Comment by tastyfreeze
2 years ago
Fish management doesn't really require global cooperation. It does require some sacrifice. Where I live 100 years ago herring spawn covered nearly every shoreline. I live in an archipelago so there is a lot of coastline. Now there are sporadic patches of herring spawn. The herring fishery is a multi million dollar industry. Herring is also the base of the larger fin-fish population. We can't harvest all the food for larger species and harvest larger species and expect everything to just be fine. If there is an abundance of food for a species they will spawn in greater numbers (well known predator-prey dynamic). Sacrificing the herring fishery would allow larger species a path to build populations.
That is something that can be done at a local level without global cooperation. Don't harvest all the food for the larger fish we like to eat.
>That is something that can be done at a local level without global cooperation.
You're assuming some foreign operator won't come to your local waters to illegally fish. China has shown they will fish literally anywhere they can get away with it.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/26/world/asia/ch...
Read that article again closer, paying attention to separate the examples of illegal behavior from simply fishing.
"Much of what China does, however, is legal — or, on the open seas at least, largely unregulated." -- quote from your link.
Fishing "right up to the exclusive economic zone", means you're in international waters and can fish freely. They continue their activities because there are no legal means to stop their behavior. It's completely legal to fish in international waters.. just as it's legal for the US military to conduct freedom of movement operations in international waters. Countries can complain, but it doesn't give them the right to stop the behavior.
That's the problem.
Aren't there international treaties regulating fishing in international waters? I know they exist but not sure if they're weak and vague. That is what we need but not realistic to happen in today's geopolitical climate
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It's worth noting that Korea and Taiwan are right behind China in illegal fishing (#3 and #6, respectively).
For reasons, it doesn't win you any friends when you complain about them, though.
>It's worth noting that Korea and Taiwan are right behind China in illegal fishing (#3 and #6, respectively).
You should really include a citation when you claim countries are "on a list". For all I know they are #3 and #6 on "vkou's list of least favorite countries".
Korea doesn't appear on the NOAA's list at all for 2023. Taiwan's impact is a tiny fraction of China's. While that's still not OK, we're comparing apples and atomic bombs.
>Angola, Grenada, Mexico, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, The Gambia, and Vanuatu were identified for reported or alleged IUU fishing that occurred between 2020 and 2022. PRC and Taiwan’s identifications include information related to seafood-related goods produced through forced labor.
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3/2023-08/2023.ReportSummary...
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3/2023-08/2023RTC-ImprovingI...
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That is what a military is for...
Aka global cooperation by force.
So has Japan.
Citation? Because as best I can tell Japan has been doing what they can to prevent fish obtained by illegal means from hitting their market.
https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/japanese-leg...
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I know China-bashing is popular on this website, but a quite search of market data reveals that China isn't even in the top 10 of tuna producers NOR consumers.
Basic economics would suggest that a country with low nominal GDP/capita would not be the final destination for a global commodity (with relatively high production cost) like deep sea fish. Given that your production site is in the Pacific Ocean, why would you sell in Shanghai when you can sell in San Francisco where the average person spends ~10x or more USD on food?
TFA even says the West Pacific (i.e. China, Japan, Korea) is the region suffering the least, due to local conservation measures.
Maybe their population size explains a difference. Say 10% of a billion people can afford expensive fish - 100 million people. 1/3 the population of the US. One might also notice the preponderance of Chinese fishing vessels in areas far from China. [1] And just maybe those vessel are not properly identifying themselves so the true numbers are unknown. [2]
Just maybe the fishing grounds close to Chine are all fished out.
[1] https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/chilean-navy-increases...
[2] https://globalfishingwatch.org/data/analysis-reveals-false-v...
> but a quite search of market data reveals that China isn't even in the top 10 of tuna producers NOR consumers.
To be in that rank, a country would need first to declare the real number of the captures officially.
But it does not really matter. Is all about collateral effects.
"we catch only herrings and respect the Tuna (liar, liar, fins on fire), so why 9 of each 10 tuna in the planet vanished?".
Hem... Are we talking about the herring-eating tuna?"
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Not tuna, but China sends fishing boats for other kinds of fish to South America.