Opinion: Race to the bottom? How science drives sustainable fisheries

Wild-caught fish are critically important natural resources, both for the sake of biodiversity but also for sustainable livelihoods for the communities and nations who depend on them. In 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimates global fisheries and aquaculture generated approximately 179 million metric tons of catch, with a “first sale” value estimated at $401 billion, and with 60% coming from low- and middle-income countries.

Economic picture

Many low- and middle-income countries depend heavily on their fisheries sector for nutrition and as a significant contributor to gross domestic product. Throughout the world, fishing areas are being subjected to overfishing by industrial and small-scale fishing fleets legally and illegally.

Many LMICs have within their exclusive economic zones some of the richest and most productive fishing areas in the world. These LMICs are continually encouraged to increase fisheries production as an essential input to local and national economies without having the data, governance, and enforcement tools to manage the fishing resources effectively and sustainably. As a result, political support for sustainable fisheries management is very divided between increasing production targets and realizing that fish are a finite resource.

Overfishing of the common resource creates the “tragedy of the commons” in which increasing the fishing effort results in overfishing and declining catches. Only now the highest levels of government are realizing that the role of fishers, fisheries, and the economies to support them is very delicately balanced.

The ‘race to the bottom’

This “race to the bottom” scenario impacts critical marine productive areas. As an example, West African coastal countries are endowed with a richness of marine fisheries, yet they are continually encouraged to increase production as an essential input to their local and national economies. Ghana’s marine fishery resources have been heavily overexploited, and this sector has recorded a decline in production over the past decade.

Additionally, Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelagic nation, is dependent on fish that is estimated to provide 54% of all animal protein consumed by Indonesians, making the nation one of the highest fishery-dependent countries in the world and underscoring fisheries’ role in food security. However, many fish stocks are predicted to decline and be closed for fishing due to the unsustainable tipping point. The task at hand is to support economic development, livelihoods, and food security of its people through top-notch fishery science and management.  

In many LMICs, political influence and insufficient resources have led to weak governance of the fisheries sector. Weak governance has provided the space for wasteful overfishing capacity and widespread illegal, unreported, and unregulated, or IUU, fishing — including destructive harvesting of juvenile fish — those too young to be harvested — across all sectors of the fisheries including the artisanal, semi-industrial, and industrial. Further, governments of some LMICs have not been able to align fisheries capacity with ecological carrying capacity of the fisheries.

So, what’s next for sustainability? Science

As fishery-dependent countries around the world — including Indonesia, Ghana, and so many others — grapple with how to meet economic demands of the country but also for the individual fishers, there is an obvious and increasing role for science to inform the way forward. How can we support their sustainability in the face of growing demand that threatens the fish stock itself and the fishers responsible for catching it?

Across coastal countries that are fisheries-dependent, food production and sustainable fisheries are the key to the future. Through our decades of fisheries and coastal management work, Tetra Tech has seen a continued lack of focus on the science, including data and the tools and methods to collect it, to identify how and what management interventions are appropriate.

For example, in Southeast Asia, the Oceans and Fisheries Partnership, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development Oceans, partnered with local and regional institutions to develop electronic catch documentation and traceability, or eCDT, technologies to help fisheries document key information about the harvest, processing, and transportation of a fisheries product to enable traceability of the seafood product. eCDT enables better quality, better decision making, and more effective fisheries management and surveillance.

Beyond data and tools, it’s equally important to build the capacity of local scientists and experts to understand the data to make informed fisheries management decisions. Scientists, communities, and managers need to work together and engage in an open dialogue throughout the fisheries planning and implementation cycle. Capacity is built through training, but also through making methodologies, research, and results available in local languages.

Protecting livelihoods

There is a need to balance short-term economic needs from the perspective of fishers and policymakers with long-term fishery management needs through a systematic and transparent process with local officials and stakeholders. In many fishery situations, there is not a win-win solution for both the fisheries management and the fishers. Often, hard decisions on allocation of stock are made for the long-term benefit of the fishery, but it means there could be socioeconomic losses to some fishers reliant on those stocks. In these scenarios, it’s critical that alternative livelihood support is offered to fishers who experience loss, and are already vulnerable economically, to help them adapt and maintain a source of income to support themselves and their families.

Tetra Tech has developed key partnerships with stakeholders and champions from provincial governments, municipalities, communities, local universities, and civil society organizations that play an essential role in data collection processing, interpretation, and management. Tetra Tech fully believes that using appropriate science, technology, and innovation focused on fisheries science are precursors to improving fisheries management. Further, we remain optimistic that policymakers, implementers, and practitioners will see the imminent risks that lay ahead and actively invest in safeguarding the economics of this renewable-rich fish resource for the present and future generations.