| Naga
- The *ICLARM Quarterly
Vol.
22, No. 4 (October - December 1999)
Editorial
Four
Blocks to Controlling Fishing Pressure
The
world's fish stocks are under heavy fishing pressure
from both large and small scale fishers. Their
productivity can only be restored if this pressure
is reduced. Yet, this apparently simple prescription
is very difficult to follow.
Why
is it so hard to reduce fishing pressure and where
do the solutions lie?
Four
major factors hinder efforts to reduce fishing
pressure: economic dependency; political advocacy;
uncertainty about the status of the resource;
and lack of adequate management measures. The
sum of these factors and their interdependence
make for a powerful resistance to reduction in
fishing pressure.
Owners
of fishing gear, from large commercial fleets
fishing in the oceans to small individual fishers
fishing in inland and nearshore waters, are directly
dependent on fisheries. So are a large numbers
of wage laborers in fishing and related activities
as well as fish sellers. Any reduction in fishing
will have an immediate and direct impact on their
incomes, especially where there are few alternative
economic opportunities. Creating viable alternatives
can remove this limitation. For example, fishers
in San Salvador Island, Philippines, were dependent
on blast fishing for their livelihoods, despite
its risks and dangers. A community-based program
helped stop this practice and designated part
of the island into a protected area. When this
was combined with a program to help the fishers
capture reef fish for the live aquarium trade
using better methods, the economic dependence
on the former destructive fishing practices vanished,
fishing pressure was reduced, the resource condition
improved and the livelihoods of the fishers improved
with new markets.
Political
activism is a block that often results from conflict
over rights to scarce resources. Often, powerful
commercial interests vie for the same resources
as small fishers. This distorts or delays policy
decisions, especially when the third factor comes
into play - uncertainty. How much does the fishing
pressure need to be reduced, for how long, and
will it achieve the desired results? Where time
and financial resources prevent full scale resource
assessment, rapid and participatory assessment
methods using local knowledge can be very useful
in clarifying the parameters and suggesting solutions.
Providing the policymakers and managers with knowledge
about fisheries and the tools to assess them can
help them withstand pressures and make well-informed
decisions.
Both
traditional and modern management regimes lack
the necessary control mechanisms. Here it is necessary
to look at the issue of access rights, the true
public value of the resources, how to improve
compliance and, most important, involve local
communities in the planning and implementation
of resource management systems.
Although
the four constraints are formidable, they can
be surmounted if programs are established to create
alternative economic activities, inform and support
politicians and administrators, provide effective
assessment tools, and improve the levers of control
for the management of fisheries. Sooner or later,
the issues of fishing rights must be addressed.
The prescription is not simple but the stakes
are high – fisheries must be made more sustainable
and this almost always means controlling the fishing
pressure.
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