply with basic EU laws on transparency. Some governments publish no data at all, others are publishing incomplete data in bad formats like PDF files running to thousands of pages. This is money from the EU budget, paid for by European citizens who have a right to know who gets what. The European Commission must get a grip.”

 

Fishsubsidy.org co-founder Jack Thurston said:

 

“There is a new European Transparency Initiative. But today we have less information on EU fish subsidy payments than we used to have in past years. It’s a real step backwards in transparency and at a time when we desperately need to know how this money is being spent. Are EU funds are being used to fish for over-exploited fish stocks, or perhaps worse, for criminal fishing operations. We just don’t know. What is most startling is that neither does the Commission because we know that they have not themselves asked for this data from national governments.”

 

A transparency index evaluates the data published by member states for completeness, details and accessibility. It shows which countries are doing better and which doing badly. The ranking is topped by Sweden. Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia and the UK score relatively highly, though with significant deficiencies. The worst performers were Greece and Portugal, which appear to have published no data at all, despite spending a significant share of EU fisheries funds. Spain, which accounts for some 40 per cent of fisheries subsidies spending, scored just 48% in the transparency ranking. 

 

Eyes Wide Shut: EU rules on transparency in fisheries subsidies are failing citizens – and the European Commission couldn’t care less is a report describing fishsubsidy.org’s quest for data on the European Fisheries Fund. It is available for download

(PDF).

 

Fishsubsidy.org is a project coordinated by EU Transparency, a nonprofit organisation in the UK, and the Pew Environment Group. The aim is to obtain detailed data related to payments and recipients of fisheries subsidies in every EU member state and make this data available in a way that is useful to European citizens. Subsidies paid to owners of fishing vessels and others working in the fishing industry under the European Fisheries Fund total about €1 billion a year (2007-2013).

 

Detailed analysis of EU fisheries subsidies from 2000 to 2006 is available in “FIFG 2000-2006 Shadow Evaluation” (Cappell, R., T. Huntingdon and G. Macfadyen)

 

A list of vessels in the tuna fleet that receive EU subsidies is available here , and a list of vessels convicted of serious infringements (illegal fishing) is available here . A list of vessels that received EU grants for modernisation and shortly afterwards grants for scrapping is available here .

 

Under the European Transparency Initiative , details of all end beneficiaries of EU funds should be published, to improve accountability, legitimacy and as a way of combatting fraud and abuse.

 

The Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a nongovernmental organisation that applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life.

 

For all enquiries, please contact:

Jack Thurston

Executive Director

EU Transparency

 

Mike Walker

Communications Manager

European Marine Programme

The Pew Environment Group

The Deadliest Catch

The Discovery Channel’s The Deadliest Catch portrays just how dangerous commercial fishing can be. However, in today’s Wall Street Journal, Bering Sea fisherman and a cast member of the show, Scott Campbell, Jr., shares how the Alaska crab fishery is now significantly safer following the implementation of catch shares in August 2005. Read the full article here.

 

The central role of NGOs in sustainable fisheries

The growing influence of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the seafood industry means that they now play a central role in setting standards for sustainable fisheries. In a new study, researchers used the Dutch Good Fish Guide to illustrate how NGOs can efficiently engage consumers, industry, fishermen and government.

In the seafood industry, NGOs aim to influence policy by informing consumers about sustainability issues, often through awareness campaigns, boycotts, certification schemes and product guides. These are market-based tools that bypass the conventional political process in favour of directly influencing behaviours and the market.

However, there is little evidence that NGO market-based tools directly influence which species are caught – a form of ‘vertical pressure’. Using the Dutch Viswijzer (Good Fish Guide) as a case study, the researchers explain how ‘horizontal pressure’ exerted by NGOs could be more important. This refers to improving the level of communication and social interaction between different stakeholders, particularly NGOs and fishermen in this case, who may have conflicting priorities.

The Viswijzer was set up in 2004 by the North Sea Foundation (NSF) to independently assess stocks of the most popular commercial fish species. In the new study, the researchers explore the growth and development of the Viswijzer from 2004-2009 using 10 interviews with fishermen, three NGOs, the Dutch Fish Product Board and the fisheries management authorities within the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. They also analysed related Dutch Parliamentary documents and articles in local and national newspapers.

The primary consumer tool produced by the Viswijzer is a small wallet-sized card, which indicates the sustainability status of different species with a traffic light system (red = overexploited, green = environmentally sustainable). The card is now reportedly used by 25% of all Dutch consumers.

