Opposite: 
Surgeonfish in a Hawaiian coral reef  

WESLEY MARX 

IN THE 99 RANCH MARKET IN IRVINE, shoppers browse through a virtual mini-aquarium. Catfish, crabs, rockfish, and lobster stare back from live tanks. The eyes of a grouper glint on a bed of sparkling ice where fillets of red snapper, halibut, and salmon also tantalize. On shelves, stacked columns of canned fish provide the price-conscious with another universe of food fish that promise high protein and high-fashion slimness. Over 100 species of fish from around the world have been collected here to satisfy even the most demanding palates. 

 Behind this abundance lies a tragic dichotomy. The food fish industry has evolved into a global economic powerhouse, able to deliver virtually every edible marine species to markets around the world. There is, however, no global fisheries management, or even sensible regional management. No global norms exist to prevent overfishing, reduce the wasteful "bycatch" of unwanted fish, reduce costly excess capacity in fishing fleets, and prevent loss of critical habitats. 
      We can't agree with our neighbors on how to make sure we maintain important stocks. Even within our own national boundaries, and in state waters, we don't know enough about what is happening to our fish, and when we find out, we can't always do what's necessary. Consequently, some of those gorgeous fish at the 99 Ranch Market - or any other well-stocked seafood section - could all too soon become scarce in the oceans where they are now being captured. 
      So what is the future for fish and fishing in the world's oceans? Clearly it's grim if current levels and methods of exploitation continue. With their own coastal fisheries depleted, the United States, European countries, and Japan now compete to import food fish from developing nations, where fisheries are even more poorly managed. According to the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), 11 of the 15 main marine fishing grounds are seriously depleted. As a result, fishermen must expend more effort to hunt down fewer fish. 
      If there is any good news, it's the growing awareness in the United States that fishery management needs to be reformed and that depleted stocks need to be restored. But translating this awareness into effective remedial action is proving difficult. 
      Some 40 percent of U.S. marine fish stocks are now overfished. Things are no better at the state level. California and other states manage many coastal fish, but the globalization of the fishing industry has strained their efforts beyond capacity. A case in point is squid, now the biggest catch in California both in volume and in value. 
      As the squid catch diminished in Asia and Europe, squid landings in California jumped by 26 percent between 1994 and 1996 from 61,000 tons to 77,000 tons. The squid fleet almost quadrupled in that time, from 40 boats to 150, including vessels that have come from Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. California fishermen worry that what happened with the sardine (see Coast & Ocean, Spring 1992) may now happen with squid, and want to limit entry to the fishery. The California State Legislature this year failed to agree on the number of vessels to be allowed, though it did approve a $2,500 annual squid permit fee to help fund assessment of squid stocks. At present, this fishery is almost totally unregulated - no quota or catch limit has been set. 
      As with other fisheries, it makes sense to manage squid on a bioregional level, across jurisdictional lines. Squid stocks, as well as recovering sardine stocks, extend into Washington and Oregon. The California Department of Fish and Game has asked the Pacific Fishery Management Council to adopt a federal fishery management plan for these stocks. The Council is willing to adopt such a plan, which would include a cap on the number of vessels allowed. NMFS, however, already struggling with limited resources for assessments, declined to do this in 1996. 
      Sardines, the state's second-largest catch, also range north into Canada and south into Mexico. Mexico's sardine harvest is roughly equal to the current California harvest. A cooperative transboundary management accord would help to deter overfishing. But Mexico and the United States can't even agree to sit down and negotiate the issue, while the U.S.-Canada situation has grown downright ugly. The two nations are at loggerheads on renewing a cooperative Pacific Salmon Treaty. Canadian fishermen claim that Alaskan fishermen are intercepting too many sockeye salmon that spawn in Canadian watersheds. Last summer, Canadian fishermen protested the diplomatic stalemate by temporarily blockading an Alaskan ferry with 300 passengers at Prince Rupert, B.C. Meanwhile, another transboundary stock, lingcod, is being overfished, and a proposal for a U.S.-Canada management plan waits in the wings. 
      If even friendly nations cannot reach agreement on such issues, what hope is there for global management? The UN is now trying its hand in fishery politics. In 1996, a UN-sponsored fishery conference approved a Treaty on Straddling Stocks and Highly Migratory Stocks. If ratified by 30 nations, this treaty would commit these nations to jointly manage transboundary stocks, including tuna, billfish, and sharks, which range into the high seas beyond the 200-mile limit of coastal states. So far, 13 nations, including the United States, have ratified the treaty. 
      In the meantime, the race to hunt down lucrative transoceanic fish intensifies. With Atlantic bluefin tuna and swordfish in decline, long-range fishing fleets are stepping up harvests of these and other species throughout the Pacific Ocean. The State Department is undertaking a diplomatic initiative to get nations on the Pacific Rim to agree to a series of regional councils to manage this unrelenting harvest. The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (see Coast & Ocean, Autumn 1997) is trying to accomplish this in the eastern Pacific. Japan, which has indicated its willingness to cooperate in such regional efforts, is still hedging its bets. On the one hand, it helps to fund commercial bluefin ranching in Australia, Mexico, Morocco, and Croatia; bluefin caught in the wild are placed in pens and fattened for the lucrative sashimi market. One fattened fish can fetch $80,000 in Tokoyo fish markets. On the other hand, Japan continues to harvest juvenile bluefin tuna in its coastal waters, contrary to a basic management precept that fish should not be taken before they mature and reproduce. 

