The Issue Of Canadian Fisheries

Economic activity and our environment have been closely linked since man first discovered the concept of trade. In the language of economics, the environment has itself, become an increasingly “scarce resource1”. Since economics is about managing these scarce resources, it will be a useful tool when considering some of the environmental issues facing our planet. One of the major concerns confronting the environment today is the overfishing of the world’s oceans, depleting some species to near extinction. With continued advances in technological and industrial proficiency, fishing vessels are able to fish across the globe, further exacerbating the effects of overfishing. Because the oceans are considered a shared or common

Aquaculture can be defined as farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants both in freshwater and saltwater. It has a wide range of ownerships from small family business to multimillionaire global industries.1It provides many job opportunities throughout the world. As an example Canadian aquaculture industry valued $ 5 billion Canadian dollars provides more than 130 000 jobs only in Canada.2Accelerated growth of aquaculture causes series of problems to both human health and environment.3Most bacterial species resides both in animals and well as in human will pathogenic to both. transfer of pathogens between the two host species is a common situation for most organisms.4 Most of the developing country aquatic farms are non-hygienic and stressful. This will lead to an increase of bacterial infection among most aquatic species. As a preventative and curative method farmers mix a huge amount of antimicrobial products with the aquatic feed.5 Since aquaculture is a global industry, Implemented laws and regulations are different from country to country. It is very difficult to implement global regulations relating to antimicrobial use.1

Dorothy Van der Peet, a member from the Stó:lō nation, was charged for selling the fish obtained under the authority of an Indian fish license. Her conduct was contrary to s. 27(5) the British Columbia Fishery Regulations. During the trial and appeal court processes, Van der Peet has been argued that the custom of selling the fish constituted as an aboriginal right which was protected by s. 35 of the Canadian constitution. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) rejected her argument and ruled that the act of selling fish for money did not constitute as an aboriginal right under the constitution (Van der Peet, 1996).

The earliest accounts of overfishing occurred in the 1800s, when the demand of whale blubber nearly wiped out the whale populations. In the mid 1900s, the harvesting of Atlantic cod, herring, and California sardines drove them to the brink of extinction. These high disruptions cause regional depletions of animal resources which is starting to cause a global problem. There has never been a more urgent time for fishing nations to make a commitment towards the sustainability of our oceans. More than 80% of the world’s fisheries have been, or are being pushed beyond their limits and are in dire need of strict management plans. Populations of fish and elasmobranch fish such as tuna, grouper and sharks have been declining to the point where the survival

The changes needed for sustainable fishing are too big and do not fit with America’s view of the economic system. Unfortunately, without these changes, the fish population will continue to decline. So, you can see that sustainable fishing in new England is not possible. Although New England and the US cannot have sustainable fishing because of their capitalistic values, as shown throughout history their values may

Fishing in Nova Scotia was and is how a vast majority of families earned their income. Boats were and can be passed down through families, and how most people were brought into fishing, was from helping their fathers as a summer job with very little pay which led to them fishing on their own. Fishing was good (back then) there was a lot of fish around but because of overfishing the stocks declined. Fishermen fished for in the area are pollock, haddock, cod fish, herring, halibut and lobster.

The author details much debate between the Department of Marine Resources and the fishermen to provide evidence that Garret Hardin was incorrect in several assumptions made in The Tragedy of the Commons. In this case study he attempts to disprove that users of open access resources have no vested interest in resource conservation and are unable to create regulatory controls themselves. Additionally, Acheson elucidates that resources can be sustainably and efficiently managed by communal or joint ownership in addition to private ownership as suggested by

There is a relatively new movement that parallels the growing availability of information and technological advances. This movement is for open access to federal research results, scholarly articles, peer-reviewed journals, and the ability to publish and distribute freely without censorship. Currently those research programs funded by the federal government sit in a purgatory between allowing full access to the information generated, and the censorship of results based of bureaucratic decisions. This phenomena is world wide however, this essay will focus of the specific issue relevant to Canada. This movement to open access shows the changes in relation to the bureaucracy and federal system currently. While there are valid security threats with open access, the citizens in our state have a right to access information generated by the government they pay taxes to. This new age of technology allows access to information instantaneously and along with that comes the danger of misinformation, misrepresentation, and changes the dynamic between the government and population governed. The benefits can be seen relative to the Canadian fisheries example that will be discussed. Furthermore through the increased availability of accurate sources creates the opportunity for an involved, informed public. The trend toward open access to research results funded by the government alters the current relationship between state and citizens; to the extent it creates a more contemporary form

The result of the fact that approximately 30,000 people out of work in the fishing industry of NewFoundLand and Labrador clearly illustrates that overfishing affects the economy in Canada. Finally, the evidence of salmon stocks in British Columbia that were constantly killed in commercial and recreational fisheries proves that overfishing in Canada could cause major disruptions to the environment.

The availability of seafood in Canadian and Argentinean waters is also dependent on the total allowable catch allocated to Clearwater in a given area. Although the totals allowable catch in these areas and Clearwater 's enterprise allocations have been largely stable, fishery regulators have the right to make changes in the total allowable catch based on their assessment of the resource from time to time. Any reduction of total allowable catches in the areas from which Clearwater sources seafood, or the reduction of stocks due to changes in the environment or the health of certain species, may have a material adverse effect on Clearwater 's financial condition and results of operations.

According to a study done by Living Planet Report in 2015, 29% of the world’s fishing stocks are considered overfished and an additional 61% is fully exploited with no possibility to produce more fish. Our environment is currently afflicted by a number of different problems, one of which is overfishing. Overfishing is defined by FishOnline as, “Fishing with a sufficiently high intensity to reduce the breeding stock levels to such an extent that they will no longer support a sufficient quantity of fish for sport or commercial harvest.” The overfishing situation is being exacerbated by non-sustainable and destructive fishing practices and unfair fisheries partnership agreements; while there are currently attempts being made at fixing these problems and their effects on overfishing, nothing has been extremely effective.

This issue of overfishing covers vast fields, such as science, humanity, economy, society and nature. The term “optimum”, in regard to the yield from a fishery, is difficult to be defined, precisely and fixedly. Generally speaking, we can describe it as follows: (Niles E. Stople, January 2009, FishNet USA)

To many people are dying due to fishing. Canada has to make fish industries less deadly. Fishing industry has cost about 190 Canadian lives since 2000 and it has to improve its culture of safety, the Transportation Safety Board. The causes of fatalities in the fishing industries is that most fishers decide to fish when the weather is in or is going to be in a bad condition, workers have to fish in those conditions because they need the money or they are behind in their quota for the year. Also, sometimes the vessels do not carry a distress communication device. “In Canada, falling overboard is the second highest cause of fatality in the fishing industry,”. “The safety of fishermen will be compromised until the complex relationship and inter

Digest of federal resource laws of interest to the U.S. fish and wildlife service. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/FISHCON.HTML

The classic essay Tragedy of the Commons describes the dilemma society faces when the interests of a group conflicts with the interests of individuals (Hardin, 1968). The example presented is that of a group of cattle ranchers commingling their cattle in a common pasture. At full capacity, each cattle owner still has an incentive to include additional cattle, since the slight decrease in overall yield per animal is offset by the additional animal. Unfortunately, this overgrazing inevitably leads to failure of the commons. The community goal of maximizing food production can only be achieved by placing controls on the interests of the individual cattle ranchers in favor of those of the community (Hardin, 1968). This paper is