Think about the variety and quantity of food that is available to you every day, just waiting to be ordered, bought, or selected to become part of your favorite meal. Now imagine a world where this variety is no more, where the different types of fish available at the local market have been reduced to a select few. This scenario is not as far from reality as it might seem, in that illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean has ravaged the populations of many fish species. This is a story on illegal fishing and how international policy works to combat the devastation that it has on fish populations and how different people can relate to this issue through their perspectives.
Lindsay Aylesworth, a PhD student in zoology from Miami, Florida researched the effects of illegal fishing of a species known as the Patagonian Toothfish in the waters near Antarctica and how an international organization known as the CCAMLR has responded to regulate the fishing in the area in order to sustain the fish populations that may be in peril. The following interview explores two perspectives, one where Lindsay talks about how this organization works and another where a local fisherman talks about his experience with fishing policy and regulation on his own boat:
Through both of these insights, there seems to be a very strict code of regulation that is followed in at least the Canadian fisheries, and it seems like the involvement of these regulators on the boats truly deters, if not prevents illegal activity.
Now it may seem like there are some big players involved in regulating the oceans, but that does not give everyone else an excuse to ignore the case of the Patagonian Toothfish because the market for fish boils down to the consumer. Thus if the public is not aware of this issue then, then vibrant and diverse selections like what is shown below may not exist in the future.
variety of fish at local market (photo by Chelsea Forbes)
In effect, it is crucial to look at the big picture to examine how the CCAMLR can provide more credibility in the data that it collects and how consumers can help build awareness, as Lindsay points out:
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It is only through collective effort and awareness that illegal fishing can be reduced, and the easy part, as stated by Lindsay, is as simple as asking where the food is coming from at the dinner table. Time will tell if these efforts by consumers and governments pay off and prevent the decimation of fish populations all over the world.
By Surbinder Bolina, Chelsea Forbes, Kady Mcappin, Shadi Saffari
