The Miss En Scene Of National And International Fisheries

The annual hunt of harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus) in Atlantic Canada is contested at the start of nearly every season, with celebrities, politicians, and the public actively weighing in on the matter. Within all of the dialogue and debate, there can be a lot of bias and misrepresentation of facts advocating for or against the seal hunt. Thus, the true sustainable aspects of the industry are drowned out and lost due to the sheer amount of controversy surrounding the issue. Sustainability entails meeting the needs of today without sacrificing the needs of the future (“Sustainable Development” 1). The concept of sustainable resource development involves support pillars that represent economics, society, and the environment. Seal

This market failure exists because the market price for Bluefin Tuna undervalues the full social cost of unrestricted consumption of this once plentiful fish. When negative environmental externalities exist, the private equilibrium price and quantity, as determined by free market supply and demand, is not the same as the social equilibrium. Since social costs are not priced into the individual or organization decision making, when accounting for the intrinsic costs to society (see graph 1), the socially efficient quantity while decline and the socially efficient price will increase. Because overfishing is so widespread and pervasive, coordinated global intervention is necessary through a combination of market-based corrective policies in order to adequately address this market failure.

International law has relatively little relevance for environmental law, the standard of justice revolves around the advancement of peace and respect for basic human rights. The absence of mechanisms under international law does not seem to be unjust, as it does not impinge on international peace and security or the enjoyment of human rights, at least not directly. A wide variety of positions on global justice and fairness support normative obligations for outsiders to compensate rainforest states for protecting their forests, obligations that may well have to be translated into binding law. International law should take into account, much more than is now the case, positive obligations of international solidarity, including the protection of the global commons.

In the 1960’s, there was an estimated number of 500,000 dolphins caught as bycatch per year by fishing industries alone(NOAA 8). There was an act, the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, that was passed in 1972. This act’s main goal was to reduce marine mammal bycatch. This act required that “scientific studies were initiated, observers were placed on fishing boats, fishing gear was inspected, and boat captains with high dolphin mortality rates were reviewed(NOAA 8).” The also modified fishing gear in order to reduce how many dolphins were caught. This act was an incredible success, and dolphin bycatch had “declined from about 500,000 to about twenty thousand dolphins per year(NOAA 8).” This shows how much the fishing industries had improved how they fished in order to protect the dolphins. They also made a requirement that all tuna that was caught through dolphin-safe means be labelled(NOAA 9). This allowed consumers to see what they were buying. Therefore, it became in the interest of fishing industries to catch tuna by means other than through dolphins. Today, there are only about three thousand dolphins killed every year through fishing industries(NOAA 10). There is also a clear distinction between tuna that was caught through dolphin-safe means and otherwise. Therefore, the only thing a consumer has to do is to buy

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 1800’s the George’s Banks off the coast of New England was very generous to the fisherman who fished the sea for a living. There was a balance between what the fisherman took and what the sea could provide. By the mid-1900 that balances began greatly to shift. Technology developed during the 1950s allowed fishermen to take in much more fish than previous years. Through continued over fishing and lack of controls in place at the time, the fish stock depleted to the point the George’s Banks could no longer support the fisherman.

Benjamin Halpern and Andrew Rosenberg have differing viewpoints as to whether or not our marine resources can be sustainably managed. Halpern believes this can be achieved if traditional fishing should be limited from marine protected areas to allow maintenance of these fisheries. But when speaking about sustainable approaches for our marine resources with the public there’s a lot of resistance because the public tends to view these areas as excluded. In other words, the public is not allowed traditional fishing, water sports, or other similar activities in those areas. That’s why there are different types of sustainable use and management of those resources. Areas like nursery grounds to protect ecosystems are different from other areas settled for fishing species like the commercial lobster, for example. Some species are set aside and protected until they reach a certain growth so then they can eventually migrate to an area where they can be reached by local officials.

Bycatch is defined by Webster’s dictionary as: “the unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for a different species”. Bycatch is one of the most threatening facets of overfishing. It is responsible for removing vast numbers of aquatic life from the ocean, aside from the target species. Another stimulating characteristic found in Myers’ “Rapid Depletion” that is not present in Allan’s “Overfishing” is a solution to current crisis we face. While Allan’s article does a sound job of relaying the message of how important the issue itself is, Myers’ entry offers a suggestion on how to combat it. Specifically, in Myers’ “Rapid Depletion”, he states that there are several ways to successfully combat overfishing: “more efficiently catch target species and reduce bycatch, elimination of taking immature fish before they have time to successfully breed, and of course, momentarily decrease global catch limits” (Myers 281-282). Both articles contain relevant information and utilize visualizations, however the graphs and charts found in “Rapid Depletion” are clearly more advanced and target

Throughout the years, marine mammal bycatch has continued to be a growing concern due to a steady increase in mammal mortality rates. Mike Gaworecki mentions in his article that during this past month the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration initiated a rule limiting seafood imports from different countries that do not meet the United States new bycatch standards. Bycatch is a term that means catching unwanted species when intending to fish for a different type of species. On a daily basis multiple dolphins, whales, and other unwanted animals are being captured because of inappropriate or ill-suited forms of netting and traps. By implementing this rule the United States government hopes to prevent and reduce future cases of inappropriate capture. NOAA claims that they feel this is necessary because they want to enforce more restrictions on fishery related marine mammal deaths, while influencing other countries to improve on their fishing methods.

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.

Obviously mismanagement is a factor overfishing itself, and is the result of the limit for cod placed by the federal government. As well, the the advancement in geotechnology, like radars, sonars and satellite navigation systems helped find large fish bodies, all rapidly collected with trawlers. Another undiscussed matter, is climate change; over the years it has played a significant change in driving away fish populations because of dropping temperatures and changing of salinity. One idea discussed by the article is the monitoring of cod numbers, as well as monitoring the seal population. The article states to limit seal population to keep the fish alive; the textbook states “They contend that the greater number of seals ate larger quantities of caplin, a small fish that is a major food source of groundfish,” (pg 285). I find that bringing back the sealing industry could help maintain cod numbers, functioning as a way to bring back 2 banned commercial

Effective economic and legal mechanism is capable of maintaining a proper measure of correlation between economy and ecology at a reasonable level with lesser amounts of direct investments. To implement this condition in the economic and legal mechanism of environmental regulation, it is required to combine three basic functions:

Recreational fisheries by state. The harvester economic contributions in 2008 were$165.0 million personal income and the primary processor sector economic contributions

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

Many breeds of fish are being captured at a faster rate than they can reproduce. Some species such as orange roughy fishing became popular in New Zealand in the 1970’s. Over time, it spread to many countries around the world. In the last 20 years, there has been a decline in catch up to 75%. It is no longer common to see in grocery stores as well as restaurants. The amounts of fish that are captured and distributed around the world are alarming opposed to the rate the fish can multiply.