In late April 2016, the European Union (EU) suspended its 15-month ban on Sri Lanka’s fisheries exports. The politico-economic union of 28 member states, which controls the largest single market in the world, lifted the ‘red card’ and associated trade measures off Sri Lanka. In doing so, the EU noted how the country has ‘significantly improved its national fisheries governance’ (in recent months).
The EU commenced the ban in January 2015 based on evidence that Lankan fishermen indulged in “illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing” known as IUU. The trade bloc issued a first warning (‘yellow card’) in November 2012, but it was ignored by the former government.
The ban – which coincidentally started as Sri Lanka elected a new president – cost us dearly. Prior to the ban, nearly a third of our fish exports (in terms of volume) were to the EU region, which accounted for Rs16 billion per year in income. Sri Lanka was the second-largest exporter of fresh and chilled swordfish and tuna to the EU.
The sanction evidently worked. Sri Lanka embarked on fisheries sector reforms that involved amending laws, strengthening regulations and improving fishing fleet monitoring. In total, according to the Fisheries Ministry, the EU had insisted on 57 structural reforms in the national fisheries management system.
“Sri Lanka joins the growing list of countries (Ghana, Papua New Guinea, Korea, the Philippines, Fiji, Belize, Panama, Togo and Vanuatu) that have reformed their systems following a warning by the EU,” a press release from Brussels dated 21 April said (full text at: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-1457_en.htm)
Cleaning up fisheries Is there such a big crisis in global fisheries? Or are sanctions more a political tool? Surely, there still are plenty of fish in the sea?
Yes and No. Fish is a renewable resource – but only if harvesting is done while allowing enough time for stocks to renew (we humans can’t accelerate fish breeding!). This timeless fisher wisdom is increasingly ignored by mechanically equipped fishing fleets out to catch the greatest volume in the shortest time. IUU fishing, also known as pirate fishing, has become a global problem. It threatens the sustainability of fish stocks and the entire industry.
One recent estimate says that IUU fishing accounts for up to 20% of global wild marine catch, worth as much as $23.5 billion per year. It is a complex problem, as today’s fishing fleets use massive vessels fitted with modern technology to fish in places that, until recently, were out of reach because they were too deep, remote or dangerous.
EU sanctions are a form of consumer pressure to ensure that the fish they buy is caught properly. Their aim is to ensure that both big and small fishing vessels respect the UN Law of the Sea – and the laws of nature.
There is a strong case for Sri Lanka and other South Asian maritime countries to improve how they manage marine fish stocks. Over-harvesting and a rampant waste of fish catches already threaten stocks of key fish species. At stake are the jobs of tens of thousands of fishermen, plus the nutrition of hundreds of millions of people in these countries who rely principally on fish for protein.
Indo-Lanka dispute
Countries need to step up both science and diplomacy to resolve simmering international fisheries disputes. Greater regional cooperation can also help SAARC member states protect their oceanic resources from pirate fishing by vessels coming from outside the region.
Probably the best known fisheries dispute in South Asia involves Indian and Lankan fishers trespassing into the other country’s territorial seas. The two countries keep arresting each other’s vessels crossing over to their side. The dispute dates back to the 1970s, when both countries agreed on a maritime boundary. But for about a quarter century during the Lankan war, Indian fishers disregarded the boundary and operated freely in our waters.
After the war ended in 2009, that situation changed. Lankan fishers gradually returned to the northern seas – only to find their fishing grounds heavily encroached. Bilateral negotiations and navy patrolling have not yet resolved the crisis. Parliamentarian Vijitha Herath told a Colombo seminar in February that Sri Lanka was losing around $40 million worth of sea catch every month to Indian fishermen. He claimed that some 50,000 families in northern Sri Lanka, who depend on marine fishing, suffer as a result.
Herman Kumara, a fisher rights activist, has blamed Indian trawlers for catching fish excessively, and destroying the smaller nets and boats of Lankan fishers. “We have long used our waters in a sustainable manner, but these [Indian] trawlers do not follow this model,” he told India’s Down to Earth magazine in 2013.
[pullquote]The sanction evidently worked. Sri Lanka embarked on fisheries sector reforms that involved amending laws, strengthening regulations and improving fishing fleet monitoring. [/pullquote]
Scientists confirm that stocks of some economically valuable fish species are now threatened. Among these is yellowfin tuna, which makes up around 40% of Sri Lanka’s total fish catch.
The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC; www.iotc.org), an inter-governmental body set up in 1996, regulates the catch of 16 tuna and tuna-like fish species. It promotes cooperation among member states to ensure the conservation and wise use of fish stocks. However, some researchers and activists claim IOTC is not doing enough.
Foreign vessels
The Indo-Lanka stand-off is not the only fisheries-related dispute in the seas around South Asia. For many years, fishing trawlers from far away countries have also been fishing in the Indian Ocean around Sri Lanka, sparking off protests from our fisher groups. These include vessels from China, France, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Taiwan. Local fishers are opposed to allowing foreign fleets into our territorial waters since Sri Lanka’s fisheries are already over exploited. But successive governments since the late 1990s have allowed such fishing.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s own multi-day fishing craft are increasingly venturing into deeper and further seas. Some have been implicated for highly damaging or illegal fishing practices in the Maldives. For example, in November 2012, the environmental activist group Greenpeace recorded illegal fishing activities by two Lankan tuna and shark boats in the Maldives Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and adjacent high seas.
The Maldives, where fishing is the second-largest industry and the main source of employment, has long complained about mass harvesting of fish stocks by foreign vessels just outside its EEZ. Such vessels use Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs) and purse seining, an indiscriminate fishing method that leads to a large volume of by-catch.
Greenpeace International oceans campaigner Sari Tolvanen said in 2012: “Illegal fishing is a massive problem in the Indian Ocean. It is stealing from coastal communities and plunders marine life such as sharks. Boats that repeatedly fail to comply with the rules must be stopped. Our oceans need fewer fishing vessels that are properly controlled if we are to reverse the current over-fishing crisis.”
High tech monitoring
Just as technology has vastly enhanced fishing capabilities, new tools and methods can also enable regulators to keep a sharp eye on local and foreign fishers. Policing open seas is fraught with legal and logistical difficulties.
Satellites, which grow more versatile by the year, now allow independent surveillance of vessels at sea.
One example is MarInt, which uses commercial satellites to continuously monitor the movements of all seagoing vessels. Using algorithms, MarInt can analyze the behavior of vessels in real time and identify those that behave suspiciously (e.g. zigzag movement indicating trawling).
Already, intelligence agencies and customs authorities rely on such data analysis. Fisheries regulators must sign up.
A website called Global Fishing Watch (www.globalfishingwatch.org), launched in late 2014, takes surveillance further. This partnership between Sky-Truth, Google and nonprofit group Oceana is designed to show all trackable ocean fishing activity using data from Automatic Information System (AIS) transponders fitted on fishing vessels. It allows anyone with an Internet connection to monitor when and where commercial fishing is happening around the globe.
The service, currently in prototype, eventually plans to visualize all global fishing fleets in space and time. When over four million vessels can be tracked and seen online, marine fishing need never again be out of sight – or out of public mind.