Unregulated Fishing Threatens Deep Sea Species

GLAND, Switzerland, December 2, 2003 (ENS) - The fast and largely unregulated expansion of deep sea fisheries is placing unsustainable pressure on the deep oceans' wealth of marine life, say WWF and wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. A joint report by the two organizations urges nations and the international community to crack down on illegal fishing and step up regulation of the deep seas in order to preserve deep sea ecosystems and the array of species they support.

The increasing pressure on deep sea fisheries is a direct result of the depletion of fisheries closer to shore and a rising demand for seafood, according to the report "Managing Risk and Uncertainty in Deep-Sea Fisheries."

Some 40 percent of the world's trawling grounds are now in waters deeper than 200 meters. Scientists say these deep sea fisheries are extremely vulnerable to intensive fishing pressure because many deep sea species have long life and reproductive cycles.

Unless these fisheries are carefully managed, deep sea species are unlikely to keep up with commercial fishing pressures.

And expanded deep sea fishing also damages sensitive marine areas, such as se amounts, where many species new to science could face extinction before even being identified. Many scientists have called for a halt to fishing in places where the effects on deep sea fish species are unknown.

The commercial overfishing of orange roughy holds a serious lesson for those keen to preserve deep sea species. (Photo by Australian Fisheries Management Authority courtesy WWF)

Some commercial stocks of orange roughy - also known as deep-sea perch - have been fished to commercial extinction in only four years, the report details.

Orange roughy is a species in which the characteristics of many deep sea species are especially pronounced - it lives to beyond 150 years of age and not becoming sexually mature until around 25 years of age.

As a result, the species is potentially slow to recover from the effects of over exploitation.

"In 25 years of commercial fishing for this species, over one million tons of orange roughy have been caught," said Anna Willock, senior fisheries advisor at TRAFFIC and one of the coauthors of the report. "These levels have proven to be unsustainable and yet still management has failed to act responsibly."

The report's case studies - New Zealand, Australia, Southern Indian Ocean, and Northeast Atlantic Ocean - show that the management of orange roughy fisheries has failed for a number of reasons.

Willock says these reasons include a failure to understand the biological characteristics of the species and inadequate stock assessment models. But there is a gap of political will to reign in fishing activity - the report cites the failure to reduce the capacity of fishing fleets and to impose rigorous management, monitoring, control and surveillance measures.

The plight of the orange roughy lies with several countries, with the main fisheries in New Zealand and Australia racing to supply orange roughy to the major market in the United States.

But no one country is ultimately responsible for the decline of orange roughy - a factor that makes fisheries policies difficult to coordinate.

The conservation groups are calling for urgent and strong measures, including fishing bans, to be adopted and enforced at the United Nations level in order to protect these areas.

Demand for seafood has pushed the fishing industry to look deeper into ocean waters, with potentially severe consequences for species such as orange roughy. (Photo courtesy New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries)

The report was issued as nations gathered in Queenstown, New Zealand, for a conference hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to discuss management of deep sea fisheries. The conference began Monday and runs through December 5.