There have been two pieces of unwelcome news recently for lovers of gourmet seafood. First was a steep decline in the squid catch, which was only 60 percent that of the previous year, causing its wholesale price to rise by more than 50 percent. Second was a 40 percent drop in the number of bluefin tuna caught. As of last month, only 472 bluefin tuna had been caught.
On the surface, the repercussions are simply that reduced stocks and higher prices will mean no squid or bluefin tuna making their way to the dining table, something of little or no consequence to those who don’t usually eat them. However, a closer look at what is going on in the oceans of the world reveals more serious implications.
First, fishing stocks are going into conspicuous decline the world over. Media reports point to climate change as the main cause, but there is more to the story than that — we cannot pin all the blame on climate change.
According to statistics compiled by the Taiwan Squid Fishery Association, Taiwan’s total annual squid catch was 299,935 tonnes in 2007. This fell to 240,283 tonnes in 2008, before plummeting to 68,747 tonnes last year.
Taiwan’s tuna catch dropped to less than a quarter of that two years ago. Climate change might be one of the reasons, but pollution in the world’s oceans is probably a more serious cause. However, the main culprit is undeniably overfishing, caused by high-tech and high-yield fishing methods.
Taiwan is one of the top deep-sea fishing nations. It is ranked second in the world in terms of the tuna catch and third for squid. The actions of a few Taiwanese fishermen operating in the waters of other countries has given the industry a bad reputation. Things are likely to get rougher as depleting fish stocks force Taiwanese fishermen to go to the ends of the earth and operate in other people’s backyards. Other countries are naturally going to take measures to protect themselves against such trespassers.
We have more to worry about than just lower fishing yields and depleted fish stocks in our oceans, given the degree to which the situation has deteriorated. The reduced number of tuna is a result of the waning number of squid in the oceans. Soon, it won’t be so much a question of whether there will be any squid or tuna left, it will be a question of whether there will be any fish at all of the tasty or even edible variety. There are many areas around the world where fishermen are no longer getting yields of economically valuable fish as in the past and have been catching only jellyfish — prodigious breeders that they are.
June 8 is World Oceans Day. The Ocean Project, an international organization that promotes sustainable management of marine resources, agreed on the theme “Oceans of Life” for this year, when people will be encouraged to pick their favorite ocean animal and protect it.
As a country that relies so much on maritime resources, Taiwan should not take the ocean for granted. With fish stocks struggling to survive, it is not difficult to predict that seafood lovers won’t have any more seafood to eat and fishermen will lose their livelihood if we don’t do something about the situation.
One of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign promises during the 2008 presidential election was to establish a Ministry of Maritime Affairs. Ma also vowed to encourage the development of maritime industries so that they produce up to 5 percent of GDP within five years of his election.
However, this has yet to happen and so it seems we will have to make do with a Cabinet maritime affairs task force.
Chen Tai-an is a lecturer in the Department of Environmental Resources Management at the Transworld Institute of Technology.
TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU
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