See The Fish Market 

 AS FISHING INTENSIFIES WORLDWIDE, so do its impacts on a growing number of other marine users. The sport fishing industry is concerned about commercial fishing pressures on popular game species, such as tuna and rockfish. Birding groups and ecotourism operators are concerned about the harvesting of squid and other forage fish that sustain seabirds and marine mammals. Coastal regions that depend on tourism are concerned about fishing, both commercial and recreational, that depletes coral reefs and other scenic underwater attractions. 
      As a result of these concerns, more political constituencies realize they have a stake in fishery management. The Marine Fish Conservation Network, a broad-based coalition of 100 environmental, scientific, and fishing groups, actively lobbied for the Sustainable Fisheries Act. It is now monitoring how NMFS and the regional councils comply with the Act's conservation provisions. Because current stock assessments may not detect overfishing early on, more attention is being paid to other management alternatives. 
      Under the precautionary approach, if information on a stock's relative abundance is inadequate, conservative harvest limits are adopted. The burden of proof thus shifts to those who would prefer less conservative limits. This approach has been used by South Africa and the Falkland Islands to manage the squid fishery in the South Atlantic ocean. There is more interest in setting aside harvest refugia (no-fishing zones) to help replenish stocks. (See "The Case for 'No-Take' Marine Reserves" in the Summer 1996 issue of Coast & Ocean.) The National Research Council is also studying an ecosystem approach that would go beyond single-species management and recognize the importance of critical food chain relationships, such as that between forage fish and top predators. In October 1997 the California Department of Fish and Game announced a plan to adopt an ecosystem approach to the state's living marine resources. 
      What can an individual citizen do to help bring an end to reckless fishery practices? One avenue for consumer action may soon be available. The World Wildlife Fund is working with Unilever, a large British-Dutch food conglomerate, to develop a certification system that would identify fish products that are being harvested on a sustainable basis. Unilever supplies one-fifth of the U.S. and European market for frozen fish. Perhaps such a system could eventually evolve into a mandatory system in which the community of nations holds each country accountable for its fishery practices, from habitat protection to bycatch. The priceless fecundity of our watery planet deserves no less. We have learned all too well how to catch, cook, and consume fish in all sizes and forms. Now we must learn how to sustain the system that produces this remarkable bounty.  

Wesley Marx is a frequent contributor to Coast & Ocean, and has written several books on the ocean. He served on a National Research Council panel on marine monitoring.