CATEGORY:RESEARCH INFORMATION
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By Wallace J.A
Inside Grenada correspondent
Saturday November 04,2006


DURING THIS WEEK a team of international scientists and researchers expressed the belief that if urgent steps are not taken to reverse present trends, our sea stock could become depleted by 2050. In other words, the sea food that we presently enjoy and take for granted could become a thing of the past in the not-to-distant future.

Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, along with an international team of scientists, spent some four year analyzing 32 experiments, information from studies obtained from 48 marine projects worldwide and data from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization database on all fish and invertebrates worldwide from 1950-2003.

The team concluded that at present, about 29% of fish and seafood species have collapsed, in other words, their catch has declined by 90% - and this trend seems to be accelerating. According to Boris Worm, “If the long-term trend continues (over fishing and pollution), all fish and seafood species are projected to collapse within my lifetime -- by 2048."

According to Worm, however, all is not lost and it is not too late to turn this around. “It can be done, but it must be done soon. We need a shift from single species management to ecosystem management. It just requires a big chunk of political will to do it," he said.

It is estimated that at present, global fishing rakes in about $80 billion per year and provides employment for about 200 million persons worldwide, many of them coming from poor areas where the protein from fish forms an essential part of their diet. The consumption of fish has increased in many parts of the world.

According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the consumption of fish in America increased from 15.2 pounds per person in 2000 to 16.6 pounds per person in 2004. It is this sort of increase in the demand for sea food - coupled with pollution - that has contributed inordinately towards the decimation of our global sea stock.

The researchers have called for new marine reserves to be created to protect species; better management practices to be employed to prevent over-fishing; and tighter controls on pollution to limit and reverse the destruction of our marine ecosystems. It is now up to our politicians to find the ‘will-power’ to do what is necessary to avert this looming disaster.

The Government of Grenada already has laws in place to protect certain marine species from being caught during specific periods of the year. Sometime ago, a ban was placed on the catching of ‘sea-eggs’ and lobsters because the stocks were being rapidly depleted. It is believed, however, that some people defy authorities and do illegal fishing. There is a need, therefore, for the authorities in the country to increase their vigilance and improve their intelligence network so as to bring these law-breakers to justice.

It is also believed that fishing vessels from neighboring countries enter Grenadian waters to engage in fishing. The Grenada Coast Guard will also need to increase its patrols of Grenadian waters to ensure that such practices are not allowed to continue.

At the regional level, our politicians in the Caribbean need to come together and develop a comprehensive fishing policy for the region to ensure that our marine stocks do not collapse.