As the momentum of the Viswijzer increased, negotiations and cooperation between the NSF, other NGOs (Greenpeace and WWF), industry representatives for fishermen and fish traders, scientists and the government improved dramatically. On advice from the Viswijzer, two large supermarket chains removed the threatened North Sea cod, plaice and sole from their shelves. At the time, this triggered a negative response from fishermen as it opposed their fishing practices and portrayed them as ‘destroyers of the ecosystem’.

This led to parliamentary debates about the transparency of the assessment criteria and as a result, a social covenant was signed in 2008. This meant that the government took responsibility for overseeing sustainable production, disseminating information and independently auditing the Viswijzer assessment criteria.

This is the basis upon which the government, fishermen, others in the fishing supply chain and NGOs have continued to communicate in the Netherlands. It is now common for the fishing industry to consult NGOs over new fishing techniques and ways to improve their sustainability status.

The researchers conclude that the key to success for the Viswijzer has been in encouraging trust and cooperation through which fishermen and NGOs can communicate on an equal footing. They recommend that NGO-led market based initiatives are vital in creating ‘new spaces of interaction’ to stimulate ongoing two-way communication (vertical and horizontal) between stakeholders and for attracting the attention of policymakers.

1. See: www.goedevis.nl (in Dutch)

Source: de Vos, B. I. & Bush, S. (2011). Far more then market-based: Rethinking the impact of the Dutch Viswijzer (Good fish guide) on fisheries’ governance. Sociologia Ruralis. 51(3) DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9523.2011.00539.

Contact: birgit.devos@wur.nl

A Global Perspective On EU Fisheries Reform by Dr. Daniel Pauly

“We are not producing fish, we are not like farmers. We are just gathering them. Nature has made them for us. So if you cannot make money gathering fish, that means the fish should be left alone. They should have a chance to rebuild themselves. Subsidies are actually decreasing the catches. What it means in Europe is that subsidies must go. Because we are going to face enormous competition outside Europe for the fish resource. And the first thing we must do is rebuild our own resource because they could produce much more if they were rebuilt." Dr Daniel Pauly spoke to Members of the European Parliament on September 13, 2011.

Download Dr Daniel Pauly EU Parliament Slide Presentation 09-13-2011

 

Dr. Daniel Pauly is Professor, Fisheries Centre & Zoology; Principal Investigator, Sea Around Us Project (University of British Columbia). MSc (1974); PhD (1979); Habilitation (1985) in Fisheries Biology and Biological Oceanography (University of Kiel, Germany)

Looting the Seas

Looting the Seas is a two-year project by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists looking at the forces that are rapidly depleting the oceans of fish. This project produced a report recently examining the almost six billion euros in subsidies which have been given by the European Union taxpayers to Spain’s fishing fleet since 2000 was published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. (ICIJ)

The Key findings of this report are:

• The Spanish fishing industry has received more than €5.8 billion (more than $8 billion) in subsidies from the EU and Spain since 2000 – far more than the industry of any other EU country.
• Subsidies account for a third of the sector’s value. Simply put, nearly one-in-three fish caught on a hook or raised in a farm is paid for with public money. 
• The subsidized Spanish fleet has cultivated an extensive record of flouting the rules while officials overlook fraud and continue to dole out aid to vessels that break the law.
• More than 80 percent of subsidized fishing companies that were fined in Spain for fishing infractions – and then lost subsequent court appeals – continued to receive subsidies.
• One Spanish shipowner received more than €8.2 million in subsidies even while his company or its affiliates faced more than 40 accusations of illegal fishing and US$5 million in fines.

We all share the common aims of protecting the oceans, building sustainable fisheries and supporting fishing communities. The failure of EU’s CFP has shown that providing subsidies is not the way to achieve these goals. I believe strongly that the way to achieve these aims includes the implementation of catch share management system where fishermen are allotted individual quotas based on scientifically determined catch limits.

European subsidies also affect the lives of citizens around the world according to the Looting of the Seas report's authors. Namibian Officials have been lauded for tight fisheries controls and for stemming the power of foreign fishing companies. But ICIJ has found the system isn't working for hake, Namibia's most valuable fish. Politically-connected Namibians and Spanish companies corner the trade threatening this African country's stocks.

 

On March 23, 2011, a seminar was organized at by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in the European Parliament, which provided an opportunity to inform on subsidized vessels engaged in IUU fishing and addressed the current loopholes in the current EU structural policy.

 

Greenpeace UK also published a report about the Spanish fishing industry and European Union subsidies entitled: Exposed: organised crime at sea

Spain's fishy practices cast shadow on seas. By: Richard Black, Environment Correspondent of the BBC