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No Consensus for Moratorium on Bottom Trawling |
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By Haider Rizvi*
Environmentalists
hoped an international ban on bottom trawling in the fishing industry
would gain ground at a UN meeting. But they will have to wait.
UNITED NATIONS - Several environmental groups
are demanding an international moratorium on bottom trawling, a
fishing technique that destroys the seabed ecosystems. But the proposal
did not win consensus amongst the delegates taking part in a UN
conference on fish stocks.
Many participants in the first meeting for review of the 1995 United
Nations Agreement on Fish Stocks recognized that bottom-trawling
is an issue of concern, but the proved to be indecisive about how
to tackle it.
Bottom trawling involves dragging heavy nets along the sea floor.
Metal plates and rubber wheels attached to the nets move across
the seabed and crush nearly everything in their path, according
to the international environmental watchdog Greenpeace.
The group says that at least 200 vessels from 11 countries practice
this type of fishing, and the species living in the sea depths take
decades, and even centuries, to recover.
"There are many proposals to put a limit on their capacity (vessels
with bottom-crawlers)... At the ministerial level, we have heard
many calls for action," said David Balton, U.S. representative and
chairman of the UN conference, held May 22-26 at the UN headquarters
in New York.
But he noted that the stronger measures that have been put forward
so far to combat illegal fishing are mainly confined to satellite
tracking systems of fishing vessels and strict controls at ports.
"Pirate fishing is a global problem that requires a global solution,"
said Sari Tolvanen, of Greenpeace, in a statement urging the world
community to endorse an immediate UN ban on all high seas bottom
trawling.
The group released a new report on May 23 detailing the activities
of five high seas fishing trawlers that continue to make safe havens
of European harbors at the expense of vulnerable deep sea life,
despite being blacklisted by the European Union and North Atlantic
Fisheries Commission last year.
The report points out that over the past six months the blacklisted
trawlers changed their names and flags and received services in
Germany, Lithuania, and Poland before sailing back to their old
fishing grounds.
Greenpeace also said it found 64 vessels fishing in the international
waters of the Irminger Sea in the North Atlantic, an area known
as habitat for cold water corals.
Nevertheless, opponents of the proposed moratorium say there is
no scientific study to prove that bottom trawling is having adverse
impacts on marine ecosystems.
"It makes no sense," said Javier Garat Pérez, vice president of
the International Coalition of Fisheries Association, which represents
industry's interests. "It's not a solution," he told Tierramérica,
adding that instead of placing a ban on bottom trawling, governments
should be taking more steps to curb illegal fishing.
But those concerned about the impact of fishing vessels with bottom
crawling equipment disagree.
"While the science is being done, we don't know fully what the effects
are," Harlan Cohen of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), an environmental
group that closely works with the UN, said in a Tierramerica interview.
He said his group supports the idea of an interim prohibition.
Delegates also seem to hold diverse opinions on whether regional
efforts could prove a better alternative to placing an international
moratorium on bottom trawling.
The UN conference focused on efforts to strengthen the 1995 UN Agreement
on Fish Stocks, which aims to ensure responsible fishing of highly
migratory and other resources which straddle the boundaries between
national jurisdiction and the high seas.
So far only 56 countries have signed this agreement, while six of
the world's top 10 fish producing countries, including Japan and
China, remain outside the accord.
"The level of participation needs to grow to give the agreement
broader support," said David Doulman, of the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), in a statement, which also stressed the need
for increased assistance to developing countries to meet their obligations
under the agreement.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace thinks that "global nature of fishing piracy"
suggests that no individual government actions could prove effective
in the absence of an internationally agreed moratorium on bottom
trawling.
The group is considering launching a new campaign in favor of its
demand for moratorium by gathering a million signatures by the end
of February 2007.
* Haider Rizvi is a Tierramérica contributor.
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