The end of the line for fish?:

Marine protected areas in Sri Lanka

Rajith DISSANAYAKE

There is an increasing awareness of environmental issues such as the destruction of tropical rainforests and the onset of global warming. Thanks to fossil fuels, environmental destruction and human population have accelerated in tandem and the capacity for the environment to mitigate alterations, like increasing levels of CO2 is severely reduced.

One problem that people are just waking up to is over-fishing, since commercial fishing really took off in the 1950s. We've not taken the problems in the sea seriously, because what goes on under the sea happens invisibly and has not really made the news. Governments all over the world, especially in wealthy countries have been pouring money into increasing fishing capacity such that the populations of large fish have now crashed by 90 percent since the 1950s, according to scientists.

Wild animals

Fishing is part of human civilisation. Whereas most of our food comes from agriculture, fishing remains the one source of food that is still largely hunted, the way our ancestors did. Fish are wild animals with finite populations and in order for us to have enough of them, they have to reproduce and grow at an adequate scale. Until relatively recently, this was not a problem. Sailing ships and local marine harvesting could not dent or impair ocean productivity to a large extent.

Having said this, since the 16th Century, many marine animals have plunged in numbers or gone extinct due to increasingly commercial fishing. In the Atlantic where detailed records have been kept since 1600, it is estimated that there were 600 million green turtles with untold numbers of seals and whales. Stocks of Atlantic cod fish were so abundant that one could simply use baskets to fish them out. Gigantic shoals of salmon swam up the rivers with individuals reaching five feet. Historically, the waters off Sri Lanka must have burgeoned with marine life on a scale that we can scarcely imagine, not to mention the fish in our inland waters when rivers were so much larger, thanks to the extensive forest cover that kept them full.

Most of the populations of Atlantic salmon have now gone and the cod stocks are virtually extinct. In order to satisfy the taste for fish, factory ships, particularly from Europe, the USA and Japan have been fanning out in international waters in the hunt for commercially valuable fish and these practices are threatening the food securities of poorer countries. Unlike traditional fishing, a battle of man against nature, the modern ships are equipped with radar, sonar and satellite navigation.

Western Europe

They have vast holds in which to store hundreds of tonnes of fish and the fish have no chance. UK environmental journalist Charles Clover has highlighted the issues in his book The End of the Line. The book has now been turned into a film (endoftheline.com) that is now been shown in cinemas internationally. The times when we could imagine that there were plenty more fish in the sea are long gone. Scientists estimate that at the present level of fishing, most commercial stocks of fish will have gone by 2050.

The nets of trawling ships are large enough to accommodate 13 jumbo jets. Long line fishing involves lines of baited hooks that can be over 60 miles long. One of the biggest problems is the amount of life that is destroyed and discarded as it does not represent the target species. As much as 25 percent of everything caught or even more than 50 percent can be thrown back - referred to as bycatch. Bycatch includes turtles, sharks and seabirds. Western Europe is buying fishing concessions from African waters from countries like Somalia. The Somalian fishermen can't compete with factory fish leading to piracy, starvation and emigration. These issues now affect Sri Lanka as never before.

The rich world is hungry for fish and fishing is not regulated in international waters.

Most of the fish sold in European supermarkets is now flown it or shipped in from international waters including Sri Lanka. The pressure on local fish stocks has never been greater. Westerners have a particular attachment to tuna and Sri Lanka has now begun to export species like the Yellowfin tuna, now displayed in UK supermarkets. Could this have an impact on the local availability of fish? Unlike tea or rubber, we don't take responsibility for replenishing the stocks of fish.

We expect nature to do it all for us, and simply extract from the sea. At low levels, it can be sustainable, but when it becomes big business, unless the fish are given a chance, they will disappear.

Sri Lankan waters

Most vulnerable are larger species like shark, swordfish and the bigger species of tuna. Europeans are yet to develop a taste for the jackfish, so favoured by Sri Lankans. But the sea is not just about food. Increasingly, wildlife documentaries are focusing in on the beauty of ocean life and scuba diving for pleasure is becoming a mainstream hobby. People will actually pay big money, not just to see whales, but also to meet live sharks face to face. Whale watching is now developing in Sri Lankan waters. In the Fiji Islands they are replanting corals to recreate coral reefs.

A group of tourists will pay up to $200 to dive into the reef and watch sharks being fed by experienced diving guides. Most sharks are not the dangerous man eaters they have been painted to be, ironically, we kill them in hundreds of millions, partly to satisfy the demand for Chinese shark fin soup.

Shark watching is more profitable than killing them for soup. Enlightened governments in the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific islands are now setting up marine reserves. Areas of the sea where no fishing is allowed. Fish stocks are booming outside the perimeters of these reserves and many fishermen are now demanding marine reserves, seeing fish stocks declining during their own careers.

Marine reserves help us evaluate what the oceans would look like if it wasn't for our destructive impacts and help restore fish stocks. Reservations on land have been understood for so long but only now is there an interest in moving the concept to the seas.

Marine reserves

Consumers are also beginning to demand sustainably caught fish. Increasingly, skipjack tuna caught using a single pole and line has become very popular as this way of catching fish creates no bycatch and unsuitable fish can be thrown back. No industrial net based fishing is allowed by the Maldives where pole and line fishing is encouraged.

The fishermen on tall stilts in Sri Lanka catching one fish at a time is the classic model of the most sustainable form of fishing. Islands in the Pacific are joining forces to create marine reserves realising that their fish stocks have no chance against the might of the fishing impact from Europe and Japan.

One day, Sri Lanka will have marine reserves. Arthur C. Clarke, a marine enthusiast was one for diving and his encouragement should bear fruit. In Marine reserves or Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), tourists and visitors will have the chance to explore and enjoy ocean bounty without harming it, and fishermen should have more fish on the outskirts.

Tourists are seeking out the best international dive sites to see coral reefs, sharks and whales. Diving and the recreational enjoyment of the sea has never been more popular thanks to better equipment and more publicity.

It should only be a matter of time before our legislators take action and create MPAs. For the sake of future fish stocks and the tourist dollar - and also to help satisfy our curiosity about what's down there and go and take a look ourselves, rather than just thinking about fish on a plate.